Post by
TERRIBLE on Feb 17, 2005 7:25am
maple minerals....update
following update rec'd via e-mail.....
NEWS RELEASES....any interested shareholders that might want to be included on automatic distribution [e-mail] should contact the company.
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Maple Minerals (MPM) Update
February 16, 2005 4:02:00 PM
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MPM: Recent News
MPM issued a press release on January 25, 2005 announcing that it had entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding common shares of Uranium Minerals Ventures Inc. ("UMVI"). UMVI’s principal asset is an option to acquire from Afmeco Mining and Exploration Pty Ltd. a 100% interest in the Ben Lomond uranium deposit located in North Queensland, Australia, for AUD$1 million, subject to a royalty payment of AUD$0.50 per pound of U3O8 and a 1% NSR.
go to press release: Maple Minerals Agrees to Acquire UMVI and Ben Lomond Uranium Deposit
While the uranium sector has been one of the strongest-performing sectors in the marketplace in the past six months, until recently, companies with Australian uranium assets have been laggards within this peer group. Xstrata PLC's $6.5-billion (U.S.) hostile takeover bid for WMC Resources Ltd. and its world-class Olympic Dam copper-uranium deposit has sparked renewed awareness that Australia is the world's largest source of uranium, with 28 per cent of global known recoverable resources. This increased interest in Australian uranium assets is also based on changing investor perceptions with respect to the risk associated with the public policy and permitting issues that would apply to any prospective new uranium project.
MPM Projects include:
The Ben Lomond Uranium Deposit, North Queensland, Australia
Mt. Kakoulima Project (Ni, Cu, Co and PGE), Guinea, West Africa
Shebandowan Belt Group of Claims (Au and Cu), Ontario, Canada
MPM: Ben Lomond Uranium Deposit, North Queensland, Australia
The Ben Lomond resource estimation was compiled in 1982 for Total Mining Australia Pty. Ltd. using a data base of 435 drill holes (percussion+diamond) drilled on N-S cross-sections at 25m intervals. The diluted mineable reserves within the resource estimate were reported as follows:
Open Pit
Underground
Total
Tonnes Ore
1,462,000
468,000
1,930,000
Grade % U3O8
0.246
Tonnes U3O8
4,759(1)
(1) In excess of 10 million lbs. U3O8 (Uranium)
The uranium resource contains a molybdenum credit of 0.15%. Outside the uranium resource are zones of molybdenum mineralization, not associated with ore grade uranium, which have yet to be investigated in any detail.
At US$20 a pound for U3O8 and US$30 a pound for Molybdenum the in-ground value of the combined metals is over US$400 million.
A 1982 Feasibility Study, based on the above resource plus adjacent lower grade material, envisaged extraction both by open pit (70% of the total) at a stripping ratio of 5:1, and by underground. At a milling rate of 250,000 tonnes per year and conventional leach processing (metallurgical recovery 94.55%), the project was forecast to yield approximately 10.8 million lbs. U3O8 over a 10 year mine life. In the first 8 years of mine life, the annual output was forecast to be approximately 1.25 million lbs. U3O8 with treatment in years 9 and 10 of lower grade material outside the resource yielding a total of 0.8 million lbs. U3O8.
In 1988 additional studies showed that processing by the vat leaching method would significantly reduce the project costs.
Stewart Taylor has reviewed the 1982 resource estimation, the 1982 Feasibility Study and the 1988 additional studies and advises that they appear to have been conducted competently to the acceptable standards of the day, but as the necessary work has not been done by Mr. Taylor or MPM to verify the classification of the reserve, the prior data will have to be examined by an Independent Qualified Person to ensure that they are National Instrument 43-101 compliant. MPM is therefore not treating the 1982 reserve estimate as a National Instrument 43-101 resource verified by a Qualified Person, and the historical estimate should not be relied upon.
UMVI advises that there are no federal government policies or regulations that would constrain advancement of the project. There is, however, a significant current impediment to mine development in the policy of the Queensland State Government which does not permit the mining or processing of uranium in the State. This policy is, however, not enacted by legislation in the Queensland Minerals Act. Other companies with interests in uranium resource projects in Queensland are Laramide Resources Ltd. (TSX-V) and Summit Resources Limited (ASX-Australian Stock Exchange.)
Stewart Taylor will remain President of UMVI and will be appointed Vice-President, International Exploration of MPM. He will be responsible for the evaluation and acquisition of international projects with an initial emphasis on uranium. Mr. Taylor, a geologist, holds a B.Sc. (Honours Geology) from the University of Glasgow and has over 30 years of mining and exploration experience, including senior management roles, in Africa, Europe, Australia, Asia and North and South America. He is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and is currently a partner at Taylor Wall & Associates, a Brisbane-based consulting firm specializing in mineral project generation and evaluation, and providing geoscientific consultancy services to mineral companies and institutions such as Placer Dome, Kinross, Newmont, Noranda, Queensland Department of Mines & Energy, etc. His partner at Taylor Wall and Associates, Dr. Victor Wall, has over 38 years of mineral resource experience, including work on uranium mineralising systems, and was the winner of the Goldcorp Challenge in 2001.
MPM / FNX: Mt. Kakoulima Project (Ni, Cu, Co and PGE), Guinea, West Africa
MPM’s partner on the Mt. Kakoulima project is FNX Mining Company Inc. ("FNX"), Sudbury's third largest nickel miner. The project has had initial drilling success. Confirmation that the base of the Kaloum Igneous Complex ("KIC") dips inwardly (essentially, a cone-shaped intrusion) at approximately 45o and the discovery of disseminated sulphide mineralization at the base of the intrusion (basal contact) are technical successes for FNX and MPM as they prove the conceptual model the drill programs (phases 1 and 2) were designed to test. Assays will determine the nickel (as well as Cu, Co and PGE) content of the sulphides. Phase 3, scheduled to commence in March 2005, will consist mainly of drilling to explore favourable targets.
The best historical drill intersections graded 4.72% Ni, 1.51% Cu, 0.22% Co and 3.0 g/t Pt-Pd over 0.51 metres. Subsequent programs continued to focus on the upper sequences and did not explore the lower sequences or basal contact at the intrusion, which the FNX exploration team believes are the most prospective target areas for nickel-bearing massive sulphides.
MPM benefits from the expertise of a proven, world class nickel exploration team in FNX and is very well leveraged for exploration successes. FNX suggested that the geological model of the KIC may be compared to that of the mafic-ultramafic intrusion that hosts the Jinchuan nickel-copper deposit in northwest China. Jinchuan is the third largest producer of nickel in the world (behind operations in Sudbury and Noril'sk, Russia) and hosts an estimated 500 million tonnes at grades of 2.21% nickel and 1.71% copper. The Mt. Kakoulima intrusion is approximately 60 km long of which the MPM/FNX property licence covers 30 km on the north and south margins.
"The KIC appears fertile for the formation of nickel sulphides and the basal contact has a favourable orientation for exploration. The exploration program started out based on a geologic concept. We have now verified the concept. The next phase is to hunt for economic deposits," stated Mr. Gino Falzone, President of MPM.
MPM: Shebandowan Belt Group of Claims (Au and Cu), Ontario, Canada
MPM also has several exploration properties in Ontario, Canada, including the Shebandowan Belt Group of claims which covers 807 claim units or approximately 13,000 hectares in the Shebandowan greenstone belt located approximately 120 km west of Thunder Bay, Canada. The Shebandowan group of claims covers the extension of Freewest Resources’ La Rose showing, Pele Mountain’s Moss Lake gold deposit and Canadian Golden Dragon’s Vanguard discovery. MPM is currently in the midst of a 10 hole drill program on the Shebandowan property with a second drill recently mobilized to test numerous IP anomalies and EM conductors.
MPM: Corporate Information
MPM has no material debt with only 13.7 million shares outstanding and approximately $1.2 million dollars in the bank. Principal shareholders include Brownstone Ventures Inc., with a 19% equity interest and AGF Precious Metals with an 10% equity interest.
MPM: Conclusion
MPM is well leveraged for exploration success on its Mt. Kakoulima property and other properties in Canada and the Dominican Republic. As well, its recent acquisition of the Ben Lomond uranium deposit and the technical expertise of Taylor Wall and Associates will enhance MPM’s prospects for growth.
This correspondence includes certain forward looking statements which reflect management’s expectations regarding future plans and intentions, growth, results of operations, performance and business prospects and opportunities. Without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization and resources, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of MPM are forward looking statements that involve various degrees of risk. The following are important factors that could cause MPM’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements: changes in the world wide price of mineral commodities, general market conditions, risks inherent in mineral exploration, risks associated with development, construction and mining operations, the uncertainty of future profitability and the uncertainty of access to additional capital. This correspondence does not in any way constitute an offer to sell securities.