A company hoping to reopen an old copper mine in the US will this month provide investors with an updated estimate for how much easy-to-access metal is contained in its Empire project in Idaho.

Phoenix Global Mining (PGM:AIM) is confident of boosting the current estimate of 68,200 tonnes of contained copper for a section that will be mined from above-ground.

It hopes to produce 7,000 tonnes of copper cathode material annually from 2020. That’s about half as much copper as produced each year by Central Asia Metals (CAML:AIM), a miner widely respected by investors and Phoenix’s management.

Chief financial officer Richard Wilkins says he wants to follow CAML’s business model, giving Phoenix shareholders a percentage of profit from copper production as dividends.

The bulk of any profit from Empire’s open pit production will be ploughed back into the business to prove up an underground section which the miner is convinced will transform Phoenix.

There is insufficient exploration data at present on the underground material, so investors should be cautious with regards to the potential value generation from this part of the mine. However, we note Phoenix has now begun to drill this section.

Wilkins says Phoenix is considering a potential all-share deal to buy ExGen which owns 20% of the Empire mine and a 2.5% production royalty. (DC)

‹ Previous2017-11-02Next ›