- Summary 2014 activity
- Hay Mountain permitting
process
- Plans for obtaining funding,
including travel to the Middle East, Hong Kong and Manila
- 2015 expectations and long range
objectives
Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp. (“Liberty Star” or
the “Company”) (OTCQB: LBSR) is pleased to update shareholders
and interested parties regarding the Company’s 2014 activities,
including progress toward obtaining approval of its Plan of
Operation for the Hay Mountain Project (“Hay Mountain”) in
southeast Arizona’s Cochise County within the historic Tombstone
mining district. More topics of discussion include CEO/Chief
Geologist James A. Briscoe’s travel plans for the 1st quarter of
2015 to the Middle East, Hong Kong and Manila to secure funding for
Phase 1 exploratory drilling at Hay Mountain and other more long
range planning.
The Last 12 Months:
1.
Planning and Geoscientific
Interpretation:
This period was primarily occupied with
planning and permitting of Hay Mountain. This included
conceptualizing and creating a plan for an aggressive drill program
which would result in a strongly compressed time line to test and
drill out what our evidence suggests is a large porphyry
copper-moly precious metal system with a footprint large enough to
contain a very large mineral body. Our goals are to drill out this
body within a span of 4 years and to bring it into production
within 7 years of the start of drilling. This is a very tall order,
because the average time to bring an orebody into production now in
the USA is 15 years. We have brought to bear a lot of computerized
data gathering that we have used in other projects in order to
reduce time to a minimum and lower costs. We refined this detailed
computerized exploration plan and created a budget, using Microsoft
Project® including 5,000 line items (resources) are scheduled and
costed on a simple but effective computer Gantt Chart, that will
allow us to keep track on a daily basis of projected cost vs actual
cost and predict daily time- to- completion of our objectives would
be as the project progresses. Many operations, permitting
procedures and community outreach will proceed simultaneously with
the exploration and mine development procedures. The reason for
this attention to timing was the result of information gleaned from
our visit to India and later China. In consultation with
industry-leading drilling experts, and other specialists including
our permanent staff and Technical Board of Advisors, it has
resulted in one of the most innovative plans using various time and
expense saving procedures throughout the exploration program that
have resulted in a very low “all-in” cost per foot of drilling. We
believe we can meet these timing expectations.
2.
Permitting
a.
Approval by the Arizona State Land
Department (ASLD) of the Company’s Plan of Operation (the
“Plan”) is required to conduct exploratory drilling at the
first Hay Mountain target, which is located primarily on State
Land. The Plan of Operation was submitted to the ASLD in August
with a proposed period of operation of one year beginning September
29, 2014 (NR 187). Liberty Star has so far answered all questions
and comments from the ASLD and expects final acceptance of its Plan
within the next 20 to 60 days or so (given expected delays around
the holiday season). Upon approval, Liberty Star’s drilling
contractor will obtain drilling permits from the Arizona Department
of Water Resources (ADWR) which takes very little time to process.
Once those permits are in hand, and appropriate funding is in
place, Phase 1 drilling can begin at Hay Mountain.
b.
Approval by the US Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) we also need drilling permits on the
relatively small amount of Federal Lode Mining Claims making up
some of our land package. These permits are not as time-critical as
the ASLD permits, but it is our objective to obtain these in the
first quarter, 2015.
3.
Altered and Mineralized Outcrops
Discovered The only geologic map of sufficient detail covering
the Hay Mountain area published in 1956 (James Gilluly, General
Geology of central Cochise County, AZ, USGS Professional Paper 281,
169 pages) was prepared during the late 1930s and 40s appears to be
of excellent quality considering its small scale. However, more
detailed surface mapping in concert with new very high resolution
natural color space imagery reveal previously unmapped outcrops
with occasional specks of green copper oxide, and suspected black
copper oxide, along with silica and carbonate veining similar to
that adjacent to the Copper Queen Mine in limestones at Bisbee
about 15 miles to the south. This recognition is important, and we
believe with further work it will be expanded to reveal more
outcrop. This suggests the following:
a.
The depth to mineralization may be much
shallower at least in some areas than had been previously supposed;
giving strength to the possibility that a mineral body amenable to
open pit mining at relatively shallow depth may be present.
b.
The presence of oxide copper at the
surface suggests there may be a near surface mineral body of oxide
copper that could be recovered by heap leaching or in situ
leaching, either one or both recovered by solvent extraction –
electrowinning. This method of copper or gold /silver mining where
the metallurgy is optimum, is the least costly to perform and
requires minimal plant infrastructure and hence lower capital
requirements for startup. Several such projects nearby either have
been in production, are in production or are in testing and
feasibility for production. These include:
• Bisbee – Copper and uranium – past
• Bisbee – the Cochise ore body -
future
• Tombstone – silver and gold - past
• Safford – copper – production now
• Rosemont – copper – under
consideration
• Johnson Camp, Texas Canyon, AZ –open pit
heap leach copper -dormant
• I-10, Gunnison Hills, Excelsior, Texas
Canyon, AZ -copper – in situ- in pre-feasibility studies.
Discovery of such a leachable ore body,
similar those enumerated above, could result in a very fast tracked
production facility producing wire grade copper which would be
marketed as (or before) it was produced, creating an almost
immediate positive cash flow from this production
c. Drilling would continue to define: i. An expected
sulfide enrichment mineral body or skarn limestone hosted body or
both which might be mined by open pit: examples – Bisbee,
Silverbell & Mission-Pima, Arizona, USA ii. A deep seated high
volume underground mineral body that would be mined via shafts, and
appropriate underground methods examples - Bingham Canyon, Utah,
USA, Grasberg, Papua Province, New Guinea d.
If such mineral bodies as in a, b and c,
above were to be defined and if they were to be projected by
standard engineering studies to be profitable, by standard mining
methods, mine and mill construction would be undertaken and large
scale production would ensue.
e. Such developments as noted in a, b, and c above would be
preceded by Bankable Feasibility Studies and funding could then
become available through bank consortia or other typical sources.
4.
New Targets Identified in the Last Two
Months Over the last two months, additional redrafting,
clarification and reinterpretation of the geoscientific data over
the Hay Mountain area now defined as the “Area of Mutual Interest
(AMI)” covering approximately 42 sq. miles (109 sq. km), and
including previously identified anomalies, have been undertaken.
Other anomalies of potential importance have been identified. This
is not a reprocessing of the metadata received from the Geotech
ZTEM metadata, or their Professional scientific interpretation of
that data in their Professional Report on the survey, but simply a
clarification and reinterpretation based on that clarification.
a.
These targets will be incorporated into an
updated business plan that is currently being drafted with the
intent of making future proposals more financially rewarding, and
thus more attractive to venture partners.
b. When these plans are finalized and vetted by specialists,
they will be incorporated into our proposals for funding. 5.
ASLD Permits In addition to
approval of its Plan by the ASLD, Liberty Star needs to fund Phase
1’s newly planned expenditure of $9 million that will incorporate
proportional funding for preliminary exploration of the additional
targets mentioned in 4, above.
6.
Recent Tours of the Hay Mountain
Project There are increasingly more parties interested in the
Hay Mountain Project. Mr. Briscoe and our arm’s length skarn
porphyry copper expert consultant have conducted several tours of
the Hay Mountain Project area and other sites of importance to the
understanding of Hay Mountain, in southeast Arizona, with potential
funders. These other sites of importance draw a close comparison to
existing porphyry copper deposits with Hay Mountain.
7.
We expect to conduct as many as two more
of these site visits and accompanying tours before traveling to the
Middle East, Hong Kong and Manila, (Philippines) as previously
announced in September (NR 188) and in this update. Naru Capital -
naseba (“Naru”) will sponsor a Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Oman,
Dubai) roadshow specifically designed to match Liberty Star’s
funding expectations with the appropriate pool of prequalified
potential funders. Their plan is to continue the roadshow in Hong
Kong. Briscoe then intends to visit Manila, Philippines in response
to specific expressions of interest from potential investors in
that mining country; a representative of the group (a mining
engineer and large Liberty Star share holder) has taken a field
trip to the Hay Mountain Project area recently, with positive
response. Briscoe’s travel is scheduled to begin the third week of
February, 2015.
Comments Mr. Briscoe:
“Season’s Greetings to Liberty Star shareholders and supporters.
As we face a new year it is time that I reaffirm Liberty Star’s
goal to commence drilling at Hay Mountain and define an economic
body of mineralization there. From surface studies and a deep
understanding of the area, we have concluded that we may expect a
very large, near surface porphyry copper mineral body, extending to
great depth. This conclusion must be proved through exploration
drilling. I expect that drilling in 2015 will confirm our
geoscientific data. It has been frustrating that we could not move
to the drilling phase this year, but the slow process of permitting
State land, and the difficult state of the economy as a whole and
the mining industry in particular cannot be denied. I am routinely
asked why we have been unable to obtain funding for Hay Mountain
since the indicators for success are so strong. The answer is long
and complex. Those of you that follow mineral exploration and
mining know the severe state of the industry due to the downturn in
the minerals Super Cycle, which finds industry giants such as
Freeport McMoRan and BHP Billiton and many others trading
significantly down over last year. Despite this current downturn
for us in mining, several current economic studies suggest the
Super Cycle may be setting up for a resurgence, though it is much
more complex with the entrance of China and other new consuming and
producing countries versus earlier periods when it was driven
primarily by North America and Europe (including the U.K. and
Australia). Computer reduction of these complexities show it is, in
fact, alive and well and is moving forward to another increase in
time for us to profit from our efforts (from Keynote luncheon
address SME Yearly meeting 12-08-2014 by Raymond Goldie, Salman
Bros.). I believe we can turn the corner and prosper as metal
prices are bound to rise substantially with this projected
resurgence. I, and many others industry-wide, believe the long term
demand is there and several studies show the World will need more
copper in the next 25 years than in all the history of mankind. The
task at hand is to find appropriately risk-tolerant investors that
are seeking to enter a market that is at its bottom and willing to
stay for a rise that will be several years in the making but just
in time for our potential production. I will continue to work with
the experts at naseba/Naru to help us find such investors with
sufficient financial wherewithal, but I am open to hearing from any
credible alternative funding sources for Phase 1, in combination
with or independently of others. I believe that our Phase 1
investors will be rewarded greatly for the investment they make in
funding our Hay Mountain Project.”
Management discussion - Expectations, First Quarter
2015
1. Director Brett Gross will be working to improve the
Company’s structure to enhance long term stability and
attractiveness to all prospective investors. This will include, in
addition to other things, a succession plan for critical and key
employees. A corporation, as an entity with a legally perpetual
life, dictates such succession planning to assure long term company
strength, stability and sustainability. While there are no current
concerns of any critical or key employee becoming unable to perform
his or her duties, prudent corporate policy demands planning for
the duration of the corporation’s existence. This includes
succession planning for positions essential to seamless corporate
continuity. 2. It is also our objective to move our existing
projects forward including Walnut Creek and others in the Tombstone
area, North Pipes, and other opportunities which have come and
continue coming to our attention. Some of these are smaller (than
Hay Mountain) and include precious as well as base metals. My trips
to India, China, and the Middle East suggest there is also a strong
interest in these types of more moderately sized projects as well
as mega projects like Hay Mountain.
During 2015
We hope to achieve several milestones following return from my
trip to the Middle East, Hong Kong and the Philippines,
including:
1. Having funding in place to start Phase 1 drilling on the
main Hay Mountain target in the second half, 2015 2. In the second
quarter, have detailed geoscientific work on our other AMI targets
well underway and subsequent drilling programs well into the
planning – permitting stages 3. Placing additional funding for the
new AMI targets 4. By mid-fourth quarter, 2015, being well underway
with and increasingly successfully intersecting strong
mineralization in Hay Mountain Target 1, Phase 1, and beginning
Target 1, Phase 2 funding draw-down and the associated three-year
drilling effort.
“James A. Briscoe” James A. Briscoe, Professional Geologist, AZ
CACEO/Chief GeologistLiberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp.
Forward Looking
Statements
Statements in this news release that are not historical are
forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news
release include all our planned drilling program and our planned
route to access partners or funding sources, including without
limitation our plan to commence drilling at Hay Mountain and define
an economic body of mineralization there; that we can drill out the
project within a span of 4 years and to bring it into production
within 7 years of the start of drilling; that discovery of such a
leachable ore body, similar those enumerated above, could result in
a very fast tracked production facility producing wire grade copper
which would be marketed; that we expect final acceptance of our
plan of operation within the next 20 to 60 days; that BLM permits
will be granted in the first quarter 2015; that metal prices will
rebound; and that Mr. Briscoe’s travels will result in a potential
partner for our projects . Factors which may delay or prevent these
forward-looking statements from being realized include: the failure
of our proposals to be accepted; we may not attract any partners or
funding sources; we may not be able to raise sufficient funds to
complete our intended exploration, keep our properties or carry on
operations; and we may encounter an inability to continue
exploration due to weather, logistical problems, labor or equipment
problems or hazards even if funds are available. Even if we find a
partner, we may not be able to reach agreement or carry out the
development program as contemplated. Despite encouraging data there
may be no commercially exploitable mineralization on our
properties. Readers should refer to the risk disclosures in the
Company’s recent 10-K and the Company’s other periodic reports
filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Agoracom Investor
Relationslbsr@agoracom.comhttp://agoracom.com/ir/libertystarorLiberty
Star Uranium & Metals Corp.Tracy Myers, 520-425-1433Investor
Relationsinfo@LibertyStarUranium.comFollow Liberty Star Uranium
& Metals Corp. on Facebook , LinkedIn &
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