Industrial Update Spring 2012
J.W. (Bill) Morton, geologist and chief executive officer for Woodjam Copper, examines a core sample from a recent mining exploration near Horsefly. Photo courtesy of Woodjam Copper Corporation
Woodjam Copper explores in the Cariboo Monica Lamb-Yorski Industrial Update 2012 The relatively new kid on the mining exploration block in the Cariboo is Consolidated Woodjam Copper Corporation, formed by a corporate restructuring completed in December 2011. Exploration is taking place 50 kilometres east of Williams Lake, about 10 km south of Horsefly. “There is an existing copper project called Woodjam that we have been working on for a number of years near Horsefly that was owned by two junior companies — Cariboo Roads Resources Ltd. and Fjordland Exploration Ltd.,” says CEO and director J.W. (Bill) Morton. The two companies were in a joint venture on the project and in 2009 joined forces with a new partner, Gold Fields Limited. Based in Johannesburg, Gold Fields is one of the larger gold mining companies in the world.
“They operate a number of mines in Africa and also have mining operations in South America and significant exploration activities in Canada, the United States and Australia,” Morton says. It made sense, he adds, to consolidate interests slightly so that the new entity assumed the ownership held by Fjordland and Cariboo Roads, and Gold Fields the other. Up to this point in time, approximately $20 million has been spent on the project, $15 million of which Gold Fields has contributed since joining in 2009. A milestone was reached in January of this year when Gold Fields had done everything required to earn 51 per cent interest in the project. “It’s completely exploration up to this point in time, meaning that we still don’t have an entity that we could run out in all certainty and say something that will sustain commercial production, but we believe it will,” Morton explains, adding that Gold Fields can earn an additional 19 per cent of the project, which
would end up being 70 per cent for it and 30 per cent for Woodjam. That would be realized by Gold Fields spending an additional $25 million and completing a feasibility study, which would probably cost an additional $50 million to $75 million. Presently the target is a bulk mineable predominantly copper operation that would be similar to Mount Polley, perhaps a bit bigger. Products that would emerge would be dominantly copper, but a fair amount of gold, and possibly some molybdenum. “There’s a significant amount of molybdenum in place in various zones. Whether or not there’s enough to warrant recovering it we haven’t determined. We know that we would and will recover copper and gold,” Morton says. Exploration is still occurring, and the company will begin drilling again the last week of March. The plan is to diamond drill an estimated 60,000 feet. Continued on Page 2