Oroco - kleiner Explorer (Gold) mit zukünftig sehr niedrigen Produktionskosten (Seite 208)
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Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 57.325.283 von Fantomas96 am 20.03.18 04:43:17
The option price would seem to be reasonable, as at time copper prices were relatively low, about 1/3rd lower than current prices adjusted for inflation. Santo Tomas was then at a much earlier stage of exploration that it was after all the work Exall did, and in the context of the time would have been considered low grade. Average copper grades being mined have fallen a lot since then – from over 1% then to just above 0.5% now. A resource with a grade of 0.4-.5% wouldn’t have moved the dial in 1993.
But today..........in 2011 a resource of 950 million tonnes owned by Augusta, with an average grade of about 0.4% was bought by Hudbay for $550 million (ST looks to be >900 million tonnes, currently estimated at <0.40% with lots of potential and an expectation for increases in both numbers.). And, in 2015 Southern Copper bought El Pilar, 290 million tonnes of 0.3%, for $100 million and called in “opportunistic.” And, in 2011 Hudbay also acquired Norsemont and its Constancia deposit - 400 million tonnes, 0.42% Cu - for $363 million. There are plenty of other examples of similar acquisitions.
I digress, but the point is that ST is lot (!) more valuable now than it would have been in 1993/4.
Exall then starts a process that sees 4,000 meters of drilling, metallurgy testing, scoping of all aspects of a mine…. pretty major stuff and all conducted by firms that would have been the gold standard of the day – Mintec, Bechtel, Bateman, Lakefield Research. So, I see where they would have spent the kind of money they raised, and as the project grew to be something much bigger than they had originally bargained for, they would have needed to go bigger with the reports and the costs would have risen, likely exponentially.
But in the end, they got some very credible names to do work that advanced the project from a small oxide Cu play into a major porphyry copper deposit that was economic at the time but still likely then considered low grade, but with numbers that today look world class.
And just as they would have been scratching their heads figuring out how to advance the thing, along comes the Sumitomo copper market rigging scandal in 1995. Copper prices were seen to have been manipulated and inflated for about a decade. Copper prices then slid for 6 years, gold did as well, and the junior mining market was a ghost town. By 2001 copper prices were at a century low, and gold was an irrelevant relic. Exall had no chance.
Britannia seemed to get involved just as the scandal and resultant collapse in copper prices started, so I would filter their response through that lens.
Aside from these observations, a few things from Exall releases jumped out at me.
Peter mentions trenching results were announced but he didn’t cite the numbers. Here they are:
Trench 1 25m 0.41% Cu 0.11 g/t Au
Trench 2 50m 0.81% Cu 0.68 g/t Au
Trench 3 50m 0.70% Cu 0.52 g/t Au
Trench 4 125m 0.85% Cu 0.50 g/t Au
Average 250m 0.76% Cu 0.501 g/t Au
In equivalent terms, that average is about 1% Cu.
All of these are well above the average grade of the deposit. This suggests that 1) the grades overall reported by Exall, may not accurately reflect the deposit and will increase with infill drilling, and/or, 2) higher grades exist in what would be an area at surface that could be mined initially.
To these two points, in the Exall releases it is stated, “Both areas are open at depth and on strike and indications are that reserves and head grade will increase significantly with additional drilling.” – by both areas, they mean N and S. This is likely just a function of the methods used to estimate resources that use a discount from the grade in a given drill intersection to calculate resources at a given distance from that insection. So, as these areas of the deposit get filled in the grade in these discounted gaps rises. Ever notice how Reserves and M&I Resources tend to be higher grade than Inferred? This is often the reason.
Also in Exall's releases.... “a high-grade core of 300 million tonnes @ >0.5% Cu exists.” In another release they restate, “The drilling has also confirmed the zoning that was previously suspected and a high-grade core exists.”
In another release and likely referencing a different resource estimate using a different cut-off they say…”“Indicated reserves have been increased from the reported 195 million tonnes grading 0.52% copper to 480 million tonnes grading 0.40% copper, 0.0016 opt gold and 0.0031% molybdenum.
And…”Hole numbers 14 and 25 showed 160 meters of 1.14% copper.”
So, while I think Peter's walk through those releases is a good idea, my takeaway from the same process is to think that ST is a world-class deposit, with enough "high" grade within the global resource to set it apart, and with positive production qualities - strip, metallurgy, location and infrastructure, etc.
————————————————————————————————————
Nachzulesen @ http://www.stockhouse.com/companies/bullboard#EWLhoyhXa7wRX0…
Interessanter Kommentar @ Stockhouse.com
A few comments on Peter Bell’s look at the news releases from Exall as they optioned and explored Santo Tomas, after going through those same releases from Exall from between 1993 and 1996.The option price would seem to be reasonable, as at time copper prices were relatively low, about 1/3rd lower than current prices adjusted for inflation. Santo Tomas was then at a much earlier stage of exploration that it was after all the work Exall did, and in the context of the time would have been considered low grade. Average copper grades being mined have fallen a lot since then – from over 1% then to just above 0.5% now. A resource with a grade of 0.4-.5% wouldn’t have moved the dial in 1993.
But today..........in 2011 a resource of 950 million tonnes owned by Augusta, with an average grade of about 0.4% was bought by Hudbay for $550 million (ST looks to be >900 million tonnes, currently estimated at <0.40% with lots of potential and an expectation for increases in both numbers.). And, in 2015 Southern Copper bought El Pilar, 290 million tonnes of 0.3%, for $100 million and called in “opportunistic.” And, in 2011 Hudbay also acquired Norsemont and its Constancia deposit - 400 million tonnes, 0.42% Cu - for $363 million. There are plenty of other examples of similar acquisitions.
I digress, but the point is that ST is lot (!) more valuable now than it would have been in 1993/4.
Exall then starts a process that sees 4,000 meters of drilling, metallurgy testing, scoping of all aspects of a mine…. pretty major stuff and all conducted by firms that would have been the gold standard of the day – Mintec, Bechtel, Bateman, Lakefield Research. So, I see where they would have spent the kind of money they raised, and as the project grew to be something much bigger than they had originally bargained for, they would have needed to go bigger with the reports and the costs would have risen, likely exponentially.
But in the end, they got some very credible names to do work that advanced the project from a small oxide Cu play into a major porphyry copper deposit that was economic at the time but still likely then considered low grade, but with numbers that today look world class.
And just as they would have been scratching their heads figuring out how to advance the thing, along comes the Sumitomo copper market rigging scandal in 1995. Copper prices were seen to have been manipulated and inflated for about a decade. Copper prices then slid for 6 years, gold did as well, and the junior mining market was a ghost town. By 2001 copper prices were at a century low, and gold was an irrelevant relic. Exall had no chance.
Britannia seemed to get involved just as the scandal and resultant collapse in copper prices started, so I would filter their response through that lens.
Aside from these observations, a few things from Exall releases jumped out at me.
Peter mentions trenching results were announced but he didn’t cite the numbers. Here they are:
Trench 1 25m 0.41% Cu 0.11 g/t Au
Trench 2 50m 0.81% Cu 0.68 g/t Au
Trench 3 50m 0.70% Cu 0.52 g/t Au
Trench 4 125m 0.85% Cu 0.50 g/t Au
Average 250m 0.76% Cu 0.501 g/t Au
In equivalent terms, that average is about 1% Cu.
All of these are well above the average grade of the deposit. This suggests that 1) the grades overall reported by Exall, may not accurately reflect the deposit and will increase with infill drilling, and/or, 2) higher grades exist in what would be an area at surface that could be mined initially.
To these two points, in the Exall releases it is stated, “Both areas are open at depth and on strike and indications are that reserves and head grade will increase significantly with additional drilling.” – by both areas, they mean N and S. This is likely just a function of the methods used to estimate resources that use a discount from the grade in a given drill intersection to calculate resources at a given distance from that insection. So, as these areas of the deposit get filled in the grade in these discounted gaps rises. Ever notice how Reserves and M&I Resources tend to be higher grade than Inferred? This is often the reason.
Also in Exall's releases.... “a high-grade core of 300 million tonnes @ >0.5% Cu exists.” In another release they restate, “The drilling has also confirmed the zoning that was previously suspected and a high-grade core exists.”
In another release and likely referencing a different resource estimate using a different cut-off they say…”“Indicated reserves have been increased from the reported 195 million tonnes grading 0.52% copper to 480 million tonnes grading 0.40% copper, 0.0016 opt gold and 0.0031% molybdenum.
And…”Hole numbers 14 and 25 showed 160 meters of 1.14% copper.”
So, while I think Peter's walk through those releases is a good idea, my takeaway from the same process is to think that ST is a world-class deposit, with enough "high" grade within the global resource to set it apart, and with positive production qualities - strip, metallurgy, location and infrastructure, etc.
————————————————————————————————————
Nachzulesen @ http://www.stockhouse.com/companies/bullboard#EWLhoyhXa7wRX0…
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 57.325.274 von Fantomas96 am 20.03.18 04:37:06
http://cdn.ceo.ca.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/1datknq-Exall%2…
Santo Tomas NR‘s 1992/93
Hier ein paar News Releases zu Santo Tomas aus den Jahren 1992/93 vom damaligen Eigentümer Exall Resources:http://cdn.ceo.ca.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/1datknq-Exall%2…
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 57.230.032 von Fantomas96 am 09.03.18 00:37:59
by @Newton on March 19, 2018
I've been through some market cycles in the junior mining sector, but I didn't always know what I was seeing when it was happening. Going back through news around a story is a good exercise to help you understand how things looked at the time with the benefit of hindsight. For example, Oroco Resource Corp. (TSXV:OCO) is bringing new life to the Santo Tomas copper porphyry and it's essential to look into the public history of the project.
You can find some consideration of a geological report on Santo Tomas in an article I published here. I liked what I saw, but had some big questions.
For a period of time, Santo Tomas owned by a company called "Exall". Read on as I go through a selection of old news releases from Exall as in this document. I provide some quotes from various releases that jump out at me and why.
The first release of interest was made on 1992-10-06, titled "Exall acquires major copper assets in Mexico". The key quote below sounds good as a starting point!
"Exall will acquire exclusive options on three properties in Mexico: the Santo Tomas, Verde Grande and San Martin... The most advanced among these properties is the Santo Tomas porphyry copper deposit. This is a geologic resource of 195 million tonnes with an average ore grade of 0.52% copper. The company believes there is strong potential within the concession area to expand this resource."
As you might expect from reading this quote, the company came out with another release 3 weeks later to "clarify reports on the total contained copper" in that first release. They emphasized that these are historical numbers and the project is only at the exploration stage. This next release provides some other juicy information, such as surface trenching samples, first mention of gold in the porphyry, and metallurgical testing.
The acquisition terms for Santo Tomas seem reasonable with 1M shares on closing, a half-million shares at PFS, and another half-million shares on production. The news release don't say if the company selling the project was a related party or not, which is always an important fact to consider.
Exall announced a major financing on the back of the Santo Tomas acquisition with $5.58 million announced 1993-03-19. This was a substantial amount of equity capital that could fund a lot of good exploration work.
On 1993-04-30 a month later, the company announced a "Contract on Santo Tomas awarded" was awarded to Kilborn. Presumably, this Kilborn company is associated with Mining Hall of Famer Roland Kilborn, but it's unclear from the release.
Next, we get a couple news releases titled "Year end review" on 1993-05-20 and an "Annual report" on 1993-08-25. The company first announced plans for initial production in 1995, then updated the target to initial production in 1994. That's an aggressive timeline!
What's more, the releases had even more aggressive economic forecasts as they noted that "Cash costs are expected to be below US$0.50 per pound." For the trifecta, they planed for a full feasibility study "to be completed by December 1993" on the oxide section of the orebody.
At this point, the company notes that the mineral resource is "currently estimated at 195 million tonnes grading 0.52% copper, of which 22.8 million tonnes are oxide material with a grade of 0.60% copper." That's a good place to be one short year year after acquiring the project, although it is a bit suspect as they didn't update the resource estimate themselves. Full-steam ahead!
There was no shortage of things to encourage the bullish in these results, as "Field work carried out by Exall has identified additional oxide zones and there is a high probability of expanding the oxide reserves." The news release on 1993-11-24 titled "Positive bioleach test at Santo Tomas" was encouraging, as well. The potential for bioleaching is great and I hope it is even more likely now, 25 years later.
Shoutout to EnviroLeach as the winner of PDAC 2018 Disrupt Mining event.
In November 1993, a news release mentioned that the full Feasibility Study was not going to be complete by December. They wrote, "A feasibility study is scheduled for completion in 1994 which will outline the best development parameters for the deposit." Fair enough -- delays are a matter of course in the mining business.
Almost 6 months later, we heard from the company on 1994-04-26. They mentioned that a pre-feasibility study had been completed, which was a surprise to me as I hadn't seen mention of it in any prior releases. I also found out that Exall's drilling had twinned some of the previously-drilled holes, although I don't see any mention of assays in any releases.
On 1994-05-11, Exall made a headline with a release titled "Copper reserves exceeds 7 billion pounds". Such a big number is possible with porphyry deposits like this, but still exciting. What's more, they mentioned "A high grade core (grades > 0.7% Cu) will be the target of early mining with minimal pre-stripping required." All of that makes for a good start, but it's important to note that "The economic evaluations, metallurgy and other portions of the study are being compiled at this time." All this over a year since the $5M equity financing.
In the same release in May 1994, the company mentions that "Mintec of Tucson, Arizona has completed its ore reserve calculations on the Santo Tomas copper porphyry deposit in Sinaloa, Mexico." It is good to see the company do some kind of resource estimate itself as the prior resources and PFS were based on work by prior owner, however, it's important to note that all this was before the NI 43-101 rules gave rigorous structure to the business of mineral resource estimates in Canada.
A few months later in July 1994, Exall has a release titled "Positive prefeasibility for Santo Tomas". This should have been a bit of a surprise for people watching the company, as it was a PFS almost a year after the full FS was expected. And all this after they redid their own reserve calculations in May 1994? It doesn't look particulary surprising in retrospect, but it is concerning.
The initial timelines looked overly optimistic and the PFS itself has a surprise as it is based on "A total of 14,881m of drilling data completed by Asarco and the company was used for the study." This misses out half of "total of 30,000 metres drilled to date" at Santo Tomas, as announced in the first news release on the project from 1993-09-17. I'm not a geologist, but it seems like an avoidable problem.
On 1994-08-24, the company announced that "Mexican government supports Santo Tomas development." I can understand that support and imagine there is still local support for it, almost 25 years ago.
Six months later on 1995-04-11, the company announces a "Santo Tomas progress report". Time continues to go by, but the company reports that they have accomplished work on "ore reserve definition, mine design and processing facilities." It sounds like they are doing the right thing, but it is starting to become clear that they are struggling as they note that "A number of options are being studied to complete a final feasibility and construct the mine. Further information will be released when available."
In passing, I will point out that this is a mega-project. At a mining rate at 40,000 tonnes per day and after-tax IRR of 14.7%, the "Capital payback is estimated at about five years with a mine life of 22 years based on the new pit design." It's appropriate that the 1995-06-02 release noted Santo Tomas "became the main focus of its activities" during 1994 because a big project like that requires heavy lifting!
Three weeks later on 1995-06-21, the company announced "Final feasibility at Santo Tomas to be completed". Again, it sounds like things are moving forward as the company announces "it is expected that further developments will be announced in due course." However, it's important to look where the rubber meets road: exploration and development work.
Exall originally planned for a full FS in December 1993. That was delayed as they revised the resource and PFS. It was now July 1995 and their release titled "Final feasibility at Santo Tomas to be completed" mentions a new player, Bechtel Corp, who offer to "build the plant under a fixed price arrangement and also provide mutually acceptable completion and performance guarantees. Bechtel Financing Services has indicated an interest in assisting Exall, to obtain financing for the project." It's getting a bit late in the race to be switching jockeys, but their reported interest in helping build the project is encouraging. What else?
Things continue to get interesting as the same release notes that, "Bechtel has agreed to provide its services at cost. The total cost of the detailed feasibility study, including various field programs, is currently estimated at $1.5 million." Sounds good!
In July 1995, there was an article in the Northern Miner and one line jumped out at me: "Mr Roman says Exall's real prize is Santo Tomas, where reserves exceed one billion tonnes, making it one of the largest copper-gold projects in the world." I wonder about the use of the term "reserve" there as my understanding was that you need a Feasibility Study to have reserves, but I understand that this was a different time before the NI 43-101 rules following Bre-X.
In 1995-09-27, the company had a release titled "6mo results". This had the most realistic statement about timelines yet with the line: "Given a positive feasibility study in 1996, 18 to 24 months of construction and production starting in 1998, Exall would have cash flow that year and be debt-free by 2003. The company's present efforts are being carried out with that goal in mind." This may be a bit of wake-up call for those who were originally sold on the idea of production in 1995?
Things got even more interesting with arrangement with Bechtel when company announce in same release from September, when we learned that "A positive feasibility study will result in Exall and Bechtel negotiating a lump sum turnkey contract to construct the mine and mill facilities. Bechtel would build the plant under a fixed price arrangement and provide completion and performance guarantees. If Bechtel is not awarded the contract to build the plant, Exall will reimburse the deferred services costs to Bechtel." Again, sounds good!
Hope springs eternal following the 1995-11-02 news titled, "Letter of intent between Britannia Gold and Exall Resources". First, the good news:
"Britannia Gold has executed a letter of intent with Exall Resources of Toronto, Ontario, pursuant to which Britannia has the option to earn a 60% interest in Exall's Santo Tomas copper-gold project in Sinaloa State, Mexico. Britannia will earn a 30% interest by assuming and making property payments and taxes of approximately US$1,500,000 and a further 30% by financing the preparation of an independent feasibility study to be prepared by an internationally recognized mining consulting firm to be selected by Britannia."
If you read that carefully, then you have to wonder about the $1.5M Exall requires to cover property payments and taxes. That comment should strike fear into the hearts of speculator as losing a project in this way is game over for a junior mining company.
Things got worse with sticker shock for the cost estimate of a new Feasibility Study at $5 million. It's tough to hear that in 1995, since they raised that more than that just 2 years prior but now couldn't afford the $1.5M in property payments!
They did some drilling and revised the resource estimate and PFS since that financing, but not $5 million worth. Without going to the financial statements from the company to see all the gory details, it seems clear that the writing was on the wall at this point.
One of the last releases I will consider was released on 1996-05-24 and titled "Year end results". This news came six months after the November 1995 news release where the company announced that "Britannia Gold Corporation agreed to finance the entire cost of a bankable feasibility study as well as undertaking all property liabilities".
Turns out that "on completion of its due diligence review, Britannia concluded the project's rates of return did not meet its investment criteria and the agreement was not concluded." Six months sounds like a long time to wait for such material information. Regardless, hope continues as "The company continued marketing its Santo Tomas copper gold project in Mexico in order to complete a final feasibility study."
Exall did careful work on Santo Tomas under leadership of CEO Steve Roman, son of a Mining Hall of Famer, but the wind went out of their sails with weakness in copper markets following the 1995 Sumitomo scandal and then the Bre-X scandal in 1997. They did a good job, but the project was lost to public markets after ownership shifted to a private company around 2001.
Santo Tomas was subject to reliable work by competent parties when it was owned by Exall, but this is not to be relied on now in the age of NI 43-101. With the historical resource estimates and pre-feasibility studies described above, Oroco Resource Corp. is positioned to do some meaningful work on Santo Tomas immediately as they bring the project back to public markets that are getting desperate for large copper exploration and development projects.
Ancient History of Santo Tomas, Before Oroco Resource $OCO
https://ceo.ca/@Newton/ancient-history-of-santo-tomas-before…by @Newton on March 19, 2018
I've been through some market cycles in the junior mining sector, but I didn't always know what I was seeing when it was happening. Going back through news around a story is a good exercise to help you understand how things looked at the time with the benefit of hindsight. For example, Oroco Resource Corp. (TSXV:OCO) is bringing new life to the Santo Tomas copper porphyry and it's essential to look into the public history of the project.
You can find some consideration of a geological report on Santo Tomas in an article I published here. I liked what I saw, but had some big questions.
For a period of time, Santo Tomas owned by a company called "Exall". Read on as I go through a selection of old news releases from Exall as in this document. I provide some quotes from various releases that jump out at me and why.
The first release of interest was made on 1992-10-06, titled "Exall acquires major copper assets in Mexico". The key quote below sounds good as a starting point!
"Exall will acquire exclusive options on three properties in Mexico: the Santo Tomas, Verde Grande and San Martin... The most advanced among these properties is the Santo Tomas porphyry copper deposit. This is a geologic resource of 195 million tonnes with an average ore grade of 0.52% copper. The company believes there is strong potential within the concession area to expand this resource."
As you might expect from reading this quote, the company came out with another release 3 weeks later to "clarify reports on the total contained copper" in that first release. They emphasized that these are historical numbers and the project is only at the exploration stage. This next release provides some other juicy information, such as surface trenching samples, first mention of gold in the porphyry, and metallurgical testing.
The acquisition terms for Santo Tomas seem reasonable with 1M shares on closing, a half-million shares at PFS, and another half-million shares on production. The news release don't say if the company selling the project was a related party or not, which is always an important fact to consider.
Exall announced a major financing on the back of the Santo Tomas acquisition with $5.58 million announced 1993-03-19. This was a substantial amount of equity capital that could fund a lot of good exploration work.
On 1993-04-30 a month later, the company announced a "Contract on Santo Tomas awarded" was awarded to Kilborn. Presumably, this Kilborn company is associated with Mining Hall of Famer Roland Kilborn, but it's unclear from the release.
Next, we get a couple news releases titled "Year end review" on 1993-05-20 and an "Annual report" on 1993-08-25. The company first announced plans for initial production in 1995, then updated the target to initial production in 1994. That's an aggressive timeline!
What's more, the releases had even more aggressive economic forecasts as they noted that "Cash costs are expected to be below US$0.50 per pound." For the trifecta, they planed for a full feasibility study "to be completed by December 1993" on the oxide section of the orebody.
At this point, the company notes that the mineral resource is "currently estimated at 195 million tonnes grading 0.52% copper, of which 22.8 million tonnes are oxide material with a grade of 0.60% copper." That's a good place to be one short year year after acquiring the project, although it is a bit suspect as they didn't update the resource estimate themselves. Full-steam ahead!
There was no shortage of things to encourage the bullish in these results, as "Field work carried out by Exall has identified additional oxide zones and there is a high probability of expanding the oxide reserves." The news release on 1993-11-24 titled "Positive bioleach test at Santo Tomas" was encouraging, as well. The potential for bioleaching is great and I hope it is even more likely now, 25 years later.
Shoutout to EnviroLeach as the winner of PDAC 2018 Disrupt Mining event.
In November 1993, a news release mentioned that the full Feasibility Study was not going to be complete by December. They wrote, "A feasibility study is scheduled for completion in 1994 which will outline the best development parameters for the deposit." Fair enough -- delays are a matter of course in the mining business.
Almost 6 months later, we heard from the company on 1994-04-26. They mentioned that a pre-feasibility study had been completed, which was a surprise to me as I hadn't seen mention of it in any prior releases. I also found out that Exall's drilling had twinned some of the previously-drilled holes, although I don't see any mention of assays in any releases.
On 1994-05-11, Exall made a headline with a release titled "Copper reserves exceeds 7 billion pounds". Such a big number is possible with porphyry deposits like this, but still exciting. What's more, they mentioned "A high grade core (grades > 0.7% Cu) will be the target of early mining with minimal pre-stripping required." All of that makes for a good start, but it's important to note that "The economic evaluations, metallurgy and other portions of the study are being compiled at this time." All this over a year since the $5M equity financing.
In the same release in May 1994, the company mentions that "Mintec of Tucson, Arizona has completed its ore reserve calculations on the Santo Tomas copper porphyry deposit in Sinaloa, Mexico." It is good to see the company do some kind of resource estimate itself as the prior resources and PFS were based on work by prior owner, however, it's important to note that all this was before the NI 43-101 rules gave rigorous structure to the business of mineral resource estimates in Canada.
A few months later in July 1994, Exall has a release titled "Positive prefeasibility for Santo Tomas". This should have been a bit of a surprise for people watching the company, as it was a PFS almost a year after the full FS was expected. And all this after they redid their own reserve calculations in May 1994? It doesn't look particulary surprising in retrospect, but it is concerning.
The initial timelines looked overly optimistic and the PFS itself has a surprise as it is based on "A total of 14,881m of drilling data completed by Asarco and the company was used for the study." This misses out half of "total of 30,000 metres drilled to date" at Santo Tomas, as announced in the first news release on the project from 1993-09-17. I'm not a geologist, but it seems like an avoidable problem.
On 1994-08-24, the company announced that "Mexican government supports Santo Tomas development." I can understand that support and imagine there is still local support for it, almost 25 years ago.
Six months later on 1995-04-11, the company announces a "Santo Tomas progress report". Time continues to go by, but the company reports that they have accomplished work on "ore reserve definition, mine design and processing facilities." It sounds like they are doing the right thing, but it is starting to become clear that they are struggling as they note that "A number of options are being studied to complete a final feasibility and construct the mine. Further information will be released when available."
In passing, I will point out that this is a mega-project. At a mining rate at 40,000 tonnes per day and after-tax IRR of 14.7%, the "Capital payback is estimated at about five years with a mine life of 22 years based on the new pit design." It's appropriate that the 1995-06-02 release noted Santo Tomas "became the main focus of its activities" during 1994 because a big project like that requires heavy lifting!
Three weeks later on 1995-06-21, the company announced "Final feasibility at Santo Tomas to be completed". Again, it sounds like things are moving forward as the company announces "it is expected that further developments will be announced in due course." However, it's important to look where the rubber meets road: exploration and development work.
Exall originally planned for a full FS in December 1993. That was delayed as they revised the resource and PFS. It was now July 1995 and their release titled "Final feasibility at Santo Tomas to be completed" mentions a new player, Bechtel Corp, who offer to "build the plant under a fixed price arrangement and also provide mutually acceptable completion and performance guarantees. Bechtel Financing Services has indicated an interest in assisting Exall, to obtain financing for the project." It's getting a bit late in the race to be switching jockeys, but their reported interest in helping build the project is encouraging. What else?
Things continue to get interesting as the same release notes that, "Bechtel has agreed to provide its services at cost. The total cost of the detailed feasibility study, including various field programs, is currently estimated at $1.5 million." Sounds good!
In July 1995, there was an article in the Northern Miner and one line jumped out at me: "Mr Roman says Exall's real prize is Santo Tomas, where reserves exceed one billion tonnes, making it one of the largest copper-gold projects in the world." I wonder about the use of the term "reserve" there as my understanding was that you need a Feasibility Study to have reserves, but I understand that this was a different time before the NI 43-101 rules following Bre-X.
In 1995-09-27, the company had a release titled "6mo results". This had the most realistic statement about timelines yet with the line: "Given a positive feasibility study in 1996, 18 to 24 months of construction and production starting in 1998, Exall would have cash flow that year and be debt-free by 2003. The company's present efforts are being carried out with that goal in mind." This may be a bit of wake-up call for those who were originally sold on the idea of production in 1995?
Things got even more interesting with arrangement with Bechtel when company announce in same release from September, when we learned that "A positive feasibility study will result in Exall and Bechtel negotiating a lump sum turnkey contract to construct the mine and mill facilities. Bechtel would build the plant under a fixed price arrangement and provide completion and performance guarantees. If Bechtel is not awarded the contract to build the plant, Exall will reimburse the deferred services costs to Bechtel." Again, sounds good!
Hope springs eternal following the 1995-11-02 news titled, "Letter of intent between Britannia Gold and Exall Resources". First, the good news:
"Britannia Gold has executed a letter of intent with Exall Resources of Toronto, Ontario, pursuant to which Britannia has the option to earn a 60% interest in Exall's Santo Tomas copper-gold project in Sinaloa State, Mexico. Britannia will earn a 30% interest by assuming and making property payments and taxes of approximately US$1,500,000 and a further 30% by financing the preparation of an independent feasibility study to be prepared by an internationally recognized mining consulting firm to be selected by Britannia."
If you read that carefully, then you have to wonder about the $1.5M Exall requires to cover property payments and taxes. That comment should strike fear into the hearts of speculator as losing a project in this way is game over for a junior mining company.
Things got worse with sticker shock for the cost estimate of a new Feasibility Study at $5 million. It's tough to hear that in 1995, since they raised that more than that just 2 years prior but now couldn't afford the $1.5M in property payments!
They did some drilling and revised the resource estimate and PFS since that financing, but not $5 million worth. Without going to the financial statements from the company to see all the gory details, it seems clear that the writing was on the wall at this point.
One of the last releases I will consider was released on 1996-05-24 and titled "Year end results". This news came six months after the November 1995 news release where the company announced that "Britannia Gold Corporation agreed to finance the entire cost of a bankable feasibility study as well as undertaking all property liabilities".
Turns out that "on completion of its due diligence review, Britannia concluded the project's rates of return did not meet its investment criteria and the agreement was not concluded." Six months sounds like a long time to wait for such material information. Regardless, hope continues as "The company continued marketing its Santo Tomas copper gold project in Mexico in order to complete a final feasibility study."
Exall did careful work on Santo Tomas under leadership of CEO Steve Roman, son of a Mining Hall of Famer, but the wind went out of their sails with weakness in copper markets following the 1995 Sumitomo scandal and then the Bre-X scandal in 1997. They did a good job, but the project was lost to public markets after ownership shifted to a private company around 2001.
Santo Tomas was subject to reliable work by competent parties when it was owned by Exall, but this is not to be relied on now in the age of NI 43-101. With the historical resource estimates and pre-feasibility studies described above, Oroco Resource Corp. is positioned to do some meaningful work on Santo Tomas immediately as they bring the project back to public markets that are getting desperate for large copper exploration and development projects.
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 57.230.023 von Fantomas96 am 09.03.18 00:32:55
Santo Tomas Technical Report 2011
http://cdn.ceo.ca.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/1da18d1-Technic…
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 57.229.384 von Fantomas96 am 08.03.18 22:08:37
How would you feel about a large land package in Sinaloa sold from a private company based in the Bahamas to a Canadian company listed on the TSX Venture? It's enough to make most investors run away in fear, but I encountered one such story and gave it a closer look. Here's what I found.
Oroco Resource (TSXV:OCO) recently announced the acquisition of a large land package with a very large copper porphyry in Sonora, Mexico. There is some corporate drama around this project, with a legal dispute having kept it out of public companies since 1993. The owners pushed forward with an economic report in 1994, but it's been a long and quiet 20 years at site for the project as far as I can tell. Oroco Resources announced that work done in 2017 breathed new life into the project with a good work program that includes property-wide mapping and reassembling old drilling information.
With Oroco shares trading around $0.13, the company has a $10M valuation. That's a good number for the valuation of a new exploration company, but makes me feel a bit late to the party. Regardless of my feelings, the reality is that we are still quite early in this new phase of the Santo Thomas story as Oroco hasn't yet registered their ownership of the project! With shares trading at a fraction of a penny per pound of copper in the ground, the stock hasn't gotten ahead of itself yet.
It looks like things are on track now and another chapter is shaping up in the long story of the Santo Tomas Copper Porphyry Project. Keep in mind that "Active exploration of the Property spans the period 1968 to 2003" as in the report below.
You can find a brief report on the project here. It was done when the project was held privately. There are other reports out there that are a little hard to find as they pre-date SEDAR, but I will endeavour to find them and write about them. In the meantime, there are quite a few things to consider in this report.
Again, see the full report here. Short report but lots to consider if it's your first time meeting the Santo Tomas copper porphyry, like me.
First thing that occurred to me is that there is a lot of metal in the ground here. It's not clear from this report how much of it is economic, but I have to pay attention to 1.3 billion tonnes of rock hosting 10 billion pounds of copper equivalent at a 0.15% cutoff.
My first thought is that it is too much heavy lifting to get off the ground in that form, but there surely must be some subset of the full deposit that would be good enough to help get things started? I look forward to studying the other reports for a sense of a possible starter pit and watching what Oroco does in that regard.
You have to wonder how Santo Tomas ever got so big? I've heard stories of exploration taking on a life of its own, where a junior tries to make a deposit as big as possible in the throes of a bull market and ends up building something that's just not right for the upcoming bear market. As these deposits gather dust over the next phases of the market cycle, the opportunity remains. With Santo Tomas held in limbo since the 1990s, it's missed a few bull markets. Great to see it coming back to the markets now as things are heating up for these massive copper projects.
Let's go through some more of details on the project to see what it looks like.
Great to see the surface exposure, even if the deposit is not oxidized. I saw mention of that in the short report here, but will have to wait for a larger report to better understand the geology.
Note the Santo Tomas project is fairly close to a railroad line that goes to a port in Sinaloa. Apparently there has also been some talk of government spending to support capital expenditures for the project, too. All good so far!
This cross section raises a couple concerns for me.
One, if the deposit is restricted to one side of hill then other side makes for nasty strip in an open pit mining scenario. It's unclear how all that shakes out from this short report, but an economic study was done in 1994 that will surely give some detail on that.
Two, what is the basis for the lower subsection of the deposit model? The holes end in mineralization but don’t extend to the depths of the deposit as indicated by the line in the diagram. There are probably other holes going that deep on another line nearby to give some confidence about the extension of the deposit to depth, but this part of the diagram left me a bit confused. Always important to consider how many holes are giving you how much of the deposit, right?
A final thing from the report is the distribution of copper grade shown above.
These grades are composites, which indicate the average grade over 15 meter intervals from all the 89 drill holes for the purpose of "linking them into closed volumetric shapes". In other words, these are the grades used in the 3D block model for the mine plan. 15 meters is a typical height for the benches in an open pit mine, so these are mining widths.
At first blush, it looks like like a lot of low-grade material. I don't see much potential for a high-grade core based on this diagram but there may well be enough of that +0.5% material to make this thing work. And there are some benches at around 1.2% copper, which may be something to get excited about if they are near-surface!
I was initially looking for more of the +1% material, but there could be quite a lot of that hiding in 5-meter intervals contained within these 15-meter composites. I don't really have a good sense for the marginal grade in these composites and look forward to reading the economic report for more.
All this information was good, but I don't know the engineering economics of these porphyries well enough to say if this passes a quick acid test. I love a good turnaround story, but it's tough to be early.
Then, I looked at a posts from @cal on CEO.CA/OCO. In particular, this picture.
Now, you really have to be careful with photos.
There was a lot of excitement around core photos that boiled over and left a nasty mess in 2017, let alone the wild excitement that followed video of people digging up gold in Australia in the same way as had been done for years before. Hard to guess at what will excite a crowd and dangerous to get caught up in the excitement.
I'm not a geologist, but I pay attention when I see photos like this. I don't know where this photo was taken, but the Oroco news release mentions that initial work programs focused on detailed mapping and satellite reconnaissance at Santo Tomas. How much stuff like this did they see?
This photo gives me hope for a high-grade core within that +10 billion tonnes in the known deposit. If this photo was taken at the same deposit, then they may be able to make a bunch of noise really quickly about reinterpreting the geological model. By the way, I think that will be a key to getting some energy into these massive porphyries that are stalled from past cycles. And if the photo is from somewhere else on the property then it's time to get excited about a new discovery. Either way, this will command some market attention as the property is 10,902 hectares, which is twice size of Manhattan. Sounds like Santo Tomas is worth rebooting!
Is Santo Tomas worth rebooting by Oroco Resources $OCO
https://ceo.ca/@newton/is-santo-tomas-worth-rebooting-by-oro…How would you feel about a large land package in Sinaloa sold from a private company based in the Bahamas to a Canadian company listed on the TSX Venture? It's enough to make most investors run away in fear, but I encountered one such story and gave it a closer look. Here's what I found.
Oroco Resource (TSXV:OCO) recently announced the acquisition of a large land package with a very large copper porphyry in Sonora, Mexico. There is some corporate drama around this project, with a legal dispute having kept it out of public companies since 1993. The owners pushed forward with an economic report in 1994, but it's been a long and quiet 20 years at site for the project as far as I can tell. Oroco Resources announced that work done in 2017 breathed new life into the project with a good work program that includes property-wide mapping and reassembling old drilling information.
With Oroco shares trading around $0.13, the company has a $10M valuation. That's a good number for the valuation of a new exploration company, but makes me feel a bit late to the party. Regardless of my feelings, the reality is that we are still quite early in this new phase of the Santo Thomas story as Oroco hasn't yet registered their ownership of the project! With shares trading at a fraction of a penny per pound of copper in the ground, the stock hasn't gotten ahead of itself yet.
It looks like things are on track now and another chapter is shaping up in the long story of the Santo Tomas Copper Porphyry Project. Keep in mind that "Active exploration of the Property spans the period 1968 to 2003" as in the report below.
You can find a brief report on the project here. It was done when the project was held privately. There are other reports out there that are a little hard to find as they pre-date SEDAR, but I will endeavour to find them and write about them. In the meantime, there are quite a few things to consider in this report.
Again, see the full report here. Short report but lots to consider if it's your first time meeting the Santo Tomas copper porphyry, like me.
First thing that occurred to me is that there is a lot of metal in the ground here. It's not clear from this report how much of it is economic, but I have to pay attention to 1.3 billion tonnes of rock hosting 10 billion pounds of copper equivalent at a 0.15% cutoff.
My first thought is that it is too much heavy lifting to get off the ground in that form, but there surely must be some subset of the full deposit that would be good enough to help get things started? I look forward to studying the other reports for a sense of a possible starter pit and watching what Oroco does in that regard.
You have to wonder how Santo Tomas ever got so big? I've heard stories of exploration taking on a life of its own, where a junior tries to make a deposit as big as possible in the throes of a bull market and ends up building something that's just not right for the upcoming bear market. As these deposits gather dust over the next phases of the market cycle, the opportunity remains. With Santo Tomas held in limbo since the 1990s, it's missed a few bull markets. Great to see it coming back to the markets now as things are heating up for these massive copper projects.
Let's go through some more of details on the project to see what it looks like.
Great to see the surface exposure, even if the deposit is not oxidized. I saw mention of that in the short report here, but will have to wait for a larger report to better understand the geology.
Note the Santo Tomas project is fairly close to a railroad line that goes to a port in Sinaloa. Apparently there has also been some talk of government spending to support capital expenditures for the project, too. All good so far!
This cross section raises a couple concerns for me.
One, if the deposit is restricted to one side of hill then other side makes for nasty strip in an open pit mining scenario. It's unclear how all that shakes out from this short report, but an economic study was done in 1994 that will surely give some detail on that.
Two, what is the basis for the lower subsection of the deposit model? The holes end in mineralization but don’t extend to the depths of the deposit as indicated by the line in the diagram. There are probably other holes going that deep on another line nearby to give some confidence about the extension of the deposit to depth, but this part of the diagram left me a bit confused. Always important to consider how many holes are giving you how much of the deposit, right?
A final thing from the report is the distribution of copper grade shown above.
These grades are composites, which indicate the average grade over 15 meter intervals from all the 89 drill holes for the purpose of "linking them into closed volumetric shapes". In other words, these are the grades used in the 3D block model for the mine plan. 15 meters is a typical height for the benches in an open pit mine, so these are mining widths.
At first blush, it looks like like a lot of low-grade material. I don't see much potential for a high-grade core based on this diagram but there may well be enough of that +0.5% material to make this thing work. And there are some benches at around 1.2% copper, which may be something to get excited about if they are near-surface!
I was initially looking for more of the +1% material, but there could be quite a lot of that hiding in 5-meter intervals contained within these 15-meter composites. I don't really have a good sense for the marginal grade in these composites and look forward to reading the economic report for more.
All this information was good, but I don't know the engineering economics of these porphyries well enough to say if this passes a quick acid test. I love a good turnaround story, but it's tough to be early.
Then, I looked at a posts from @cal on CEO.CA/OCO. In particular, this picture.
Now, you really have to be careful with photos.
There was a lot of excitement around core photos that boiled over and left a nasty mess in 2017, let alone the wild excitement that followed video of people digging up gold in Australia in the same way as had been done for years before. Hard to guess at what will excite a crowd and dangerous to get caught up in the excitement.
I'm not a geologist, but I pay attention when I see photos like this. I don't know where this photo was taken, but the Oroco news release mentions that initial work programs focused on detailed mapping and satellite reconnaissance at Santo Tomas. How much stuff like this did they see?
This photo gives me hope for a high-grade core within that +10 billion tonnes in the known deposit. If this photo was taken at the same deposit, then they may be able to make a bunch of noise really quickly about reinterpreting the geological model. By the way, I think that will be a key to getting some energy into these massive porphyries that are stalled from past cycles. And if the photo is from somewhere else on the property then it's time to get excited about a new discovery. Either way, this will command some market attention as the property is 10,902 hectares, which is twice size of Manhattan. Sounds like Santo Tomas is worth rebooting!
Trading Spotlight
ist halt die frage wie wirtschaftlich das projekt ist
wenn ich sehe wie tief western copper oder deep south bewertet sind...
selbst trilogy ist ein schnäppchen.
bei goldwerten kriegst es nicht so nachgeschmissen...
mir sind beide gleich lieb.
kupferproducer verdienen meistens besser.
wie heisst der spruch "with gold you can raise money and with copper you can earn money"
da beide ihre haussen und baissen seit dekaden im gleichklang austragen ist es mir egal inzwischen ob gold oder kupfer.
wenn ich sehe wie tief western copper oder deep south bewertet sind...
selbst trilogy ist ein schnäppchen.
bei goldwerten kriegst es nicht so nachgeschmissen...
mir sind beide gleich lieb.
kupferproducer verdienen meistens besser.
wie heisst der spruch "with gold you can raise money and with copper you can earn money"
da beide ihre haussen und baissen seit dekaden im gleichklang austragen ist es mir egal inzwischen ob gold oder kupfer.
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 57.214.588 von senna7 am 07.03.18 18:17:45
Was mich wiederum vermuten läßt, dass hier was „im Busch ist“.
Ich glaube, da sammeln einige heimlich still und leise ein.
Zitat von senna7: heute mal wieder ein wenig mehr Bewegung in der Aktie
sie hält sich im aktuellen Umfeld SUPER !!! wenn nicht sogar hervorragend
Was mich wiederum vermuten läßt, dass hier was „im Busch ist“.
Ich glaube, da sammeln einige heimlich still und leise ein.
heute mal wieder ein wenig mehr Bewegung in der Aktie 
sie hält sich im aktuellen Umfeld SUPER !!! wenn nicht sogar hervorragend
sie hält sich im aktuellen Umfeld SUPER !!! wenn nicht sogar hervorragend
hier die Aztec Copper INC Studie von 2003
über Santo Tomas
http://calichebahada.com/wp-content/uploads/Bateman-ST-PreFe…
über Santo Tomas
http://calichebahada.com/wp-content/uploads/Bateman-ST-PreFe…
der Kupferpreis stand 1994 so um die 2500 Dollar wenn ich richtig recheriert habe , nun stehen wir bei 6900 und in der Spitze waren es ja auch schon 10000 Dollar.
ich denke es sind sehr gute Aussichten das wir hier auch diese wieder erreichen ...
im Boden sind aber auch noch ein paar andere Rohstoffe als Abfallprodukte ...
ich denke es sind sehr gute Aussichten das wir hier auch diese wieder erreichen ...
im Boden sind aber auch noch ein paar andere Rohstoffe als Abfallprodukte ...
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