Multiple drill -ready targets; outstanding exploration upside; potential to rapidly delineate gold resources
| Symbol: ASX: CHN TSX: CXN Shares outstanding: 282 million Fully diluted: 287 million |
Key Points:
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*(all intersections are downhole lengths; see Appendix 1 for survey details)
'(0.5g/t Au cut-off grade, with up to 2m internal dilution)
PERTH, Western Australia, April 21, 2015 /CNW/ - Chalice Gold Mines ("The Company") ASX:CHN TSX:CXN is pleased to announce that it has further expanded its presence in North America after securing an agreement to earn a majority stake in a highly prospective and advanced gold property in Canada.
The Company has signed a joint venture agreement with Canadian gold explorer Northern Superior Resources Inc. (TSX-V: SUP) giving it the right to earn a 65% interest in the Croteau Est gold property located in Québec (see Figure 1 below).
The property includes a coherent, well defined zone of plus 1 g/t Au mineralisation at CBSZ plus extensive, highly prospective geological trends with outstanding gold geochemical anomalies.
Croteau Est complements Chalice's 100%-owned Cameron Gold Project in Ontario – an advanced gold asset which it acquired last year as the foundation for its North American growth strategy. Cameron has a number of attractive attributes, including good grades (refer Table 1 for full details), low political risk in a mature mining jurisdiction with low costs, conventional metallurgy, and a mid-sized gold project that is well within Chalice's funding and development capability.
Croteau Est Joint Venture
The Croteau Est Property is located near Chibougamau in Québec and comprises 213 claims covering 8,316 hectares which are 100%-owned by Northern Superior and 109 claims totaling 3,856 hectares which are under option to Northern Superior.
Under the Croteau Est agreement, Chalice can earn a 65% interest in the property by spending a total of C$4 million on exploration over three years, with a minimum exploration commitment of C$500,000 in the first 12 months. Upon earning a 65% interest, the joint venture becomes a contributing joint venture which is subject to a standard dilution calculation.
The property is located close to a number of historical copper-gold mines in the Chapais-Chibougamou region. The project is well serviced by road, rail and air services, offering year-round access, and is located close to grid power.
The tenement package includes a 25km strike length of prospective stratigraphy, including 17 drill ready targets requiring immediate follow-up and a significant body of quartz-carbonate-sericite alteration and pyrite mineralisation which has been defined as the CBSZ. A total of 44 diamond drill-holes have been completed into the CBSZ (Figures 2, 3 and 4).
Previous drilling has returned some outstanding intersections including 10.55m @ 10.63g/t Au from 179.95m (CRO11-05), 19.55m @ 8.55g/t Au from 90.75m (CRO12-10), 6.85m @ 21.32g/t Au from 240.65m (CRO12-46) (true widths of the drill hole intersections cannot be determined with the information currently available). A full listing of drill statistics for the CBSZ is provided in Appendix 1, and JORC table 1 can be found at Appendix 2. Significant trench assays are given in Appendix 3.
The joint venture will be managed by Chalice, however, Chalice has entered into a Technical Services Agreement with Northern Superior whereby Northern Superior will provide services on commercial terms enabling Chalice to build on their knowledge base and existing excellent relationships with the community. Chalice has also secured the services of a highly experienced Canadian based geologist and mining executive as the Company's in-country manager to oversee all of Chalice's projects in Canada.
The Croteau Est Property is managed under a Pre-Development Agreement with the First Nation community of Oujé-Bougoumou, the Cree Regional Authority and the Grand Council of the Cree.
Other Terms Relating to the Joint Venture Agreement
Under the joint venture agreement, if a party's interest is diluted below 10%, its interest will be converted to a NSR interest as follows:
| 1. |
With respect to any claims which are already subject to an NSR (to a third party): |
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| a. |
for period(s) where the price of gold (as quoted on the London Gold Fix) is less than C$1,800 per ounce, a 1% NSR; and |
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| b. |
for period(s) where the price of gold (as quoted on the London Gold Fix) exceeds C$1,800 per ounce, a 2% NSR; and |
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| 2. |
With respect to all other claims, a 2% NSR, and in each case, one-half of the NSR can be bought back for C$1,000,000. |
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Miro Advisors acted as advisors to the transaction for Chalice.
Management Comment
Chalice's Managing Director, Tim Goyder, said the farm-in agreement with Northern Superior was consistent with the Company's broader strategic objective, which is to build a quality mid-tier gold business based on multiple near-to- medium term production opportunities in quality jurisdictions. He said:
"Canada is a Tier One jurisdiction in every respect – offering outstanding geological potential, high quality infrastructure, low operating costs, cheap and readily available power. Since acquiring the Cameron Project last year we have been actively reviewing and assessing potential bolt-on growth opportunities in North America. We are very pleased to have reached agreement with Northern Superior, which is an established and respected Canadian exploration company, to farm-in to an outstanding gold exploration project in Croteau Est.
"The Croteau Est Project offers a unique combination of great location, with the potential to establish a resource quickly, walk-up drill targets and a great operating environment. This is a high quality, advanced exploration play – not a conceptual or greenfields project – and has clear potential to deliver a resource in the near term. We are looking forward to commencing exploration activities as soon as possible to unlock this potential."
TIM GOYDER
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Competent and Qualified Persons Statement
The information relating to the Cameron Gold Project Mineral Resource is extracted from the ASX Announcement entitled "Chalice Files Updated 43-101 Technical Report" released on 29 July 2014 and is available to view at www.chalicegold.com. The company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original market announcement and, in the case of estimates of Mineral Resources, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the relevant market announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Person's findings are presented have not materially modified from the original market announcement.
The information in this report that relates to Exploration targets and results is based on information compiled by Mr Gary Snow, a Competent Person who is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr Snow is a full-time employee of the company and has sufficient experience to the activity being undertaken to quality as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves' and is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 – 'Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects'. The Qualified Person has verified the data disclosed in this release, including sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information contained in this release. Mr Snow consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
Forward looking statements
This document may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Chalice Gold Mines Limited (the Company) does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law or regulation.
Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect Company management's expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the quantum and price of shares to be acquired under a share buyback, the estimation of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the realisation of mineral reserve estimates, the likelihood of exploration success, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, success of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance coverage.
In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others; risks related to actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of mineral resources; possible variations in ore reserves, grade or recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements, all of which are filed and available for review on SEDAR at sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
SOURCE Chalice Gold Mines Limited
Image with caption: "Figure 1: Croteau Est Location, Québec (CNW Group/Chalice Gold Mines Limited)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150421_C4889_PHOTO_EN_14536.jpg
Image with caption: "Figure 2: CBSZ Location and Regional geology plan (CNW Group/Chalice Gold Mines Limited)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150421_C4889_PHOTO_EN_14537.jpg
Image with caption: "Figure 3: Plan view of the CBSZ showing outline of quartz-carbonate-sericite-pyrite zone and cross cutting QFP (quartz feldspar dikes) (CNW Group/Chalice Gold Mines Limited)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150421_C4889_PHOTO_EN_14538.jpg
Image with caption: "Figure 4: MineSite model of the CBSZ quartz-carbonate-sericite-pyrite zone (oblique view looking south southwest; holes numbers are abbreviated to sequential numbers only; full hole numbers are CRO-year-sequential number (CNW Group/Chalice Gold Mines Limited)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150421_C4889_PHOTO_EN_14539.jpg
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