NSV NewsNew Shoshoni acquires claims in Lac de Gras
2004-05-28 12:32 ET - News Release
Mr. Ralf Hillebrand reports
DIAMONDIFEROUS KIMBERLITE OPTIONED
New Shoshoni Ventures has entered into option agreements to acquire mineral claims totalling 58,984 acres, located in the Lac de Gras region of Canada's Northwest Territories. These claims host the LI 201 kimberlite, which is known to be diamondiferous. LI 201 warrants additional work to establish the nature of the occurrence and the company recognizes the potential for the discovery of additional kimberlites on the claims.
The option agreements allow for the company to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in these claims from a prospecting syndicate for the staged issuance of 1.25 million shares from treasury and cash payments totalling $255,000 over a period of four years.
The vendors retain a 3-per-cent gross overriding royalty, one-third of which can be purchased by the company for $2.5-million. The vendors will also receive kimberlite bonuses for new kimberlites discovered on these claims. The first kimberlite discovery would result in the issuance of 250,000 shares from treasury, subsequent kimberlite discoveries would result in the issuance of 100,000 shares, up to a cumulative total of one million shares.
These claims are underlain by rocks of the Slave craton, which locally host the Ekati and Diavik diamond mines (approximately 60 and 90 kilometres from LI 201 respectively). The area covered by the property was previously explored during 1996 and 1997 by a joint venture operated by Kennecott Canada Exploration. Work at that time included regional scale till sampling to identify kimberlite indicator mineral (KIM) trains, airborne and ground geophysical surveying, and diamond drilling of selected targets. One new occurrence of kimberlite material was identified as a result of this program (LI 201) and is located on the claims. This kimberlite occurrence consists of kimberlitic mud, various xenoliths and mantel-derived nodules. The material is diamondiferous and results of caustic fusion analysis performed by the Kennecott Canada Exploration microdiamond recovery plant at Thunder Bay, Ont., are shown in the accompanying table.
CAUSTIC FUSION RESULTS
Diamonds Diamonds
with one with all Number of
dime- dime- diamonds
nsion nsions in 1.0 mm
DDH +0.5 mm -0.5 mm sieve
97L1201-02
97LI201-02 7 27 0
97LI201-04 7 19 1
CAUSTIC FUSION RESULTS
Total
Number of kilo-
diamonds Total grams
in 0.5 mm diamond proc-
DDH sieve count essed
97L1201-02
97LI201-02 1 34 168.8
97LI201-04 2 26 112.3
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Totals 60 281.1
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Taken from assessment report prepared by Kevin Wallis, on the ICE and CIE claims, filed by Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc. for work performed between March, 1996, and March, 1998.
Additional review of data accumulated by the joint venturers, and others, will be undertaken by the company and will be considered in the context of updated geological understanding of the Lac de Gras kimberlite field.
This acquisition brings the companies total landholdings in the Northwest Territories to approximately 107,000 acres on which three diamondiferous kimberlite pipes have been discovered to date.
These transactions are subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.
Mike Magrum, PEng, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has approved the contents of this news release.