A High Grade & Shovel Ready Mine
Junior Miners is based in Atlin BC. Atlin is a small mining town with roots going back to the turn of the century when the Klondike gold rush was on. With about 400 poeple today it is a far cry from what it was about 100 years ago. Back then there was over 10,000 people here seeking their fortunes in gold. Although most of the gold mining here today is alluvial or placer mining, there is old workings throughout the area of where hard rock mining took place. Some of those mines were the Ruffner Silver Mine and Adanac moly deposit. Today however we are going to take a look at a mine that is located about 100 kilometres south of the town of Atlin, British Columbia or 65 kilometres northeast of Juneau, Alaska. The mine in question is the Tulsequah Chief mine and this mine is owned by Chieftain Metals Corp. CFB.
The Tulsequah Chief mine operated from 1951 - 1957 by Cominco Ltd. Production at the time was about 400 tonnes per day and was a seasonal operation using conventional barging to transport both concentrates and supplies. The mine shut down in 1957 due to low metal prices. In 1981 Redfern began exploration and staked a block of claims surrounding Cominco's Tulsequah Chief Mine. Work started in 1987 with surface diamond drill holes and continued each year until 1992 when Redfern purchased Cominco's interest in the property. Since that time, Redfern developed the project towards the eventual re-opening of the Tulsequah Chief Mine. This has included several campaigns of diamond drilling, permitting applications and feasibility evaluation work. In 2006, Redcorp initiated a feasibility study for the Tulsequah Project which demonstrated the economic value of the property. After the 2009 financial crisis, Redfern went under and Chieftain Metals then took over the mine and assets of Tulsequah Chief.
The Tulsequah Chief Project is among the highest grade VMS deposits of the world and is one of the world's lowest cost, near-term producers. This mine once in production will produce each year, 69 million Lb of zinc, 16 million Lb of copper, 11 million Lb of lead, 1,380,748 Oz of silver and 46,878 Oz of gold. In fact at todays metals prices, Chieftains cost of mining for the zinc is negative 90 cents a lb. With 9+ years of operating projected, Chieftain will have a first class mine on it's hands. You can view the latest company presentation from July 2014 here.
There are about 17 million shares O/S. The stock trades thin on the volume side due to the limited amount of stock that is free floating. 75% of the stock is held by institutions and management hold another 10% leaving 15% in private hands. 52 week high of 75 cents and a low of 10 cents. The stock today is 24 cents. Chieftain Metals could very well become BC's next mine in production.
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GAdams