Published Saturday November 17th, 2007

Appeared on page C1

Early investors in Geodex Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:GXM), along with staff at the Department of Natural Resources, might soon want to order in the champagne.
The junior mining company released the results of an independent preliminary economic assessment Friday, conservatively indicating molybdenum and tungsten worth $693 million at Sisson Brook in northern York County.
Christopher R. Anderson, Geodex vice-president business development, said from Vancouver on Friday more recent drill results show more ore and better grades.
"It is big news and it only gets better," said Anderson, who sees clear sailing to opening in mid-2011 a mine that would process at least 20,000 tonnes of ore per day for 31 years.
He said the company still needs to conduct pre-feasibility and feasibility studies before it starts building the facilities for an open-pit operation.
Under the current schedule, an estimated $353 million in capital construction would begin in 2010, allowing an 18-month window before startup.
"This is a glowing endorsement to proceed with the project so, by all optics, it looks full steam to go ahead," Anderson said. "That's (the Sisson Brook project) something we believe strongly is going to go into production."
Without a feasibility study in hand, Anderson could not say how many people the mine would employ.
Wardrop Engineering Inc. of Vancouver did the preliminary economic assessment on the site.
Wardrop determined from drill results that Geodex could process 6.8 million tonnes of ore a year that would yield 3.3 million pounds of molybdenum and 8.1 million pounds of tungsten.
Based on a molybdenum price of US$21.60 per pounds and tungsten at $8 per pound, Geodex would pay back the C$353-million capital cost of building the mine in 2.7 years.
Anderson said mining companies normally allow closer to five years to pay back startup costs.
He also said that, based on today's prices, the resources cited in the Wardrop assessment would fetch more than a billion dollars - instead of $693 million, pre-tax, based on conservative projections of future metal prices.
Anderson said that, based on the Wardrop study, each tonne of ore from Sisson Brook should yield revenue of about $50, enough to make a mine feasible with operating costs at $9.16 per tonne, excluding taxes.
However, Anderson explained that Wardrop based these calculations on only 25 per cent of the drilling results for 2007 plus those from 2006.
He said that drilling since then has intersected more ore, including a "sweet spot" with higher values for molybdenum and tungsten.
He said the ore from the sweet spot might yield $120 per tonne with operating costs, again, at $9.16 per tonne.
Besides the fact that Geodex can use an open pit to get at the Sisson Brook ore, Wardrop cites several factors that will keep production costs low.
The area already has permanent roads, a nearby rail line and a power line crossing the property.
The projected mine site sits near Napagogan to the north, Stanley to the east, with the provincial capital of Fredericton only 100 kilometres away, and the port of Saint John another 100 kilometres beyond that.
Wardrop concludes that an open pit mine "would be profitable and a viable financial investment. The results are significantly robust to justify proceeding with studies at the preliminary feasibility level, the next stage of development."
Besides the factors cited by the Wardrop study, Anderson said New Brunswick's geology, as well as provincial government policies, make the province an attractive place for mining companies.
He said a "glacial till" of only five metres covers the bedrock across the province and that, until recently, New Brunswick was among the least-staked places in Canada.
The Sisson Brook ore sits under provincial Crown land without private owners or aboriginal issues to deal with.
Anderson said that Geodex, which does not have a producing mine right now, has all of its claims staked in New Brunswick. He said that 14 staff currently work in Geodex's office in Fredericton.
He said that, unlike many mines around the world, people working at Sisson Brook can commute to work.
To prove a point, he recently had a group of mining industry writers stop at Tim Horton's on the way to a tour of Sisson Brook.

Published Saturday November 17th, 2007

Appeared on page C3

TORONTO - Adex Mining Inc., the metals explorer that listed on Toronto's TSX Venture Exchange in July, plans to develop an abandoned BHP Billiton Ltd. mine in Canada as prices for tin, molybdenum and metals used in consumer electronics gain.
The Mount Pleasant mine in Charlotte County may hold more than US$3 billion of tin, molybdenum, indium and tungsten, Adex Chief Executive Officer Kabir Ahmed said in an interview. Adex has raised C$12 million in equity financing for Mount Pleasant, he said.
Demand for tungsten, indium and tin, all of which are used in computers and consumer electronics, has increased as global economic growth gives more people disposable income. Molybdenum helps oil exploration and extraction equipment tolerate high temperatures.
"There is long-term, cyclical demand for all of the metals hosted at Mount Pleasant," Ahmed said. "There will be other projects, but we have a past-producing mine and we're closer to production than some of our competitors that are purely exploratory in nature."
Molybdenum's price has risen to US$33.38 a pound from $2.83 a pound in November 2002, according to Metal Bulletin. Tungsten has gained to $165 a metric ton from $38.50 a ton, and indium is trading at $685 a kilogram, up from $110 a kilogram.
Tin futures for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange reached the highest price in more than 18 years on Nov. 14.
"Cost overruns, metallurgical problems and falling tungsten prices" prompted BHP to shut the mine in 1985, after producing 1,400 metric tons of tungsten, mining consultant Watts, Griffis & McOuat said in a March 13 report. "The underground workings were allowed to flood."
The Mount Pleasant ore body has at least 100 million pounds of tungsten and 60 million pounds of molybdenum, the firm said.
A new study by the consultant to be completed by mid-2008 is expected to prove the Mount Pleasant deposit has at least 64 million pounds of tin and 400,000 kilograms (880,000 pounds) of indium, Ahmed said. The company aims to have a mine development plan and government permits within two years, he said.
Thompson Creek Metals Co., the molybdenum producer whose shares have more than doubled in the past year, expects to produce about 17.5 million pounds of the copper byproduct this year.
Adex fell one cent today to C58 cents. The shares have declined 54 per cent since they were listed on July 16. The company has a market value of $39.5 million.
Adex is competing with Geodex Minerals Ltd., which is developing a tungsten and molybdenum mine in New Brunswick that it expects to begin production by 2011. The Sisson Brook mine may produce 3.3 million pounds of molybdenum and 8.1 million pounds of tungsten for 31 years, Geodex said Friday.
Geodex shares, up more than fourfold this year, rose 16 cents, or 14 per cent, to $1.33 Friday on the TSX Venture Exchange.
 

Old Joe

PS: Read some posts earlier and good to see some very good discussion. The last couple of weeks were fun, but Not the kind of fun we really want! Hoping the next two years are foll of the kind of fun we much prefer!!! Let it start on MONDAY!!!