EQN - Equinox Minerals

petervan said:

http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?x958198911&f=1774 Interesting article for all followers of this stock.

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56gsa said:

Something's up??

Now made almost 100% gain on late April levels.... is it getting a bit beyond itself?

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Equinox Signs 5-Year Agreements With Mopani and Glencore for Balance of Lumwana Concentrate
09:31 EDT Wednesday, July 18, 2007

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - July 18, 2007) -

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE U.S.

Equinox Minerals Limited (TSX:EQN)(ASX:EQN) ("Equinox" or the "Company") is pleased to report that its wholly owned subsidiary Lumwana Mining Company Limited ("LMC") has signed Concentrate Sale and Purchase Agreements (the "Agreements") with Mopani Copper Mines Plc ("Mopani") and Glencore International AG ("Glencore") for a total minimum contractual "take and pay" tonnage of 600,000 dry metric tonnes ("dmt") of Lumwana copper concentrates. The Agreements also grant Glencore a first option right to process further additional annual quantities of Lumwana copper concentrates determined as the difference between the current LMC scheduled production, less the base Agreement commitments above, and less LMC's commitments to Chambishi Copper Smelter (refer to Equinox announcement dated February 15, 2007). Any optional quantity will be distributed and treated between Mopani and Glencore in the proportions specified below.

This represents the balance of concentrates for the initial 5 years based on the scheduled production of the Lumwana Copper Project concentrator currently under construction.

The 5-year Agreements will commence from the start of LMC's production scheduled to commence in mid 2008 and combined, carry total base commitments of 120,000 dmt of copper concentrates (containing approximately 53,000 tonnes of copper metal) annually. The contracted commitments will be distributed 66.7% delivery to Mopani (for toll treatment at the Mufulira smelter) and 33.3% delivery to Glencore for trading. The Agreements will charge LMC copper treatment and refining charges ("TCRC's") to be determined annually based on global benchmark terms (refer to the October 2006 Technical Report for details of Lumwana concentrate).

Glencore is a privately held company owned by its management and employees. Headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, Glencore is one of the world's largest suppliers of a wide range of commodities and raw materials to industrial consumers and counterpart commercial producers.

Mopani is a joint venture company controlled by Glencore (73.1%). The other shareholders are First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (16.9%) and Zambian Consolidated Copper Mines Limited (10%). Mopani is an integrated copper and cobalt producer located in the Copperbelt of Zambia operating the Mufulira mine, smelter and copper refinery and the Nkana mine and cobalt plant. Current capacity of the Mufulira Copper Smelter is 800,000 tons per year of concentrate.

Lumwana, owned 100% by Equinox, is located in the North Western Province of the Republic of Zambia. The Lumwana mine will produce an average of 169,000 tonnes of copper metal per year contained in concentrates for the first 6 years of its 37 year mine life. Construction remains on schedule for commissioning in Q2 2008.

Commenting, Craig Williams, Equinox President and CEO said: "These Agreements complete the placement of 100% of the current LMC scheduled production into firm off take agreements, meet yet another key milestone to project financing and secure Equinox's presence in a growing and stable part of southern and central Africa."

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Equinox Minerals Limited: Lumwana Uranium Feasibility Study at Malundwe Delivers High Grade Uranium Intercepts
10:30 EDT Tuesday, July 24, 2007

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - July 24, 2007) -

Equinox Minerals Limited (TSX:EQN)(ASX:EQN) ("Equinox" or the "Company") is pleased to present an update on drilling progress for the uranium feasibility study ("UFS") presently underway at its Lumwana Project located in the North Western Province of Zambia. High-grade results of note include MLW0055 which intersected 11m @ 0.75% U3O8 from 24m including 3m of 2.66% U3O8 from 25m. All results containing intercepts above 0.3% U3O8 are presented in Table 1 that follows below. A more detailed table is available on the Company website that presents all intercepts exceeding 0.02% U3O8.

Commenting on the uranium drill results, Craig Williams, Equinox President and CEO said: "The drilling program currently underway appears to be defining discrete and coherent mineralized zones with significant uranium grades at Malundwe. In addition to this Malundwe work, Equinox is proactively exploring additional regional uranium targets within its 1,355 km² Lumwana Mining Licence and Equinox's regional tenements. Recent heliborne radiometric surveying and reprocessed fixed wing radiometric data has proven very successful in identifying and delivering numerous additional uranium channel anomalies for our teams to investigate outside of the UFS. This suggests further uranium potential in the region as we work to expand the total Lumwana uranium resource".

Uranium within the Malundwe and Chimiwungo copper deposits at Lumwana occurs as discrete uranium-enriched zones that will be mined separately during the copper mining operation as detailed in the October 2006 Technical Report available on www.sedar.com. Australian JORC and Canadian NI43-101 compliant Lumwana Uranium Mineral Resources have been previously estimated at 9.5 million tonnes grading 0.093% U3O8 Indicated and 2.6 million tonnes of 0.042% U3O8 Inferred using a 0.01% uranium cut-off grade (see Company press release May 02, 2005). These resources will be revised on completion of the current UFS program.

The Company's UFS drill program commenced in April 2007 and comprises approximately 16,000m in 160 RC drill holes that will extend along a 2km strike length of the Malundwe copper deposit within the currently designed main Malundwe open pit. On completion of this drilling program, drill hole collar spacing will average 50m x 50m and in some areas the density will have been increased to 25m x 25m to increase statistical definition of the resources. Certain RC holes are being supplemented by diamond core drilling that includes PQ metallurgical holes and corroborative PQ diamond twins. Metallurgical UFS test work is being conducted on RC drill samples from selected holes, and the diamond core will be similarly utilized in the testwork program.

Uranium occurs almost exclusively as uraninite aligned north-south within the foliation of the host rock, varying from coarse uraninite aggregates up to 3cm in size to finer uraninite grains disseminated among silicate gangue minerals. The uranium is not associated with any significant thorium and investigation indicates there is no uranium disequilibrium effects identified within the mineralization.

The uranium mineralization is predominantly hosted within the Malundwe copper sulphide ore body adjacent to the hangingwall and footwall contacts. Uranium-only mineralization also occurs typically within five metres below the copper ore body footwall contact. Away from these discrete uranium enriched zones, the copper sulphide ore body is largely barren of uranium mineralization and hence uranium does not report to the copper concentrate. The northern zone at Malundwe is being delineated presently as part of the ongoing UFS drilling program. Assays received to 16 July 2007 represent about one quarter of the holes drilled to date and are presented below:

Further UFS drill results are expected to be released during Q3-2007.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Equinox:

Craig R. Williams - President & Chief Executive Officer

NOTE: To view a map of the Malundwe project, please click on the following link: http://www.ccnmatthews.com/docs/malundwemap.pdf.

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petervan said:

GO FIGURE. Down 5% on positive uranium news, what,s going on in Canada. The only thing i can think is it lessens the chance of a takeover, but 5%Still scratching my head

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petervan said:

http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?x1089525671&f=1774
Great little article on takeover targets that could be coming up sooner rather than later.Have been patient and happy with this stock and will not sell until takeover is on the table

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Equinox aims to produce an annualised 200,000 tons of copper a year by this time next year. Current price levels for the stock suggest a long-term copper price assumption of around $1.65 a pound, just more than half the current spot copper price. The sweet part of this story is that Equinox's uranium resource is essentially for free. The figures start with Equinox owning around 20m pounds of uranium, sitting within its Zambian copper ore bodies.

The uranium leg of the operation could be in business by 2010 for a capital cost of around $200m, and a fair-guess operating cost of less than $20 a pound. Using current spot uranium prices of around $125 a pound, and annual Equinox production of 1.5m pounds or uranium, "Equinox Uranium Corporation" would generate cash flows of some $150m a year.

Uranium producers such as Cameco and Energy Resources Australia trade on actual cash flow multiples of ten times and more. A couple of multiplications, and it can be argued that Equinox's entire market capitalisation of C$1.8bn can be justified on its potential uranium production. For those investors still bullish on copper, Equinox's projected annualised production of that metal would produce cash flow of close to $1bn over 12 months, given current spot copper prices.

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Buffettology said:

Yeah, I read that same article Im pretty sure ages ago when I first bought in!

Of all the mining companies, this is the only one I am holding!

It has a little risk, but HUGE HUGE reward! Im thinking of accumulating more...........

With their growth potential and uranium stocks, I would not be surprised to see this one his $10 a share 3-4 years down the track! Depends once they get copper production under way, if they start mining uranium. Thats if uranium is still being talked about in a few years, as its more a political global warming solution than in reality. As high grade uranium is depleted, in 80-100 years nuclear power will cost the environment at on par levels to current oil and gas damage.

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