ANOTHER NEIGHBOUR OPTIONED BY SAN GOLDFirst our neighbour Cougar, now Wildcat, San Gold is quickly amassing a hugh land position of quality future exploration prospects; whilst it goes about the daily business of milling gold. IMHO however, BGE's land position based on location within the Rice, previous mines in production which only ever explored beyond several hundred feet (that was the limit of the physical capability in those days), and overall assay results, is far superior to either of these and should be a likely target once George's tenure on the BGE board becomes ancient history. That to me has become the carrot worth waiting for, and enduring all the nonsense from the current board of BGE. And don't forget, I beleive Hugh Wynne is a big shareholder of BGE (at least he was at one time via private placement, and I don't think he would have bailed from BGE given his knowledge of the Rice).
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA--(Marketwire - June 24, 2011) - Wildcat Exploration Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:WEL) is pleased to announce that it has signed a letter of intent with San Gold Corporation (TSX: SGR) to grant an option to earn an interest in three of Wildcat's gold projects in the Rice Lake greenstone belt of Manitoba. Under the terms of the letter of intent, which are to be incorporated into a definitive agreement, San Gold may earn an 80% interest in Wildcat's Mike Power, Jeep and Poundmaker projects by meeting a multi-year schedule of obligations. The four-year schedule includes exploration spending of $5.1 million; cash consideration paid to Wildcat totaling $1 million; and, subject to regulatory approval, San Gold subscriptions for shares of Wildcat with a market value of $1 million. Inclusive are terms whereby, upon signing a definitive agreement, Wildcat will receive $250,000 in cash, San Gold will subscribe for shares of Wildcat having a market value of $250,000, and San Gold will carry out $1 million of exploration spending in the first year. At the start of each of years two, three and four, Wildcat will receive further cash payments of $250,000 and San Gold will subscribe for additional Wildcat shares having a market value of $250,000. San Gold will be the operator of the projects for the duration of the agreement.
John Knowles, Wildcat's CEO commented, "This deal allows Wildcat to rapidly advance our projects in the vicinity of San Gold's deposits while bringing up to $2 million into Wildcat's treasury. By partnering with San Gold, with its nearby mill and proven mining and exploration teams, the economic hurdle to advance our properties has been substantially lowered. With San Gold exploring in three of our Rice Lake properties, this transaction allows us to focus energies on our other gold projects in the Uchi subprovince at Siderock and McVicar, as well as our base metal projects at Reed in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt and at Burntwood in the Thompson Nickel Belt."
The Mike Power property is comprised of 24 contiguous claims covering 3,029 hectares with the eastern boundary approximately 3.5 km west of the San Gold's Rice Lake Mine at Bissett. The property straddles the Gold Creek Shear Zone which is interpreted to represent the western extension of the Normandy Creek fault.
Wildcat's initial 2011 drill program on the property, comprised of 1,200 metres in seven holes, discovered a wide zone of intermittent, anomalous gold mineralization in diamond drill hole ("DDH") MP–11–01 (see news release of February 4, 2011). To follow up on the discovery Wildcat collared two holes flanking DDH MP-11-01 at approximately 80 to 100 metre step outs. The most easterly hole intersected improved values in a gold-bearing structure that now has gold mineralization up to 180 metres in strike length and open in all directions (see news release of March 23, 2011).
The Jeep property encompasses 4,016 hectares in 26 claims and is located 14 km east of the Rice Lake Mine. It is host to multiple west-northwest trending gold-bearing vein systems that were mined from 1949 to 1951. The property hosts the past producing Jeep gold mine with historical production of approximately 18,000 tons of ore at an average gold grade of 0.78 oz/ton (non-compliant with NI 43-101).
A total of 945 metres of drilling in six holes was completed on the project during the 2010/11 winter drilling program. Diamond drill hole JP–10–24 intersected 0.29 metres grading 55.1 g/t gold (see news release of February 4, 2011). The mineralization was interpreted to be related to a northeasterly structure that cross-cuts the southeasterly-trending main mine trend structure. Previous drilling by Wildcat, along the main mine trend, returned gold mineralization from a quartz vein with visible gold assaying 109.5 g/t Au over a core length of 0.78 metres, intersected in drill hole JP-06-05 from 219.12 to 219.9 metres depth.
The Poundmaker property, previously under option to a third party, was returned to Wildcat in March 2011. The property is comprised of 72 claims covering 12,176 hectares in the Saxton Lake area of the Rice Lake greenstone belt, west of Bissett, Manitoba. Its eastern boundary is approximately 5 km west of the Rice Lake Mine and the property extends west for a distance of 23 kilometres, straddling the Wanipigow fault which is the dominant geological feature of the Rice Lake greenstone belt.
The property hosts several gold occurrences and historical workings, some of which had been sampled and drill tested by Wildcat prior to granting the previous option. The property is interpreted to be underlain by favourable rocks and structures that are along strike from known gold mineralization on the San Gold property.
Wildcat's exploration program is managed by Tom Lewis, P.Eng., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, who has reviewed all technical information in this release.