Copper Fox provides update on corporate activities

VANCOUVER, Aug. 12, 2013 /CNW/ - Copper Fox Metals Inc. ("Copper Fox" or the "Company") (TSX-V: CUU) is pleased to provide an update on corporate activities. The corporate activities are intended to reflect the operations and requirements of Copper Fox on a going forward basis.

On formation of the Schaft Creek Joint Venture with Teck Resources Limited ("Teck"), Teck assumed operatorship of the Schaft Creek project resulting in a reduced level of activity at Schaft Creek for Copper Fox.  The reduced level of activity at Schaft Creek combined with other corporate activities has resulted in the following highlights:

			a)	A tax free cash distribution of $0.0275/share as a return of capital has been declared to shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 20, 2013 (the "Record Date").  In general terms, a return of capital is not included in income by shareholders but does reduce the cost of a share for income tax purposes.   The ex distribution date for this distribution is Friday, August 16, 2013.  The distribution is expected to be paid to shareholders on or before Thursday August 29, 2013,
			b)	The Company's wholly-owned subsidiary to be named "Desert Fox Copper Inc."‎ has been established as the primary operating vehicle responsible for acquisitions, and exploration and development activities on the Van Dyke copper deposit and the Sombrero Butte copper project;
			c)	Copper Fox management and personnel have now been assigned to Desert Fox to support Desert Fox's new role as the primary operating vehicle for the Company, re-aligning overhead and providing savings and cost efficiencies;
			d)	Desert Fox plans to immediately commence activities on its Van Dyke and Sombrero Butte copper projects (see news release dated Tuesday, July 9, 2012) located in Arizona.  Activities include compilation and review of over 6,000 boxes of core and samples from 72 drill holes, diamond drilling, environmental and geotechnical studies on the Van Dyke copper deposit and a surface and geophysical exploration program on the Sombrero Butte copper project,
			e)	Desert Fox intends to acquire and invest in advanced polymetallic copper projects within North America to take advantage of unprecedented current market value opportunities,
			f)	The Company will hold its annual general meeting of shareholders on Wednesday, October 16, 2013.

Mr. Elmer Stewart, President of Copper Fox stated "The formation of the joint venture with Teck on the Schaft Creek project provides Copper Fox the opportunity to reward it's shareholders and at the same time retaining sufficient cash resources going forward to work on establishing the value of the Van Dyke copper project through Desert Fox.  The formation of Desert Fox provides maximum flexibility to Copper Fox in determining its future dealings with its 25% interest in the Schaft Creek Joint Venture, and segregating internal operating activities and costs to Desert Fox Copper. Through Desert Fox Copper, we want to take advantage of the market opportunities now available, to actively pursue investment in and acquisition of advanced polymetallic copper projects located in North America".

Schaft Creek 2013 Drilling program:
Teck, as operator of the Schaft Creek Joint Venture, has advised Copper Fox that mobilization for executing the drilling program has commenced.

Arizona Assets and Projects:
Desert Fox plans to immediately commence operations on its Van Dyke and Sombrero Butte copper projects located in Arizona.  Approximately 6,000 boxes of core and samples from the historical drill holes completed on the Van Dyke project are available for re-logging and sampling.

The objective of the 2013 work is to compile a data base to determine what, if any, additional drilling needs to be completed to establish a current resource. Additional activities include the commencement of baseline environmental studies, preliminary engineering and geotechnical studies to determine the optimal method to extract the copper mineralization, and additional metallurgical testwork to determine average copper recovery rates.  The metallurgical testwork will be dictated by the results of geotechnical and engineering studies.  The majority of the work to be completed in 2013 is planned for the Van Dyke copper project.  A brief summary of the historical results of the Van Dyke project is outlined below.

Historical Results Van Dyke Project:
The 1,100 acre Van Dyke project is located in the Globe-Miami Mining district of Arizona, 90 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona.   In the early 1900s, a shaft was sunk to a depth of 1,692 feet and the mine is reported to have produced 11.8 million pounds of copper between 1929 and 1945 from copper oxide mineralization at a reported grade of 5.0 % copper.

Between 1968 and 1973, Occidental Minerals Corporation ("Occidental") and a number of other companies drilled 70 exploration holes (sixty-two of which encountered measureable copper mineralization) on the Van Dyke property of which 46 holes were used to complete an historical estimate of 112,000,000 tons at a grade of 0.52% copper (estimated to contain 1.2 billion pounds of copper).  Occidental used a polygonal method to complete the historical estimate.  The parameters used to complete the historical estimate are: mineralization was extrapolated a maximum distance of 400 feet from a drill hole and  copper grades were capped at 2.5% with a tonnage factor of 12.5 cubic feet per ton.  The minimum mineralized interval used in the historical estimate was 15 feet depending on trend, geology and grade of adjacent mineralized intercepts.  The historical estimate is set out in a report entitled "Report and Recommendations for the Van Dyke Copper Project, Arizona", dated December 12, 1973 prepared by Mr. J. A. Johnston, geologist.

Copper Fox cautions that a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the Van Dyke historical estimate as a current resource estimate.  Copper Fox is not treating the Van Dyke historical estimate as a current resource estimate.  The work completed by Occidental has not been verified by Copper Fox and is not considered reliable when compared with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") standards.

Additional diamond drilling, assaying, confirmation of the extent and grade of the mineralization reported in the core holes used in the historical estimate, density measurements, updated metal prices and additional metallurgical testwork is required to either upgrade or verify the Van Dyke historical estimated as a current mineral resource.

Occidental also completed preliminary metallurgical testwork to determine if the copper mineralization in the Van Dyke deposit was amendable to in-situ leaching, with a pilot program of two 1,000 foot deep holes, 75 feet apart.  The reports on the Insitu leaching metallurgical testwork indicated copper recoveries up to 80% using hydrofracturing to improve fluid circulation.

Sombrero Butte Property:
The Sombrero Butte property consists of 2,887 acres located in the Bunker Hill Mining District 44 miles northeast of Tucson, Arizona. The project is located 9 miles east of the San Manuel Mine (14 billion lbs Cu), and 2 miles south of Redhawk Resources' Copper Creek project (7.75 billion lbs Cu).

Desert Fox's objective in 2013 on the Sombrero Butte project is to locate the source of mineralized breccia pipes located on the property.  To achieve this objective, a program of surface mapping and sampling followed by a deep penetrating geophysical survey (Induced Polarization) to identify chargeability/resistivity anomalies indicative of porphyry copper systems is planned.

Previous exploration on this project located 25 breccia pipes which elsewhere in the district overlie associated porphyry copper systems. The source of the mineralized breccia pipes is interpreted to be one or more underlying porphyry copper systems. Between 2006 and 2008, 29 of 34 holes drilled to test 8 breccia pipes intersected significant copper mineralization over core intervals ranging from 2m to 72m with average copper grades ranging from 0.37% to 5.85% for these intervals (see table below).  The mineralization in these breccia pipes remains open at depth.  Some of the mineralized intervals from the 34 holes completed are as follows:

Breccia Pipe	Drill Hole ID	From (m)	To (m)	Interval (m)	Copper (%)
Magma	SB-02	286	334	48	1.06
Campstool	SB-03	272	294	22	0.58
Sunset	SB-05	18	40	22	4.74
Rattler	SB-09	96	110	14	0.83
Audacious	SB-14	20	86	66	1.45
Victor's	SB-29	4	70	66	0.61

The mineralized intervals listed in the above table do not represent true widths.

Corporate Overhead Reductions:
Copper Fox has commenced a program to reduce its general and administrative expenses to reflect the change in operatorship in its 25% owned Schaft Creek joint venture.  The corporate target is a 40% reduction in general and administrative expenses on an annualized basis.

Future Acquisitions:
Desert Fox plans to take advantage of the current state of the mineral industry to acquire either working or equity interest in large polymetallic copper projects located in North America.

Elmer B. Stewart, MSc. P. Geol., President of Copper Fox, is the Company's nominated Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101, Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed the technical information disclosed in this news release.

About Copper Fox
Copper Fox is a Canadian resource development company listed on the TSX-Venture Exchange (TSX-V: CUU) with offices in Calgary, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia.  In addition to Copper Fox's interest in the Schaft Creek Joint Venture, Copper Fox holds, through Desert Fox and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, mineral tenures located in Pinal County, Arizona (the 'Sombrero Butte Copper Project') and in Miami, Arizona (the 'Van Dyke Copper Project').  For further information on these projects, please refer to the July 9, 2012 and April 12, 2013 news releases found at the Company's website at www.copperfoxmetals.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Elmer B. Stewart
President and Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws.  Forward-looking information is generally identifiable by use of the words "believes," "may," "plans," "will," "anticipates," "intends," "budgets", "could", "estimates", "expects", "forecasts", "projects" and similar expressions, and the negative of such expressions.  Forward-looking information in this news release includes statements about further exploration and the timing and scope of drilling for the 2013 summer program at Schaft Creek, formation of an operating subsidiary company, expected payment of a cash distribution; objectives and work planned for the Sombrero Butte and Van Dyke copper project in Arizona, management changes and the company's intention to pursue the acquisition of either working or equity interests in large polymetallic copper project in North America.

In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, Copper Fox has made numerous assumptions.  While Copper Fox considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies.  Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause Copper Fox's and/or Desert Fox's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein.  Known risk factors include: the timing and scope of the 2013 summer drilling program at Schaft Creek may not be initiated or completed as expected; the payment of the cash distribution may not occur on or prior to the date expected; the objectives and results of the 2013 exploration activities planned for the Sombrero Butte and Van Dyke copper projects may not be implemented, completed or achieve the intended objectives; the management changes may not be implemented as stated and the work required to identify acquisition of either working or equity interests in large polymetallic copper projects in North America may not identify a suitable project or that if a suitable project is identified, the project may not be available for acquisition on terms suitable to the Company.

A more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties facing Copper Fox is disclosed in Copper Fox's continuous disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities at www.sedar.com.  All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and Copper Fox disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.

 

SOURCE: Copper Fox Metals Inc.

For additional information contact: Investor line 1-866-913-1910 or Elmer B. Stewart at 1-604-689-5080