Western ready for next phase of permitting

Western Copper and Gold Corp. Dec. 22 reported that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Casino Mining Corp., has submitted the second supplementary information report for the Casino copper-gold project to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Board.

The supplemental information is part of a permitting process to develop an open-pit mine with combined flotation mill and gold heap leach processing facilities.

The mill will process an average of 120,000 dry metric tons of ore per day, over a 22-year mine life.

This operation is anticipated to produce an average of 171 million pounds of copper, 266,000 ounces of gold, 1.43 million oz. of silver and 15.5 million lbs. of molybdenum per year.

Since the filing of the first application for the development of a mine at Casino, the company has submitted more than 14,000 pages of information and over three years of engagement with regulatory agencies and federal, territorial and First Nation governments.

Additionally, the company said it has voluntarily initiated a number of programs outside of the YESAA process to ensure expanded technical and community input into the project.

The purpose of the assessment process is to incorporate concerns, views and mitigation from a broad range of stakeholders into the project plan.

In Western's view, this process is limited until the screening phase begins.

It hopes that the latest supplemental information report will be sufficient to begin the screening phase of the assessment process.

Copper Fox raises Eaglehead exploration funds

Copper Fox Metals Inc. Dec. 22 reported plans to complete a non-brokered private placement to raise up to C$1.5 million in flow-through funds, money the company plans to re-invest in Carmax Mining Corp. The offering will consist of 8,823,529 flow-through common shares sold at a price of C17 cents each.

The first tranche of the offering closed on Dec. 22, resulting in C$500,000 from the issuance of 2,941,176 flow-through common shares at C17 cents each.

Copper Fox will use the flow-through funds generated from the offering to subscribe for flow-through common shares in its wholly-owned, direct subsidiary Northern Fox Copper Inc., which will, in turn, use the funds to subscribe for flow-through common shares in Carmax Mining, which is a partially-owned, direct subsidiary of Northern Fox.

Carmax's placement will involve 30 million flow-through shares at C5 cents each.

Following the financing, Northern Fox will own 65.4 percent of the outstanding shares of Carmax on an undiluted basis and 68.2 percent on a fully diluted basis.

Carmax will use the funds to carry out a 2016 exploration program on the Eaglehead copper-gold property in Northwest British Columbia.

In addition to the flow-through financing, Copper Fox raised C$150,000 by issuing 1,153,846 common shares sold at C13 cents each.