www.vaneminerals.com
VANE Minerals is an explorer and developer of copper and uranium projects in North America. The Company is supported by revenues from its producing silver/gold operations in Mexico. Utilising a team made up of leading industry professionals the Company is targeting porphyry copper targets in Southwest USA in addition to expanding its gold/silver operations in Mexico and exploring high-grade breccia pipe targets in North America
Copper discovery could trigger significant re-rating for VANE Minerals, says Allenby
The discovery of a copper porphyry deposit from one of 22 untested targets in Arizona and New Mexico could transform the valuation of VANE Minerals (LON:VML), according to research published today by Allenby Capital.
Using a sliding scale depending of the size of deposit uncovered, the shares could be worth between 2 pence for a discovery with 200,000 tonnes of contained copper through to 104 pence from a 10 million tonne resource.
“The discovery of a sufficiently mineable copper porphyry will have a significant positive impact on the share price,” said analyst Neil Shah.
The area of focus of VANE’s copper exploration activities is the Arizona-New Mexico border, which is home to 60 per cent of all US production of the metal.
And its geologists have access to extensive database of the area compiled by Freeport McMoran.
In directors Clark Arnold and Steven Van Nort they have the grey-beards with the knowledge and expertise required to successfully plunder this mountain of information.
The company owns uranium projects that are being used as benchmark to value the company, and Mexican gold and silver production helps bankroll the business.
But copper is the major focus. It was Van Nort, taking early retirement from Freeport, who negotiated the exclusive access to more than 7,000 world-wide exploration files assembled over 85 years.
VANE’s focus is the porphyry copper systems of the south-west US, and its targets on either side of the Arizona-New Mexico border.
The biggies to date, deposits such as the Morcini and El Chino mines, are outcropping at surface.
There are more than 30 in total. And the theory suggests there’s a similar number hidden beneath the covered terrain of this metallogenic province. Around 60 per cent of this area is covered.
Using the Freeport database and other proprietary data VANE is identifying potential hotspots and drill testing them.
It is rapid and, at $100,000 to $150,000 a hole, it is relatively low cost.
The only problem thus far is VANE has drilled two targets and found nothing. However this is two of 24 potential targets.
It plans another six to nine in the next 18 months, starting with McGhee Peak in New Mexico, which was finally given the green light by the local mining authorities on October 31.
A successful hole would be utterly transformational, chief executive David Newton revealed in a recent interview.
“We could spend as little $150,000 on exploration and end up with something worth between US$2.2 and US$40 billion,” he said.
The valuations quoted by the VANE boss are benchmarked on the monster deposits that have already been discovered in the region and based on the current price of copper.
It’s not the most rigorous mine maths, but it gives a hint as to the scale of the opportunity.
Suffice it to say a discovery will see the world’s big miners sniffing around with Freeport probably at the head of the queue.
