And so it begins..As most people bought ITH for the Livengood project, I expect great volume and volatility the coming days/weeks.
Anyway I thought that a little reminder of what Corvus is/will be could be usefull.
From an interview (27/07/2010) with Russell Myers on
https://https://www.petroleumnews.com/pnfriends/500232795.shtml
Pontius will retain his position as president and CEO of Tower Hill, andalso will serve as CEO and chairman of Corvus. Russell Myers, currentlyvice president of exploration for Tower Hill, will become the newcompany's president. Additional directors and senior management ofCorvus are expected to be appointed in the near future.
The five gold and copper-gold properties are currently held by TowerHill subsidiary Raven Gold Alaska, and once the new publically-tradedcompany is formed the assets will move into Corvus, which is Latin forRaven.
"The prospectus for Corvus Gold will include Terra, Chisna, LMS, West Pogo and North Bullfrog," Myers told Mining News.
Corvus' Alaska projects have more than C$8 million in partner-fundedexploration slated for 2010, giving the junior a jump on its objectiveof becoming a nonoperator gold producer with significant carriedinterests and royalty exposure. Corvus also plans to expand itsportfolio by seeking out and acquiring new prospects.
Big budget at Chisna
The exploration work at the 163,460-acre, or 661.5-square-kilometer,Chisna project is targeting large copper-gold porphyry systems in theWrangellia Terrane of eastern Interior Alaska.
Ocean Park Ventures Corp. has committed to spending US$6.2 million inexploration at Chisna in 2010 as part of its option to earn a 51 percentstake in the copper-gold prospect by contributing a total of US$20million in exploration expenditures, making staged payments and issuingshares over five years. Ocean Park can increase its stake to 70 percentby producing a bankable feasibility study that delineates a miningproject on the Chisna property with annual production of at least300,000 gold-equivalent ounces. Raven, and then Corvus, will be theoperator of the joint venture for the first two years.
The 2010 exploration at the porphyry copper-gold prospect began with anairborne geophysical survey that was completed in mid-June. Raven willfollow up with a ground induced polarization survey and drill programexpected to start in early July.
The first two targets of this year's drill program will be the2,000-acre Ahtell alkaline porphyry copper-gold system and the large10,000-acre POW system.
Earlier this year, Raven augmented its 87,940 acres, or 356 squarekilometers, of State of Alaska claims at Chisna by acquiring 75,520acres, or about 306 square kilometers, of additional prospective landssurrounding the Ahtell discovery from Ahtna Native Corp. The agreementwith the Alaska Native regional corporation for eastern Alaska includesan exclusive right to explore and an option to lease the property.
Myers said now that Raven has an agreement with Ahtna, the company canfinish the exploration work on the Ahtell discovery made by Tower Hill.
"We will do a 3-D IP survey; that, plus the geochemical and geology,will be used to target the first drill holes at Ahtell. Then we will goup and drill a couple of holes on the POW property," he said.
A number of other targets have been defined that will be followed up onwithin this 40-mile-, or 65-kilometer-, long belt of gold and coppermineralization. The company also is considering drilling some of theseother targets depending on the results of the induced polarizationsurveys currently under way.
"As soon as the guys finish at Ahtell, then we will move over and start doing IP on other potential targets," Myers said.
Production potential at Terra
The Terra project is centered on a 5-mile-, or 8-kilometer-, long trendof high-grade gold vein occurrences which have returned numerous surfacerock samples and drill intersection in excess of 50 g/t gold.
This property, located in the southwestern part of the Alaska Range, hasbeen optioned to Nevada-based American Mining Corp., a privately heldmining company that can earn an initial 51 percent interest in Terra byspending U$6 million on exploration over three years, including $1million in 2010, and making cash payments of US$300,000 and issuing750,000 common shares over the same three-year period.
Corvus also will receive a sliding scale net smelter royalty of between0.5 percent and 5 percent, depending upon the gold price, on allprecious metal production from the property and a 1 percent NSR royaltyon all base metal production. The royalty to Corvus is in addition tothe current royalty payable to the underlying lessor.
Drilling by Tower Hill in 2006 and 2007 defined an estimated inferredresource of 428,000 metric tons averaging 12.20 g/t gold, or 168,000contained ounces, and 23.11 g/t silver, or 318,000 contained ounces, at acutoff of 5.0 g/t gold. In addition to the Ben's Vein, which hosts theresource, drilling at two other vein structures confirm the potentialfor significant resource additions on the property.
According to Tower Hill, the gold at Terra occurs as coarse native goldand can be recovered by simple gravity methods, facilitating potentiallyrapid development of a small mining project.
American Mining is reportedly planning to conduct a bulk sample of theBen's Vein in August, utilizing a small crusher and gravity separator.However, Mining News was unable to verify the report by press time.
Pogo-style projects
The two other Alaska properties going into the Corvus prospectus, WestPogo and LMS, have been joint ventured to First Star Resources Inc. Bothproperties lie in the vicinity of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.'s PogoGold Mine, a high-grade underground producer east of Fairbanks. WestPogo lies 2.8 miles, or 4.5 kilometers, west of Pogo, and is situatedalong its western property boundary. LMS can be found about 25 miles, or40 kilometers, to the north.
First Star President and CEO Bill Wishart said, "Acquisition of thisgold project marks the return of First Star to its mining roots. Ourintention is to form a gold exploration and development company aroundthese projects. In the coming weeks, we will be building our technicalstaff and preparing for an active season of drilling."
LMS is believed to be an intrusion-related vein system, withsimilarities to the gold deposit at Pogo. The property shows potentialas both a high-grade, Pogo-style target and as a lower gradebulk-tonnage prospect.
"At LMS there is some phenomenally high-grade mineralization, and wejust haven't quite figured how the structures work that control it ...at the Camp zone inside of the schists there are these, what I thinkwere originally cherty sediments, and those cherty sediments get brokenup in developed breccias that carry the lower grade, bulk-tonnagemineralization," Myers explained.
"At LMS we have some pretty good structural ideas, but we (InternationalTower Hill) discovered Livengood. If it hadn't been for Livengood wewould have been working LMS the whole time," he added.
Under the terms of the agreement, First Star has the ability to earn aninitial 55 percent interest, and a second option to earn the remaining45 percent interest. To earn the initial 55 percent interest, theVancouver, B.C.-based junior must pay Raven/Corvus US$280,000 and spendUS$3.5 million on exploration of the property. To acquire the remaining55 percent, First Star must fund the project through to an advancedexploration stage by spending an additional US$3 million by the end of2015, or by producing a NI 43-101-compliant inferred resource of 2million ounces of gold using a 0.3 g/t cutoff grade, whichever costsless. A net smelter returns royalty of 3 percent or 4 percent ongold-silver and 1 percent on all other products will be payable toCorvus, which can be reduced by 1 percent by paying Corvus US$3 million.
The West Pogo prospect represents a high-grade intrusion-related veinsystem gold target. The West Pogo claim block consists of 96 State ofAlaska mining claims covering about 4,670 acres.
Myers said exploration by Tower Hill has encountered Pogo-stylemineralization as well as other high-grade gold without the geochemicalsignatures of the ore being mined by its neighbor.
First Star has the ability to earn a 100 percent interest in West Pogo.To earn the initial 55 percent the Vancouver B.C.-based junior must payUS$250,000 and expend US$2.8 million on exploration. To acquire theremaining 45 percent interest, the company must fund the project throughto an advanced exploration stage by spending an additional US$2 millionby the end of 2015, or by producing a NI43-101 compliant inferredresource of one million ounces of gold using a 0.3 g/t cutoff grade. Theproperty also has a royalty agreement with terms identical to that atLMS.
First Star intends to conduct a drilling program on both the LMS and WP gold prospects in 2010.
The way forward
Corvus intends to hold sole ownership of its North Bullfrog goldproject, which is located about 9 miles, or 14 kilometers, north ofBarrick Gold Corp.'s multimillion-ounce Bullfrog gold mine in Nevada.
North Bullfrog hosts an indicated resource of 2.02Mt grading of 0.88 g/tgold and 0.45 g/t silver and an inferred resource of 0.95 Mt grading0.78 g/t gold and 0.36 g/t silver, both at a cutoff grade of 0.5 g/tgold.
Corvus currently plans to spend about C$1 million to complete 10,000 meters of drilling in the fall.
"We are trying to develop another low-grade, at-surface, heap-leachable resource," Myers explained.
The future Corvus president said the company will be actively searchingfor new promising properties to add to the company's portfolio.
"The way forward for Corvus is finding good prospects, joint venturingthem or discovering them ourselves. And we are very actively evaluatingprojects in Alaska, Nevada and other places to see if we can find theright upscale potential," Myers said.
"I like geology," he added. "The most fun for me is taking something,making sense of it and turning it into something that looks like youcould turn into a mine."