Oasis, Ditem add Otish Mountains land

Oasis Diamond Exploration (CSI-V) plans a program of high-resolution geophysical airborne surveying followed by till sampling on a 70-sq.-km package of land south of Majescor‘s (MAJ-T) Portage project in the Otish Mountains region of Quebec.

Oasis can acquire the property, subject to regulatory approval, by paying $18,000 in cash and issuing 750,000 shares. The property is subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty, which can be bought back for $1 million.

The property is host to several magnetic anomalies, which may represent pipe-like intrusive bodies. Regional magnetic data also suggests the presence of a northwest trending fracture in the area.

Earlier this month, Oasis negotiated a 50-50 joint venture with Montello Resources on a 460-sq.-km property in the Otish Mountains area. The property, which contains several anomalies which may suggest pipe-like intrusive bodies, is about 25 km east of the diamondiferous kimberlites recently discovered by Ashton Mining of Canada (ACA-T) and Quebec government-owned Soquem.

BHP Billiton (BHP-N) can earn up to a 56% interest in the Portage project by funding all costs through to production.

Elsewhere in the region, Ditem Explorations (DIT-V) has filed by map staking the 35-sq.-km Matoush property.

Situated east of Ditem’s Beaver Lake diamond properties, the Matoush property is underlain by the clastic and carbonaceous sedimentary rocks of the Otish Basin. Previous work on the property defined two significant magnetic anomalies — a 4-km-long linear structure and a sub-circular anomaly. Exploration drilling for uranium in the 1980s traced the linear structure to a depth of up to 200 metres.

Ditem will initially focus its exploration efforts on the linear structure.

Under a 1998 option, Ditem can earn a 49% interest in the Beaver Lake property by spending $1.5 million over four years.

Ditem recovered four macrodiamonds (greater than 0.5 mm in at least one dimension) from 96.1 kg of selected samples from six core holes in 1998. The largest stone recovered measured 0.96 by 0.6 by 0.56 mm. A follow-up, 7-tonne mini-bulk test sample failed to surrender any diamonds above a 0.8-mm square-mesh screen size. Aeromagnetic surveying and limited drilling in 1999 resulting in the discovery of lamprophyric material.

Early last week, Ditem dealt Pure Gold Minerals (PUG-T) an option to acquire a 60% interest in its Tichegami diamond exploration property in the Otish Mountains area. To acquire its interest, Pure Gold must pay $130,000 in cash and issue 200,000 shares. Pure Gold must also spend at least $1 million on exploration within three years.

The 211-sq.-km property lies immediately north of the Beaver Lake properties. Airborne geophysical surveying has identified a total of 45 potential kimberlite targets.