Constellation Copper reloads treasury (September 26, 2005)

Vancouver — Constellation Copper (CCU-T) has raised $14.4-million for further exploration and development at its Lisbon Valley copper project in southeastern Utah.

The soon-to-be copper producer placed almost 16 million special warrants at 90 apiece in a brokered offering through a syndicate of underwriters led by Sprott Securities. Each special warrant is exchangeable for one share and half a warrant, with each full warrant exercisable at $1.20 for two years.

Constellation will use most of the proceeds for ongoing drilling at its Flying Diamond copper deposit, about 7 km south of the Lisbon Valley mine. The rest will be used to boost capacity at the Utah copper mine.

Mining recently started at Lisbon Valley and the stripping of waste rock is under way using a fleet of mostly new heavy equipment. Full commercial operation of the crushing plant should start any day, leading to acid leaching of stacked ore later this month and cathode copper production in mid-November.

Lisbon Valley will employ solvent extraction-electrowinning to extract the copper. The operation is scheduled to produce more than 50 million lbs. copper annually at cash costs of about US50 per lb.

The three main deposits, Sentinel, Centennial and GTO, that make up Lisbon Valley, host proven and probable reserves of 33 million tonnes grading 0.52% copper with a stripping ratio of 2.25-to-1.

In addition to its Utah mine, Constellation holds the advanced-stage Terrazas copper-zinc project in Chihuahua state, Mexico, and the San Javier del Cobre project in Sonora, Mexico.