Buchans River options ground from Noranda

St. John’s, Nfld.-based Buchans River (BUY-A) has agreed to option the Little Sandy base metal properties in the central region of its home province.

The vendor, Noranda Mining & Exploration, a subsidiary of Noranda (NOR-T), will retain a 2% net smelter return royalty and the right to buy back a half-interest upon delivery of a positive feasibility study.

The properties are 7-15 km east of the former Buchans mine and cover known alteration zones, as well as soil and basal till geochemical anomalies.

Drilling by previous owner Asarco identified several base metal showings, including the Little Sandy prospect, which has a drill-indicated geological resource of 180,000 tons grading 1.9% copper.

To acquire the properties, Buchans River must spend $100,000 on exploration over four years.

The junior owns various properties in the former-producing Buchans River camp, including the Oriental and Old Buchans mines, part of the Lucky Strike mine, and the Clementine and Middle Branch propects. From 1928 to 1984, these mines produced 16.2 million tonnes grading 14.51% zinc, 7.56% lead and 1.33% copper, as well as 1.37 grams gold and 126 grams silver per tonne.

The mineral properties in the area are underlain by the Buchans Group formation, which hosts the volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits previously mined. The Buchans Group is described as a complex assemblage of subaqueous mafic and felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks plus related proximal clastic sediments of Lower Ordovian age. Unravelling the stratigraphy is said to be difficult owing to the abundance of thrust faults. The deposits are associated with felsic pyroclastic and breccia rocks of the Buchans River Formation.