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The share price has moved so much today, indeed the last week, I am sure we have visitors here, so let me post the story of Phoenix, and why it is now moving.
Phoenix started off by taking over a previous (under) exploited mine, closed down in 1942 for war manpower reasons. Aside some near surface drilling, no modern exploration had been carried out on the property or on the surrounding mineralised area since that time. They completed their IPO in 2017, which provided the funds for an initial drilling campaign to explore the area. The initial focus was to develop a low cost open pit heap leach copper operation. This exploration work showed that the mineralisations were far larger than anticipated, so they increased their stake from 3.3 up to 23.1 sq kms. This included the Navarre Creek property, some 6.5 kilometres west of Empire, which has potential for precious metal discoveries, particularly gold. In the drilling programmes, they located Red Star, a vein which returned assays of high-grade lead and silver sulphides including intercepts of 20% lead and 39.4 ounces of silver per tonne. There is some speculation that there may be more parallel veins awaiting discovery.
With the price of copper dropping, focus for early production switched from Empire to Red Star, with lower capex and an even better return. The exploitation of the Red Star open pit “starter mine” is key to the overall project, and is planned to provide the cash flow to explore far more extensive mineralisation in the deeper sulphide ore body and adjacent land packages.
The Red Star exploration presently under way is fully funded, and we expect the company to be able to move towards project type finance in the next phases, thereby minimising or even eliminating dilution. Red Star has impressive economics and which puts the company into cash flow from end 2021. After this, the open pit is ready to go, plus an underground mine with high grade mineralisations, plus the gold strike at Navarre, plus, plus.
The consultant geologist commented in his report “the potential mineralised system has been less than 1% exploited and explored. Indeed, for all intents and purposes, this northern part of the system remains unexplored with indications of substantial ore potential within medium to high grade polymetallic base & precious metal systems offering significant collective potential tonnage.”
This is why I believe Red Star is just the tip of the iceberg, and this project could convert little minor Phoenix into a world scale miner. The investigations to date show rich seams, and it is worth reading the reports on the Phoenix site. The next step is to confirm full extent of the mineralisation in Red Star (now under way, and just one small part of the whole), and to move into finance for the construction and production. These have all proceeded to date in line with company statements, so we have confidence about moving forward. This afternoon's AGM should be interesting.

Thanks HighSpeedTrain for our comment about PXC, and really please you've made 40% (since 3 days?). This company is indeed moving. It is a KazMinerals in gestation, but in a safe environment. I genuinely expect this to move up 10 times its value in the coming year, and with the AGM this afternoon, we already see it starting. The only relatively small risk now is that of financing the project, and I am hopeful that this will be addressed in the AGM, since the economics look so fantastic.

And I've read (in an e-mail from Prism - the risk analysis company) that from 4 May smaller shops, hairdressers, private medical centres and dentists, real estate agencies, law firms, banking and insurance firms will be permitted to work nationwide, whilst the Atyrau region is lifting lockdown measures, with industry, shops, banks and firms linked to agriculture are set to open. Meanwhile the cases are continuing to grow, so maybe they are just accepting the reality that it's very difficult to constrain people to their houses, unless they have a specific mentality and a government they trust.

it looks like we've got some short term profit takers departing, but the share price is holding up. That's great news, as these shares are in short supply, as the majority of buyers have been long termers, and holding on, which is the reason why a few sells were able to drag the price down, whilst now that we are getting closer to the key dates for the project to gear up, the shares coming on the market are being taken up. It's all looking very good for PXC, and I'm really looking forward to the AGM tomorrow.

hi GG1111, I didn't post about the closure. That came from Freedom. I looked but found nothing on their site. But they generally don't report local incidents, so we cannot assume this did not happen, and neither could we confirm.

Sorry, I missed out some words. Kaz Minerals post their reaction to the Covid, "on their website".

Kaz Minerals post their reaction to the Covid, as one would expect of a company of this nature. The specific message on the company site concerning the mines is "The Group’s largest mines are open pit operations, located in remote areas with rotating shifts of workers based in permanent camps on site.". That does not preclude issues within the canteens, etc, and elsewhere. Plus Kazakhstan is also seeing the virus, but at the moment lower reported rates of both disease and death than in UK.

I think it worth reminding ourselves of the role of Red Star in the development of the Empire Mining Project, which is Phoenix. I genuinely believe that Phoenix could become a 10 bagger, and even much more, and to understand that we need to remind ourselves of what we have, and how the company are planning this venture.
Phoenix started off by taking over a previous (under) exploited mine, closed down in 1942 for war manpower reasons. Aside some near surface drilling, no modern exploration had been carried out on the property or on the surrounding mineralised area since that time. Phoenix completed their IPO in 2017, which provided the funds for an initial drilling campaign to explore the area. The initial focus was to develop a low cost open pit heap leach copper operation. This exploration work showed that the mineralisations were far larger than anticipated, so they increased their stake from 3.3 up to 23.1 sq kms. This included the Navarre Creek property, some 6.5 kilometres west of Empire, which has potential for precious metal discoveries, particularly gold. In the drilling programmes, they located Red Star, a vein which returned assays of high-grade lead and silver sulphides including intercepts of 20% lead and 39.4 ounces of silver per tonne. There is some speculation that there may be more parallel veins awaiting discovery.
With the price of copper dropping, focus for early production switched from Empire to Red Star, with lower capex and an even better return. The exploitation of the Red Star open pit “starter mine” is key to the overall project, and is planned to provide the cash flow to explore far more extensive mineralisation in the deeper sulphide ore body and adjacent land packages.
The Red Star exploration presently under way is fully funded, and we expect the company to be able to move towards project type finance in the next phases, thereby minimising or even eliminating dilution. Red Star has impressive economics and which puts the company into cash flow from end 2021. After this, the open pit is ready to go, plus an underground mine with high grade mineralisations, plus 6 kms of gold strike at Navarre, plus, plus.
The consultant geologist commented in his report “the potential mineralised system has been less than 1% exploited and explored. Indeed, for all intents and purposes, this northern part of the system remains unexplored with indications of substantial ore potential within medium to high grade polymetallic base & precious metal systems offering significant collective potential tonnage.”
And this is why I believe Red Star is just the tip of the iceberg, and this project could convert little minor Phoenix into a world scale miner.
The above is information taken from published documents, and my words are a personal opinion, and not offered as advice in any way.

Daramuda, a contrarian view is always welcome, as it gives us “believers” reason to go back and check that our own belief is well founded. So, I did just that.
Your first question is whether the company needs $30 million to develop Red Star where I do not understand your comment about the small consortium. Could you elaborate?
You obviously did not understand the move from Empire to Red Star, which was due to Red Star coming up with fantastic geological results, which was reported in an RNS on October 21st 2019. The geologist confirmed that the Red Star discovery is in primary high-grade silver/lead sulphide mineralisation, and were able to generate a maiden NI 43-101 compliant resource of some 103,500 tonnes, containing over half a million ounces of silver. At that time, and with copper dropping in price, the BoD took the view that Red Star, with higher return and lower capex, represented the best interests of the company for development. In their RNS dated 21st October 2019, they stated "It is our intention to fast track the exploration of Red Star by drilling and sampling along the trend in order to delineate additional economic resources and reach a development decision by the end of H2 2020, whilst also continuing our Bankable Feasibility Study programme for the Empire Mine open pit copper oxide project”. I’m not going to criticise that change in focus from Empire to Red Star, which was clearly explained. And on 23rd January they issued an RNS announcing further drilling results from Red Star. I like a company which announces results as they go along, and remains flexible and adaptable to capture improved economics and returns away from initial plans.
I am not sure where your comment about failing to raise money came from. They seem to be delivering in line with expectations as far as I have seen.
The corona virus issue was dealt with by Investorman33. And I believe that the prospects of raising this money for Red Star are very real indeed. I trust the management here.
Yup, Daramuda, I’ve looked again, and remain very confident.

Claw, the AGM is this coming week, and we are hopeful all will be revealed for financing. Are you a shareholder? If so, get registered and listen to it.
From what I've heard, I know that as significant shareholders themselves the directors are keen to see this company advance through minimum dilution, and have spoken in the past of loan notes to take them through to project finance. Let's see if this is confirmed.

I receive daily news updates from Kazakhstan, and just had to copy this one over for the benefit of KAZ Minerals readers!
"A scandal has emerged in the Mangistau region as coronavirus cases were discovered at a brothel run by police officers. 87 individuals have been isolated and the police officers dismissed."
Of course there's no corruption in Kazakhstan!

First, the numbers are all in the annual report, with the AGM due next week. They speak for themselves. See https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5914577386e6c0cd77e15c74/t/5e95d21fddd79043a5cb4031/1586876962161/PXC+2019+Annual+Report.pdf. I believe that this company is severely undervalued.

The basis of this company came from a long shut-down mine in Idaho, USA. Phoenix have expanded resources and exploration potential from this single oxide-copper resource into a high-grade silver lead vein system, a polymetallic sulphide vein system, a very prospective volcanic-hosted gold system, and two strategically located cobalt properties, all within the same geopolitically stable, pro-mining jurisdiction.
From the Annual Report, it shows a book value today of $11.6 million (compared to $5.3 million in 2018), and compared to the market capital today of about £4.7 million with a full treasury of $2m recently raised. These are audited numbers, with no impairment. Today’s share price is silly in comparison.
Recent funding at a premium 15p a share, which is now known to be from Martin Hughes (now with a more than 20% stake). He founded Toscafund in 2000 which is reported to have assets of circa 4 billion under management.
Phoenix are within touching distance of getting the project into construction and operation. The BoD have planned a step-wise approach, with a low cost ($30 million) silver operation to start at Red Star, generating a payback of less than a year where “inferred” sulphide resource of 103,500 tonnes, containing 580,324 ounces of silver were found. They plan to use this cash flow to open up the wider resources. This is due to start-up at end 2021, with financing as far as possible on a project finance basis, so minimum dilution.
Directors look aligned plus lots of news to come, and they operate in a stable country (USA) with excellent in country experience.
It is my personal belief that this could be a “whopper”. I have looked at this from several angles, and believe that the share price could easily be large multiples of the present by the time production starts at end 2021, and with more, much more, to follow. I wonder what news there will be at the AGM.
Please note that the above is my opinion, and not advice, and I would strongly encourage anyone considering investing here (or anywhere) to do their own research.

My reading of the report and the Red Star RNS was that gold was not anticipated to be a major contributor to Red Star. But with the gold price moving up it’s not going to harm the economics. But gold is major in the Empire mineralisation, just look at the numbers in the AR, which may create a push up in its value and bring that development forward. But to answer your question, my understanding is that when the ore goes off for processing all the metals are recovered, so there’s no additional cost. But we should check that with the company to be sure. And it’s $30 million usd, not gbp. Good value for less than a year payback.

Seible, re your post, Kakakhstan have not seriously changed anything yet re COVID, just a few workers in the cities, but the rest remains in lockdown such as no intercity movement, and with no plans for significant changes as it’s still increasing, so it’s premature to hope oil consumption will increase yet. A shame.

and did anyone see the piece in Bloomberg with the gold forecasts, from Bank of America. They wrote "Gold to Reach $3,000—50% Above Its Record, Bank of America Says". https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-21/bofa-raises-gold-target-to-3-000-as-fed-can-t-print-gold
From the Annual Report, it states for the Empire Open Pit mine that gold resources estimated from their drilling to date are 136,552 ozs. That's $410 million according to my calculations. That's crazy. Is this the best kept secret around?

In addition to the annual report, the company issued an RNS on 23rd January, and I cut and paste from that:
“During 2020 the Company plans to complete a drilling programme on Red Star to generate a Measured and Indicated resource sufficient to justify a small underground “adit” mine with a flotation process plant to produce lead-silver, copper-gold and zinc concentrates. The scale of operations will be in the region of 450 tonnes of ore a day or 155,000 tonnes a year. The Red Star discovery is a primary high-grade silver/lead sulphide vein and has, after drilling only three holes, generated a maiden NI 43-101 compliant resource of 103,500 tonnes, containing half a million ounces of silver or a silver equivalent resource of 1.6 million ounces when gold, lead, copper and zinc values are included. The value of the contained metal in the NI 43-101 Red Star resource is US$260/tonne of ore at today’s metal prices, or US$40.3 million a year at a production rate of 155,000 tonnes of ore a year. Capital costs are anticipated to be in the region of US$30 million."
Red Star will start the process, which will generate the funds to move to the larger prospects. This is the start of something big.

I've gone back to my notes LP14, and did not see any specified target dates for finance and construction, but they were firm that production should start before end 2021. I note though that in the RNS dated 23rd January 2020, “During 2020 the Company plans to complete a drilling programme on Red Star to generate a Measured and Indicated resource sufficient to justify a small underground “adit” mine with a flotation process plant to produce lead-silver, copper-gold and zinc concentrates. The scale of operations will be in the region of 450 tonnes of ore a day or 155,000 tonnes a year."
I would expect a flow of drilling results for Red Star through the spring and summer, and that should see the sp moving up and up as more confidence is delivered. We should learn more at the AGM.

If CASL are limited to domestic consumption of oil, there are just 3 refineries in Kazakhstan, at Pavlodar in the north, Shymkent in the deep south, and Atyrau in the west. The distances to the refineries aside Atyrau are huge (this is a massive country), and without oil pipelines from West to East (Shymkent gets most of its oil from the Kumkol region by pipeline, and Pavlodar from West Siberia). However the larger markets (populations) are towards Pavlodar and Shymkent in the south (Almaty and Turkestan regions). Thank Soviet planning for that. Add to that the airlines are shut down, and the problems of Kazakhstan are no different to anywhere else. We have to hope that we can export via long term contracts. Any other opinions?

Did anyone notice the RNS today, which identified Martin Hughes with more than 20% stake, and it must have been him paying a 50% premium at that last fund raise. According to Wikipedia, he heads up the Tosca fund with assets of £4 billion, and his nickname, according to The Times, is "the Rottweiler". But he came to Phoenix in his private capacity, and it is very good news indeed to have him on board (if you read this Martin - Welcome!!), as he is a very serious player, and it shows confidence and trust in the business and its future.

My pleasure LP14. The Annual Report states "barring any delays at the assay laboratory, we hope to produce an updated resource at Red Star in Q3 2020, keeping us on track for commencement of production in late 2021". That suggest that the finance will be in the last Q 2020, with construction in 2021. I do not remember any specific dates for these events, and I'll go back to my notes later, and get back to you if I have more. By the way, I understand that once this lock down is over, the company will hold another shareholder lunch, so make sure you keep following the bulletin boards.