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Australia-based explorer Bastion Minerals (ASX: BMO) has announced it will acquire a portfolio of three high-grade Canadian copper assets, including the ICE deposit in the Yukon Territory and the Mariner and Harley projects in the Northwest Territories (NWT), which are home to significant gold, base metals, uranium and diamond mines.
The ICE copper-gold deposit in the Yukon is a Cyprus-style volcanic hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) deposit, with a historical, foreign non-JORC resource of 4.56 million tonnes at 1.48% copper.
The deposit resource was defined in 1998 from 121 shallow drill holes, with limited exploration in the surrounding claims, as then owner, Yukon Zinc Corp, concentrated on developing the nearby Wolverine mine. All but five of the holes were drilled in a 600m by 400m area.
The best assay results are located near the centre of the deposit in a 350m long, 50m wide zone consisting predominantly of primary massive sulphide mineralization, including 5.92m at 8.56% copper, 20.56m at 5.20% copper and 19.75m at 4.31% copper.
Bastion is acquiring 260 claims containing the deposit that lies approximately 100 km from the Wolverine mine and processing plant, which have been closed since 2015.
The high-grade deposit has potential gold credits, with up to 0.8 g/t gold, which were not included in the original estimate, as well as up to 100 g/t silver and 1,820 ppm cobalt, as identified in down hole intersections during exploration drilling, the company said in a news release.
Bastion said it is building a team for the project, confirming details of the historical work and will define a timeline for drilling and exploration activities to start.
The Harley copper project is a largely unexplored 310 sq. km. prospecting licence near Great Bear Lake in the northern NWT, with historical drill holes being assessed.
The Mariner copper project is a 155 sq. km. prospecting licence, also near Great Bear Lake. The project is surrounded by White Cliff Minerals’ (ASX:WCN) Port Radium project, with potential for VHMS, IOCG and strataform copper mineralization.
The consideration payable by is a total of A$140,000 cash and 187.5 million BMO shares, 93.75 million options and 125 million performance shares, subject to shareholder approval, to be paid to the shareholders of Arcus Resources.
“These highly prospective high-grade Canadian copper projects have the potential to be a game changer for Bastion and we are extremely proud to have added these projects to our portfolio,” Bastion executive chairman Ross Landles said in the statement.
“The ICE acquisition represents a fantastic opportunity for Bastion…the historical resource was estimated without including any value for gold, which may add extra value,” Landles said. “The projects have untested drill targets on EM geophysics and geochemistry, to discover new high-grade mineralized lenses to increase the project size.”
Bastion said it plans to rehabilitate road access to the project and re-establish the project camp to support drilling activities. The deposit is located 20 km from a major provincial road and is 220 km northeast of the provincial capital, Yellowknife.
Also in Canada, Bastion exercised its option to acquire three highly prospective lithium properties in Ontario, according to company website.
The three properties under option are located close to known pegmatites, where adjacent companies have intersected pegmatites in drilling and have defined and reported resources. The property groups are Pakwan East, Raleigh Lake and McCombe North projects.
The company also has stakes in the Cometa copper project in Chile, the Gyttop rare earth elements (REE) project in Sweden, and the Morrissey lithium and REE project and the Split Rock Dam lithium and gold project, both in Western Australia.
