Abacus eyes Niblack play

The Niblack volcanogenic massive sulphide project in southeastern Alaska has caught the eye of Abacus Minerals (VSE), which has entered into two separate agreements to acquire a 100% interest.

The 185-claim property is situated within steep topography near tidewater on Prince of Wales Island, 20 miles southwest of Ketchikan. It is currently owned 70.49% by Lac Minerals (now a unit of TSE-listed Barrick Gold) and 29.51% by Noranda Mining & Exploration (wholly owned by TSE-listed Noranda). Abacus, now controlled by the Pamicon group, says previous operators spent US$4.5 million on the property, with this work resulting in the identification of five promising mineralized structures in the vicinity of the turn-of-the-century Niblack mine site: the Gold, Lookout, Dama, Lyndsy and 88 zones.

“This is an exciting project for a junior company,” Abacus President Steve Todoruk told The Northern Miner. “There are targets ready to be tested, and we think more will be found.”

Todoruk said previous drilling returned encouraging results from several of the targets, including one considered to have potential for an oxide, near-surface, open-pit gold deposit.

Previous drill results from the Gold zone include 220.7 ft. grading 0.138 oz. gold and 1.43 oz. silver per ton, which includes 35.9 ft. of 0.28 oz. gold and 3.14 oz. silver, as well as another 32.6 ft. of 0.429 oz. gold and 3.24 oz. silver.

Below this zone are two massive sulphide lenses where past drilling returned 20 ft. of 0.265 oz. gold, 4.58 oz. silver, 4.89% copper and 8.02% zinc, as well as 36 ft. of 0.043 oz. gold, 0.47% copper and 7.37% zinc. Drilling also returned encouraging results from the Dama target, including 51.5 ft. of 0.04 oz. gold and 1.74 oz. silver, plus 6.97% copper and 3.87% zinc, which includes 27.5 ft of 0.02 oz. gold, 2.24 oz. silver, 9.73% copper and 4.77% zinc.

The terms for acquiring Lac’s interest include: an initial payment of $200,000 and 400,000 shares; four separate option agreements allowing Lac to buy 4 million shares over the next four years; exploration expenditures of $2 million over a 3-year period (including 10,000 ft. of diamond drilling to be carried out within one year); an additional 600,000 shares delivered upon completion of the drilling; and a further 400,000 shares when a production decision is made.

Lac retains a sliding-scale net smelter return royalty of 1-3%, based on profitability.

The acquisition of Noranda’s interest calls for payment of $50,000 and 100,000 shares. An additional 100,000 shares are to be issued upon a production decision being made.

The property is subject to a 19.75% net profits interest on the 148 Deanna unpatented claims, and a 10% net profits interest on all patented ground.