Mining News: Alliance adds properties to portfolio

Strategic partnership ups stakes with acquisition of more high-potential gold, base metals exploration lands in western Nunavut

Rose Ragsdale

For Mining News

Through its strategic alliance partnership with Nunavut Resources Corp., Transition Metals Corp. has acquired an additional 433 square kilometers (167 square miles) of high potential gold and base metal exploration properties in Nunavut.

The alliance acquired the properties located along the Izok-Grays Bay road infrastructure development corridor in western Nunavut this summer through the execution of a mineral exploration agreement with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., which manages the subsurface mining rights on Inuit owned lands in Nunavut on behalf and for the benefit of all Inuit.

Commenting on the transaction, Transition President and CEO Scott McLean said, “We are pleased to have assembled such high potential exploration properties in Nunavut. Our objective has been to acquire the best exploration opportunities along the proposed Izok Lake – Grays Bay development corridor and make discoveries that can contribute to and benefit from economic advantages that would come from any road development into the area. We look forward to advancing these projects together with our partner NRC and to attracting new investment to the region for the benefit of shareholders, Inuit and the people of Nunavut.”

The five-year strategic alliance agreement, struck between Nunavut Resources, a subsidiary of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, and Transition subsidiary HTX Minerals in 2012, is focused on generating marketable mineral projects in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, with specific emphasis on identifying opportunities on Inuit-Owned Land. The pact gives Transition, a multi-commodity project generator with 25 projects across Canada and three joint ventures, access to a large region of the northern territory’s highly prospective and under-explored land, while enabling Nunavut Resources and KIA shareholders to benefit from resource development through direct participation.

Under terms of the alliance, Nunavut Resources is expected to provide land access and to supply funding, while Transition provides technical expertise and operations support with an objective of attracting up to C$18 million in investment to new exploration projects in the Kitikmeot Region.

When HTX Minerals merged with Transition Metals in 2013, Nunavut Resources Chairman Charlie Evalik commented on the advantages of the strategic alliance: “Among other things, NRC will have access to a larger team of highly experienced, award-winning geologists who have successfully generated projects for a number of commodities at various sites across Canada. I am very excited to see what this team will be able to discover in the Kitikmeot Region. Further, I believe that the new Transition Metals, a publicly-traded company managed by personnel with proven financial and marketing expertise, will be further well-positioned to attract the necessary investment to help advance its projects, even in this challenging market for exploration finance. ”

In 2012, HTX Minerals completed a program of till sampling for diamond indicator minerals on a portion of the Article 41 property and staked the 198-square-kilometer (76.5 square miles) Itchen Lake gold property. The till survey returned elevated kimberlite indicator minerals in an unexplored section of the property near known kimberlite pipes located just outside the property boundary.

Since 2012, the alliance has assembled a 1,248-square-kilometer portfolio of gold, base metal and diamond properties in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories and completed roughly C$1.8 million of exploration work.

In 2013, the company acquired IOL CO-82, a parcel that surrounds the Gondor Lake VMS deposit, and completed a program of airborne geophysics and field work at Itchen and Gondor Lake, which resulted in the identification of 17 new high-quality drill targets on the Itchen Lake project. The alliance planned to test the top 10 drill targets in 2014.

The recently acquired properties consist of IOL lands secured through the mineral exploration agreement with Nunavut Tunngavik. Terms of the agreement include payments of a C$21,617, or C50 cents-per-hectare on signing; optional C$1.50/ha on the first anniversary; C$3.00/ha on the 2nd through 5th anniversaries, C$3.50/ha, 6th - 10th; C$4.00/ha, 11th - 15th; and C$5.00/ha, 16th - 20th.

To maintain the agreement, the alliance also must incur exploration expenditures escalating from C$5/ha in years one and two, C$10/ha in years three to five, C$20/ha in years six-10, C$30/ha in years 11 - 15, and C$40/ha in years 16 - 20. The properties also are subject to a 12 percent net profits interest, which effectively replaces federal territorial royalties that would be applicable in Nunavut on non-IOL lands.