Toronto-based World Wide Minerals (WWS-T) has reached a preliminary agreement with La Paz-based Yi Chuan Gold to explore the Yi Chuan gold property in Bolivia.
The 38-sq.-km property lies 240 km north of La Paz in the Andean Fold Belt at an altitude of 4,600 metres above sea level.
World Wide has a 5-year option to acquire an 85% interest in the property. To do so, it must make incremental payments, totalling US$7 million, to the owners and spend US$2.5 million on exploration by Dec. 31, 1998. Although World Wide can halt option payments and exploration at any time, it will have earned a 35% interest after making the 1997 option payment and satisfying the 1997 work commitments.
The property was introduced to World Wide by the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources (MGMR) in China’s Shandong province. MGMR is World Wide’s partner in several gold exploration projects in China. The ministry had already performed preliminary geological reconnaissance work on the property for Yi Chuan Gold and will earn a 5% interest in the property. Yi Chuan will hold the remaining 10%.
Both Yi Chuan Gold and MGMR will be carried until the completion of a mine feasibility study. However, during the option period, World Wide may acquire the 15% interest for US$3.75 million.
Gold mineralization at the property is associated with quartz and carbonate veins within a series of altered argillaceous and carbonaceous slates and schists of Ordovician age.
World Wide staff has prepared preliminary evaluations of the 1, 9 and 10 veins and the F3 zone following sampling at surface and from old mine workings.
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