POLYMETALLIC – Strategic Metals Ltd. Jan. 14 said it plans to fund diamond drill programs at nine of its most prospective projects during 2010. It also said it signed a farm-in agreement with Atac Resources Ltd. to explore six properties, three of which are among the properties expected to be drilled in 2010. The nine projects that are scheduled for drilling in summer and fall 2010 include five porphyry copper-gold prospects (GK, Vanderhoof Copper, Nikki, Mars, and Buzz) located in the main porphyry belts of British Columbia and Yukon Territory, and four volcanogenic massive sulphide targets situated in the Finlayson VMS District of Yukon near the Wolverine Mine, where Yukon Zinc Corp. aims to start up ore production in mid-2010. Drill targets on the nine properties include numerous surface showings, historical drill intercepts and various types of geochemical and geophysical anomalies. The six properties included in the farm-in agreement with Atac are the Buzz property, a porphyry-type gold-copper prospect located northwest of Lillooet in southern British Columbia; the Nikki property, which hosts porphyry-type copper-gold and skarn-hosted gold mineralization, located south of Beaver Creek in southwestern Yukon; the Mars property, an alkalic porphyry gold-copper prospect situated northeast of Whitehorse; the Hartless Joe property, which covers an extensive system of epithermal gold-silver veins northeast of Whitehorse; the Scurvy property, which contains shear-hosted gold mineralization located northeast of Watson Lake in southeastern Yukon; and the Lost Horses property southeast of Dawson in west-central Yukon. Strategic said it gained the right to purchase 100 percent of ATAC’s interests in the six mineral properties for the sum of C$300,000. The agreement is subject to regulatory acceptance. Under the agreement, Atac has the optional right to earn back 50 percent interest in any interest subsequently held by Strategic in any of the six properties, by making a cash payment equal to twice the exploration and holding costs incurred by Strategic in regard to that property. The back-in right is exercisable on Dec. 31, 2013. If Atac exercises its back-in right for any property, a joint venture will be formed in regard to that property. Strategic said it also significantly added to its portfolio of mineral claims by staking 11 new properties since mid-October. Most of the recently acquired properties are gold exploration targets. With these acquisitions, Strategic holds interests in more than 80 projects. It is in negotiations with various arms-length parties regarding farm outs for a number of its projects. “Strategic continues to research and negotiate a variety of transactions that we are confident will create additional value for shareholders,” said Doug Eaton, the junior’s president and CEO. “The aggressive drill programs we have budgeted for 2010 are aimed at unlocking the ‘discovery premiums’ that we feel are hidden in our large portfolio of quality projects.
POLYMETALLIC – CMC Metals Ltd. Jan. 18 said it received an NI 43-101 technical report for its Silver Hart Property located in south-central Yukon Territory. Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd. of Edmonton, Alberta used all data available from reliable historical exploration drilling programs, combined with exploration drilling programs from 2005 through to the end of 2009 carried out on the silver-lead-zinc property to complete geological modeling and provide an estimate of mineral resources in the KL, TM and M zones. A base case cut off grade of 900 g/t silver equivalent, similar to the Bellekeno deposit, is proposed as the most realistic scenario under the current circumstances. Inferred resources for the three zones totaled 27,300 metric tons grading 901.04 g/t silver, 3.21 percent lead and 12.79 percent zinc, with about 900,000 contained ounces of silver. The Bellekeno property, located in the Keno Hill mining camp, central Yukon, contains high-grade silver mineralization similar to the Silver Hart Property. A 600-grams-per-metric-ton silver-equivalent cutoff was included in the report in order to demonstrate grade sensitivity.
POLYMETALLIC – Copper Ridge Explorations Inc. Jan. 18 reported an NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate for its Clear Lake zinc-lead-silver deposit, located 70 kilometers, or 43 miles, east of Pelly Crossing and 225 kilometers, or 138 miles, north of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Clear Lake, a sedimentary-exhalative massive sulphide deposit, was first explored in 1965. Drill programs in the late 1970s and the early 1990s have included a total of 18,219 meters in 71 drill holes that delineated the deposit and tested a number of outside targets. According to the new resource estimate, completed by SRK Consulting of Vancouver Jan. 11, the Clear Lake deposit contains 7.65 million metric tons of inferred mineral resources grading 7.6 percent zinc, 1.08 percent lead and 22 grams per metric ton silver. The estimate was based on 1,842 assays from 13,168 meters of drilling in 63 historical drill holes within the deposit. Copper Ridge has the right to earn 100 percent interest in Clear Lake, subject to a 2 percent net smelter royalty, three-quarters of which can be purchased for C$1.5 million.
POLYMETALLIC – Cortez Gold Corp. said it entered into an option agreement Jan. 14, with Strategic Metals Ltd. whereby Cortez may acquire 50 percent interest in 48 quartz mineral claims covering about 1,000 hectares, or 2,471 acres, commonly known as the Timber Claims located in the Watson Lake Mining District of southern Yukon Territory. The Timber property is a porphyry copper-molybdenum-gold prospect located 50 kilometers, or 31 miles, northeast of the community of Ross River. Access is by helicopter. Under terms of the deal, Cortez will pay Strategic Metals no less than an aggregate of C$150,000 and incur no less than an aggregate of C$1 million in exploration expenditures by Dec. 31, 2012. Cortez will be operator of the project until the option is fully exercised, at which point Cortez and Strategic Metals plan to enter into a joint venture agreement. Strategic Metals is a junior explorer in northwestern Canada, and Cortez is a capital pool company.
GOLD/SILVER – Guinness Exploration Inc. Jan. 19 said it has appointed well-known geological consulting firm Coast Mountain Geological Alaska LLC to assist in the orderly advancement of its Nantawa Project, located in the Tintina Gold Belt of Yukon Territory. In November, Guinness entered an agreement to acquire mineral claims for the Mount Nansen and the Tawa gold and silver exploration properties, collectively known as the Nantawa Project, in the Yukon and is now developing an exploration program, according to a statement. The claims consist of 203 full or fractional claims with a total area of 3,136.43 square hectares, located in south-central Yukon, 180 kilometers, or 112 miles, northwest of Whitehorse and 60 kilometers, or 37 miles, west of the Village of Carmacks. “We are reviewing the extensive drilling data from 80 previously drilled holes, in order to establish near-term exploration targets,” said Guinness President and CEO Alastair Brown. “We’re pleased to have Coast Mountain on board and they’ll be working closely with our newly appointed chief geologist, John Hiner. Once Coast Mountain has completed its review and made recommendations, we anticipate proceeding with additional exploration and drilling. We now have the people in place to deliver program-execution and operational expertise, and are aggressively moving forward with our plans for this high-potential gold and silver advanced exploration project.” The Nantawa Project is situated in the prolific Tintina Gold Belt, a 1,200-kilometer-, or 744-mile-long area extending from northern British Columbia, through the Yukon Territory and into southwest Alaska. The Tintina Gold Belt includes such world-class, multimillion-ounce gold deposits as Pogo, Fort Knox, True North, and Donlin Creek.
GOLD – Northern Freegold Resources Ltd. Jan. 18 has added 177 new claims to its district-scale 166-square kilometer, or 64-square-mile, Freegold Mountain Project in Yukon Territory, based upon new targets identified from results of its the 2009 field season. Reinterpretation of regional-scale geophysical data provided several target areas of interest for further exploration. The new claims will increase the size of the project by 20 percent, bringing it up to about 198 square kilometers, or 76.5 square miles. Northern Freegold reported an initial inferred 1.08 million-ounce gold resource (67.57 million metric tons at 0.50 grams per metric ton gold with 0.30 g/t gold cutoff) within the Nucleus Zone in July. The junior is currently updating a three-dimension geological model in the Nucleus zone to incorporate data from 44 holes drilled in 2009 and plans to release an updated resource estimate by March 31. To date, only 2 percent of the Freegold Mountain Project has been drilled.
CONSERVATION – Conservation groups Jan. 19 said they expect the Yukon Chamber of Mines and government representatives to tell miners that the Yukon Territory is open for business. But the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s Yukon chapter and the Yukon Conservation Society warned the mining industry to stay out of the 68,000-square-kilometer Peel River watershed, one of Yukon’s most celebrated boreal wilderness areas. In December the Peel Watershed Land Use Planning Commission recommended protecting 80 percent of the watershed area, which is caribou and various other wildlife species. The commission has recommended a moratorium on staking in the Peel Watershed until the plan is finalized, but the Yukon government has not yet said whether it will comply. Since the commission began planning, more than 8,000 claims have been staked in the Peel watershed. The conservationists say the Peel River Watershed is one of the last vast intact natural areas in North America. They said they have been working for nearly 10 years to conserve the Peel watershed.
