John Whittier Greenleaf the American Quaker poet and abolitionist was noted for saying. “I’ll lift you and you lift me and we’ll both ascend together.” It looks as if Ascendant Copper (TSX:ACX) has taken some of his sage relationship advice as it ushers in a new phase of its ascendancy with its friendly takeover of St. Geneviève Resources (CNQ:SGVL) of Montréal. The Boards of Directors of both ACX and SGVL have unanimously approved a letter of intent in which ACX acquires all of the outstanding shares of SGVL in exchange for up to 30,000,000 ACX common shares as per its October 31st press release. Completion of the transaction is subject to final due diligence by ACX and SGVL. This latest news represents a new chapter for Ascendant as it diversifies its asset base and gathers momentum in its push to achieve mid-tier production status. Of particular interest are SGVL’s two past-producing copper properties in Arizona. Emerald Isle is a formerly producing open-pit copper mine located 24 km northwest of Kingman. Infrastructure in the area is excellent on all counts with water coming from nearby wells. Mine infrastructure also includes a SX/EW (solvent-leach/electrowinning*) plant some buildings and equipment. Emerald Isle contains a 43-101-compliant** recoverable mineral resource of 27.5 million lbs Cu. The property has a history of work dating back to 1917 with open-pit production starting in 1943. A final pre-feasibility study conducted by Behre Dolbear reports an expected mine life of 4 years which is a conservative estimate. The company plans to put the property into production within 12 months in order to produce about 5 million lbs of copper annually. The company estimates costs of around $4 to 5 million in order to put the property back into production. It is particularly important to note the economic advantage that a SX/EW processing scenario lends to this project. It requires a low capital investment requirement relative to the smelting process and can be viable even on a small scale. The process has very little environmental impact as its liquid streams are easily contained and acids used in the process are eventually neutralized by the host rock itself. Most importantly. SX/EW also allows for the processing of copper oxides which are very difficult and expensive to smelt. These include mined copper minerals that are in oxidized form such as azurite brochantite chrysocolla and cuprite as well as residual copper in old mine waste dumps that has been oxidized through exposure to air. The Zonia property located south of Prescott consists of 3,300 acres that produced 33 million lbs Cu from 1966 to 1975 by heap leaching. In 2006. Scott Wilson Roscoe Postle Associates (RPA) prepared a NI 43-101 technical report on the property. It outlined an inferred resource of 63 million tons copper averaging 0.37% Cu at a cutoff grade of 0.25% containing an estimated 460 million lbs Cu. Zonia is also considered a near-term producer. Ascendant plans to update the feasibility study and expand resources through additional drilling while preparing the site for production over the next 24 to 30 months. The acquisition of SGVL enables Ascendant to build upon its comprehensive copper-moly portfolio. The company is also able to build on a great deal of copper exploration experience gleaned while working in Ecuador where it owns two properties: the Chaucha copper-molybdenum in the southwest and the Junin copper-molybdenum porphyry project in the northwest. Chaucha has an historic geological resource estimate of 216 million tons with 2.2 billion lbs Cu and 122 million lbs Mo. Phase III of the drilling program – which involved testing for higher grade. +1% Cu – has recently been completed. Assay results are expected shortly. At the same time according to the company’s website. Junin has a 43-101 compliant inferred resource estimate of 982 million tonnes with 19.2 billion lbs copper and 864 lbs molybdenum. This latest move serves as a bridge to create increased value and cash flow for Ascendant’s shareholders in the near and mid-term future. It also serves to support the advancement of Chaucha and Junin. Recently. Ecuador's President has come out in support of responsible mining and the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum is laboring to determine how to best advance mineral projects within Ecuador. These new political developments should bode well for the people of Ecuador for the mining community in general and for Ascendant in particular. In the meanwhile the company will continue to build on its ongoing strategic exploration alliance in Ecuador with Rio Tinto which gives it access to Rio Tinto’s US$14 million database. In terms of investor awareness the agreement with SGVL signals a key entry point for Ascendant’s potential investors in the sense that all the building blocks are now in place to ensure a balanced approach in terms of growth – and profit – at all stages of its development.*Solvent extraction/electrowinning (SX/EW) is a two-stage process that first extracts and upgrades copper ions from low-grade leach solutions into a concentrated electrolyte and then deposits pure copper onto cathodes using an electrolytic procedure.**National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and administered by the provincial securities commissions that govern how issuers disclose scientific and technical information about their mineral projects to the public. It covers oral statements as well as written documents and websites. It requires that all disclosure be based on advice by a "qualified person" and in some circumstances that the person be independent of the issuer and the property. This article is intended for information purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
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