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Copper Fox Metals started to recoup some its year to date losses last week, gaining 27 percent to reach $0.023 on Thursday. Strangely, the company didn’t put out any press releases to spark that change, no doubt leaving investors wondering what happened.
On Friday, shares of Copper Fox touched $0.245 at 10:32 a.m. before closing down 4.35 percent at $0.22. Overall, the company gained 22 percent in two days. Trading volumes were also quite high, with over 100 percent more shares traded on Friday compared to the company’s 30-day average.
The fact that all that happened when the company did not put out any press releases has left some investors wondering what happened.
Copper Fox owns a 25-percent working interest in the Schaft Creek project in British Columbia in a joint venture with Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B), which is operator and holds a 75-percent interest. Copper Fox also has two wholly owned exploration properties in Arizona — Sombrero Butte and Van Dyke — and owns a 42-percent interest in the Eaglehead copper-moly–gold exploration property in British Columbia.
What happened?
It’s unclear why Copper Fox’s share price got a bump at the end of last week. When asked what’s been happening with the company lately, a representative from Copper Fox said, “we’re having our Schaft Creek joint venture meeting this month, which was on Wednesday.” However, the speaker stressed, “we haven’t released any results of that meeting.”
Teck has been conducting optimization studies at Schaft Creek this year, and last week’s meeting was held to give a progress update, according to the representative.
“I don’t know if just because so many shareholders knew that we were having our JV meeting on the 15th that they are speculating that something good is going to come out of that meeting, but there’s been no news release,” the representative said.
The future of Schaft Creek
Back in July 2013, Stefan Ioannou of Haywood Securities (who does not cover Copper Fox) gave the junior credit for being “able to get a joint venture done” with Teck in a tough market, but was uncertain as to whether Schaft Creek would be developed any time soon, predicting that Teck would be more likely hold out for a boost in commodity prices.
The analyst told Mineweb that he saw Teck’s interest in the project as more of a long-term strategy. Indeed, in a September 26 article for Seeking Alpha, the Investment Doctor made a similar statement, noting that he doesn’t expect Schaft Creek to move forward in the near future due to lackluster commodity prices.
Still, the Doctor was impressed when Copper Fox upped its holding in Carmax Mining near the end of last month. Consider that next to how busy Copper Fox has been with drilling at its Van Dyke copper project, and an argument could be made that the company is “weathering the storm” despite its share price previously hitting multi-year lows.
What’s next?
In any case, investors should soon find out what’s in store. A representative of the company said that Copper Fox expects to put out an update this week “with regards to how Teck has progressed with their optimization studies,” and that will include whatever might have come from last week’s meeting.
Certainly, last week’s gains will have caught the attention of market watchers, and investors will be keeping an eye out for news from Copper Fox this week.
Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: Copper Fox is a client of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.