I think Stuhini's share price would get a significant boost if a strategic partner invested in
Stuhini to move this basically “shovel ready” molybdenum deposit forward.
During the last moly price cycle, this moly deposit was the only one that had a positive
decision to go into production by the former operator Adanac Moly Corp. Adanac even
obtained an $800 million credit facility to fund construction, just before the 2009 credit
crisis hit and moly prices dropped from +$30/lb to less than $10/lb . The road upgrades
completed back in 2008 cost approx $22 million, which is more than double the current
market cap of Stuhini at just under $9 million with roughly 46 million shares outstanding
At the current time however, preserving cash seems to be the prudent thing to do.
No sense diluting the share structure much more with an already well delineated pit
constrained 476 million pound open pit molybdenum deposit in measured, indicated
and inferred resources.
Personally, I would eventually like to see a number of deeper holes punched into the
ground in the area of drill hole AD417 which bottomed out in 45 meters of 0.23% moly.
If further high grade intercepts were encountered, It might go a long way in establishing
the potential for an underground mining component in addition to the proposed open pit
at Ruby Creek.
Also note that the AD 417 drill hole is outside the current pit constrained resource.
Having a strategic partner enter the picture for a 10% or 20% stake in Ruby Creek could
see the environmental studies and permitting updated to current, and potentially fund some
drilling in the AD 417 drill hole area and deeper, to see just how much larger and how far
down the high grade zone goes.
Also of interest is the potential for a satellite moly deposit at Volcanic Creek ... potentially
like the "cluster" of moly deposits that Freeport mines at their Climax and Henderson operations.
jobs.fcx.com
Looking at Moon River Capital’s recent PEA, their CAPEX came in at $575 million including
a $108 million in contingency funding to mine and process a high grade underground resource
of approximately 44 million tonnes grading 0.21% moly at a 7000 tpd rate with OPEX still coming
in just under $10.00 / lb.moly.
What would Stuhini's CAPEX and OPEX be for their Ruby Creek open pit with approx. 8-9 times
the tonneage in their current pit constrained resource estimate at roughly 1/4 the grade ?
Moon River Capital retained A-Z Mining Professionals Ltd. (AMPL) to prepare their Sept 2023
Technical Report for their Davidson moly project .
Note on page 10 "Introduction 2.0" of that Technical Report that Stuhini's V.P of Exploration
Ehsan Salmabadi was involved with the preparation of that AMPL Technical Report .
wp-moonrivermoly-2023.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com
AMPL was also hired by Moon River Capital to prepare the recently released Feb 2024
Preliminary Economic Assessment for Davidson.
moonrivermoly.com
With Ehsan Salmabadi's participation in the AMPL studies for Moon River, I would have to believe
that Stuhini’s V.P of Exploration should have a very good working knowledge of the current costs
for CAPEX, as well as OPEX, at Stuhini's Ruby Creek Project.
Will be meeting with CEO Dave O’Brien and his Stuhini management team at PDAC tomorrow.
GLTA !
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