Knock on Effect: USCU

Back in January of this year I wrote about United States Copper (USCU.V), Steve Dunn’s rather large, deeply underappreciated, copper project in California. The words “in California” are a huge buzz kill. How will Dunn ever get the permits? The proverbial “locals” are against the project. With all the other copper projects lining up to be fast-tracked by President Trump, will the Moonlight deposit ever attract investor attention?

Part of the reason I write “Talking My Book” is that there are a lot of good stories out in the junior resource market which are never covered. Doing an “On My Radar” piece about an obscure company might attract a bit of attention and let that company reach its next milestone. Plus, from time to time, my pieces are picked up by others paying attention to the juniors. Today that happened with US Copper.

Eric Muschinski from the Gold Investment Letter read and, better still, linked my January article in his newsletter:

Besides this gentleman (moi), I doubt there is a line around the block behind us with USCU/USCUF on their radar! But, that can all change in the blink of an eye as this is the exact type of project that the federal government could flip a switch on and press California to permit this project moving forward. A deep pocketed partner could also suffice based on where the Moonlight-Superior deposit is located in CA, which has a mining history and activity going back over a century. This deal is a true call option on copper and with an after tax net present value (NPV) of over $1 Billion dollars, modeled at $4.15 copper prices and at a 7% discount rate.

That is, frankly, the USCU value/investment proposition in a nutshell. Eric goes on to say,

I own just under 1.5% of the shares outstanding and continue to accumulate periodically. The issue with this idea is capacity constraints via low liquidity so be careful in sticking to our buy up to price limit for now of .07 CDN in USCU or .052 in USCUF. You don't need to own a lot for this to turn into a potential 6 figure pay day.

I like the sound of that. So did the market. USCU closed up 0.03 with 2.1 million shares traded on the Canadian exchanges and 900,000 on the American. Given that USCU averages 25,000 shares a day on the Venture, some serious attention was being paid.

One of the great frustrations suffered by junior CEOs is that their work, milestones, and discoveries get no purchase because no one hears about them. Which is, unfortunately, true. Websites, corporate presentations, social media strategies don’t break out. Eric recognizes the same problem,

Today I want to share some rare third party coverage/press that I discovered on one of our "Venture Cap" portfolio holdings, US Copper (USCU/USCUF). USCU closed yesterday at .05 CDN which gives us a US market cap of just $4.4 million bucks. However, this company owns a PEA stage former producer of copper, gold, and silver with a current resource of 2.9 Billion pounds of copper aka over $12.5 BILLION in situ (copper value in the ground). This is the type of disconnect one can marvel at! (bold and italics mine)

Identifying under-covered junior resource stories is pretty easy, there are hundreds of companies which get no attention at all. It’s finding the good ones which is a bit tough.

So, Eric, if you read this - and forgive me for extensively quoting your piece - here are two unsung companies which are at the top of my list:

Canadian Critical Minerals (CCMI.V) - an actual copper/gold/silver producer with a 43-101 Compliant Mineral Resource Estimate, a fully de-watered mine on care and maitenance and a mill on site. The company is sorting and selling its above ground stock pile and is in the final stages of finishing its application for a permit. Located in the safe jurisdiction of British Columbia. Trading at $0.03 Canadian for a market cap of $8.97 million.

Cartier Resources (ECR.V) - Cartier is cashed up, has a strategic investment from Agnico Eagle, a PEA based on a 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) totaling 7,128,000 tonnes at an average grade of 3.14 g/t Au for a total of 720,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated category and 18,475,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.75 g/t Au for a total of 1,633,000 ounces of gold in the Inferred category. It just let contracts for a 600 shallow hole drill program to test already defined targets along a 15-kilometre strike length. Its Cadillac Project is located in the mining-friendly jurisdiction of Quebec. Trading at $0.12 Canadian for a market cap of $53 million.

Two great stories ready to move up on news and permitting. Thank me later. Meanwhile, subscribe to Eric’s free newsletter here.

(Disclaimer: I hold shares in US Copper, Canadian Critical Minerals and Cartier Resources which I may sell at any time. This is not investment advice. Do your own due diligence. Call the CEO!)