Jascan earns interest in gold project

Jascan Resources has gained a 60% interest in the Dawson project, which has about one million tons of drill-indicated reserves grading 0.15 oz gold per ton, acquired from U.S. Borax & Chemical Corp. by a company associated with Jascan (N.M., Mar 16 /87).

Included in the acquisition were eight other gold properties. Jascan put up the entire $3 million(US) for the purchase and will gain its 60% direct interest in all of them for $1.8 million of that. The related company — a private company related inasmuch as Will Felderhof is president of both — will owe Jascan the balance of $1.2 million for its interest.

Jascan, a company which already operates on a worldwide basis with gold exploration interests in Indonesia as well as North America, has recently made some other moves to enhance its position. Its board of directors has been expanded to include Fenton Scott, a professional engineer associated with some of the Hughes-Lang ventures in Quebec, and Dan Gillis, a geologist.

Also on the board are former Pamour Inc. President Dennis MacLeod, mining consultant Peter Howe, R. D. McCloskey and Mr Felderhof.

Jascan is also seeking a listing on The Toronto Stock Exchange which, combined with its international exposure, could increase the volume of trading in the company’s shares.

The Dawson project’s reserves are estimated using a cutoff grade of 0.04 oz and an average true mining width of 47.9 ft. If a higher cutoff grade is used to increase the average grade, the mining width remains high although over-all tonnage drops. Regardless of the overall tonnage, the mining width will allow relatively low-cost mining, says Mr Felderhof.

Jascan and its joint venture partner plan to drive a decline, then crosscut and drift on the main mineralized zone in order to do underground drilling.

As well as the known zone, the property covers about four miles of strike length of the favorable geological structure. In one area about 2,000 ft west of the Dawson main zone and in the same stratigraphic horizon a surface channel yielded 0.32 oz over 33 ft.

A drill hole collared about 500 ft south of the channel sample cut 84 ft of core length grading 0.05 oz including 10 ft of true thickness grading 0.12 oz. Deeper in the same hole a 3-ft intercept ran 1.13 oz.

Other properties in the transaction include: the Royal Vindicator project in Georgia, a mine that dates back to the American civil war, where drill-indicated reserves stand at 351,304 tons grading 0.15 oz across an 8-ft true width and using a cutoff grade of 0.08 oz; two properties in Newfoundland; and one property in New Brunswick.