Iron Creek Signs Option Agreement over Anglo American's Exploradora Epithermal Gold-Silver Vein Prospect, Northern Chile
TSX-V: IRN
VANCOUVER, Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Iron Creek Capital Corp. (TSX-V: IRN) is pleased to announce that its wholly owned Chilean subsidiary, Minera Mena Chile Limitada ("Iron Creek"), has signed an option agreement with Anglo American PLC's Chilean subsidiary, Anglo American Norte S.A. ("Anglo American"), granting Iron Creek the exclusive right and option to acquire a 100% interest in Anglo American's Exploradora Properties in northern Chile by incurring cumulative exploration expenses of no less than US$7 million over a period of 4 years.
The Exploradora Properties cover 4,510 hectares prospective for low-sulphidation epithermal veins along the trend of the principal porphyry copper belt in northern Chile, immediately south of Rio Tinto's and Codelco's Exploradora porphyry copper-gold project.
Iron Creek plans to start exploring the Exploradora Properties immediately, by completing basic geological mapping and initiating a systematic rock and soil sampling program across the Properties. This will be followed up by trenching and possibly geophysical profiling of prospective structures as results are received with a view to defining drill targets.
Exploradora Epithermal Precious Metals Veins
The Exploradora District consists of a central porphyry copper-gold system controlled by Codelco and Rio Tinto (published resource of approximately 100Mt @ 0.3% Cu + 0.2g/t Au), and skarn-hosted polymetallic veins at Mina Ciclon to the west and Mina Exploradora to the northwest. The Anglo American properties cover the south-western and south-eastern outer margins of the porphyry system, together with a series of low-sulphidation style, epithermal quartz veins, visible in outcrop, in minor trenches, and as abundant float over a broad area. Iron Creek's option agreement will allow the Company to properly explore and evaluate the gold and silver potential of the epithermal veins.
Minor historic exploration of the epithermal quartz veins (by Compañía Minera Orion in the 1990s and by Mariana Resources in 2007) failed to fully explore and test their potential, with most of the exploration directed towards looking for extensions to the porphyry target.
Anglo American collected 125 rock chip samples of vein material in the Portezuelo and Ladera areas which returned gold grades from trace to 2.16g/t Au at Portezuelo and up to 2.38 g/t at Ladera, together with anomalous silver values up to 169 g/t Ag at Portezuelo and 231 g/t Ag at Ladera. Samples are also generally anomalous in the typical epithermal pathfinder elements such as arsenic and antimony.
Iron Creek collected 10 grab samples which returned values from trace up to 3.45 g/t Au and 65.5 g/t Ag in the Portezuelo area, and anomalous gold 1 g/t Au with higher silver up to 480 g/t Ag at the topographically lower Ladera veins. Base metals become increasingly important at lower elevations and sampling returned up to 4.75% Pb and 1.62 % Zn in grab samples in the Ladera area.
Quartz vein material in outcrop and in float blocks exhibits classical low sulphidation epithermal textures, including bladed quartz after calcite, colloform and crustiform banding, and brecciation.
Details of the Agreement
The option agreement grants Iron Creek the exclusive right and option to acquire a 100% interest in Anglo American's Exploradora Property, subject to the terms as outlined below:
- Iron Creek to incur cumulative exploration expenses of no less than US$7 million over a period of 4 years, with a firm commitment to invest US$250,000 in the first year of the agreement;
- Upon Iron Creek having exercised its option, Iron Creek will grant Anglo American a 3% NSR royalty payable on commencement of commercial production of all metals from the Property. Three years after exercise of the option, Iron Creek will commence paying to Anglo American an advanced royalty of US$250,000 per year, such payments to be deducted from any future NSR royalty payments due;
- Anglo American having the right and option to acquire through a back-in option a 65% interest in any portion of the Property containing a copper resource as defined by a NI43-101 compliant report:
- Such back-in option will not apply to any precious metals resource identified on the Property by Iron Creek
- If the precious metals resource identified contains an average grade in excess of 0.4% Cu, the back-in option will apply
- The back-in option is exercisable by Anglo American at any time after Iron Creek has exercised the option and within 6 months of Iron Creek having advised Anglo American in writing that Iron Creek has determined the copper resource as indicated above, by paying in cash to Iron Creek two times cumulative exploration expenses incurred to the date of the back-in notification, and by investing in exploration and development of the copper resource to an equivalent of two times Iron Creek's cumulative exploration expenses incurred to the date of the back-in notification
- In the case that Anglo American exercises its back-in option for any copper resource, Iron Creek and Anglo American will enter into an industry standard joint venture agreement for the further exploration and development of the copper resource area, with the initial interests in the joint venture company being 65% (Anglo American) and 35% (Iron Creek). In such case, all advanced royalty payments by Iron Creek to Anglo American relating to any copper resource will terminate.
QA/QC
Iron Creek's geochemical samples are collected in accordance with accepted industry standards and best practices. Samples are submitted to ALS Chemex Laboratories in La Serena, Chile, for preparation by PREP31 (250gr), with digestion by aqua regia and analysis for 35 elements by ICP-AES (ME-ICP41). Gold is analyzed by 50gm fire assay (Au-AA24). As standard procedure, Iron Creek conducts routine quality-assurance and quality-control analysis on all assay results, including the systematic utilization of certified reference materials, blanks and field duplicates.
Qualified Person
Demetrius Pohl, P.Geo., is the Company's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, and is responsible for the accuracy of the technical information in this news release. Dr. Pohl has verified that it includes an accurate summary of the information provided to Iron Creek by Anglo American. However, Iron Creek has not independently verified Anglo American's exploration results.
Iron Creek Shareholders Approve Incentive Share Compensation
The Company's proposed issuance of up to 500,000 common shares as part of the compensation payable to its President, Timothy J. Beale, was approved by a majority of disinterested shareholders at the annual general meeting of the Company held on June 15, 2011. The initial tranches totaling 180,000 shares will be issued upon receipt of final approval by the TSX Venture Exchange, and the balance of shares will be issued in stages over the next two years. The shares will be subject to restrictions on transfer for a period of four months after the issuance date.
About Iron Creek
Iron Creek Capital Corp. is a Vancouver-based mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of precious and base metals projects in Chile.
About Anglo American
Anglo American plc is one of the world's largest mining companies, is headquartered in the UK and is listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges. Anglo American's portfolio of mining businesses spans precious metals and minerals - in which it is a global leader in both platinum and diamonds; base metals - copper and nickel; and bulk commodities - iron ore, metallurgical coal and thermal coal. Anglo American is committed to the highest standards of safety and responsibility across all its businesses and geographies and to making a sustainable difference in the development of the communities around its operations. The company's mining operations and extensive pipeline of growth projects are located in southern Africa, South America, Australia, North America and Asia. www.angloamerican.com
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Timothy J. Beale"
Timothy Beale, President
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statement
Some of the statements in this news release contain forward-looking information that involves inherent risk and uncertainty affecting the business of Iron Creek Capital Corp. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statement.
SOURCE Iron Creek Capital Corp.
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