Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat: What do you think of Western Copper & Gold Corp. as junior-mining pick? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Western Copper & Gold Corp., $1.16, symbol WRN on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 94.4 million; Market cap: $115.0 million; www.westerncoppercorp.com), owns the Casino project in the Yukon. The mining site is Western Copper’s sole asset. It contains an estimated 8.9 million ounces of gold, 65 million ounces of silver, 4.5 billion pounds of copper and 483 million pounds of molybdenum. The company completed a feasibility study on the project in 2013. The proposed operation would centre on an open-pit mine with a 22-year life expectancy. It would be the first large-scale mining operation in the Yukon. Western Copper believes the mine could produce 171 million pounds of copper, 266,000 ounces of gold, 1.4 million ounces of silver and 15.5 million pounds of molybdenum annually. The company is now two years into the permitting stage. It should take another two years to complete. While Western Copper has outlined a huge mineral deposit, the mine would cost $2.5 billion U.S. to build. The company will need…