TSX:SGR.UN - Post by User
Post by
thenforcer2on May 12, 2010 11:10am
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Post# 17089680
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The following article appeared in The New Brunswick Business Journal last week. More confirmation of the significance and scope of exploration work to be conducted this season.
Slam, Ontario First Nation agree to exploration on traditional land
Published Friday May 7th, 2010
Miramichi junior mining firm Slam Exploration Ltd. (TSX.V:SXL) has signed an agreement with a northern Ontario First Nation community regarding exploration on potentially gold-rich land.
Enlarge Photo
Adam Huras/Telegraph-Journal
‘We’re close to some of the oldest rocks in the world.’ says Slam Exploration president and CEO Mike Taylor. The firm’s properties host gold deposits formed about two billion years ago.
Eabametoong First Nation, about 200 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont., has given its blessing to Slam Exploration to explore and drill on the company's large portfolio of gold properties within the native community's traditional territories, which is Crown land, outside the reserve.
The firm's president and CEO Mike Taylor said the agreement comes after the company's most recent drilling in 2008, when it made what the executive called "significant" gold discoveries.
The rocks on the properties have similar geology to those that prompted development of the historic Pickle Crow mine about 100 kilometres away, as well as northwestern Ontario's Red Lake gold mine - currently the largest gold mine in Canada, Taylor said.
The properties host gold deposits formed about two billion years ago, he added.
"We're close to some of the oldest rocks in the world."
This year, Slam Exploration's Reserve Creek, Miminiska-Keezhik and Opikeigen Lake properties in the area - for which the company has had mineral claims for about a decade - will represent about 30 to 40 per cent of the firm's drilling budget.
The agreement with Eabametoong First Nation makes provisions for employment and work-sharing and training programs, Taylor said, explaining that in any remote community, it helps to have local labourers who know the land.
Slam is committed to consult on any impacts exploration and drilling could have on the lands, which the native community still uses for various cultural and economic activities.
"They are interested in the gold mining business as well, so it's a very positive relationship," Taylor said. "From our point of view, we aspire to a level of corporate social responsibility which a lot of people talk about these days in the business world."
The work in Ontario is part of a more aggressive drilling program this year for Slam Exploration, which has seen a boost in its share price since the bottom fell out of the markets in 2008.
"Last summer, our stock was down to a cent," Taylor said. "Today, we've traded over one million shares at 6.5 cents."
The firm accessed about $325,000 in financing for drilling a few weeks ago and more than $1 million in January.
"I think you can tell, obviously, now that we've got some cash and where gold's really hot and silver's really hot, we're ready to go on this stuff," Taylor said.
Slam Exploration has operations on three properties in Ontario and five properties in New Brunswick.
The company's shares closed at 6.5 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday.