Minotaur Exploration (MEP-A) announced recently that it has been granted 250 exploration licences covering more than 2,800 sq. km of prospective copper-gold ground along the Cobequid-Chedabucto fault zone in central Nova Scotia.
The company’s move to Nova Scotia is its first overseas project.
In addition to the exploration licences, Minotaur signed an agreement with Dundee Precious Metals (DPM-T, DPMLF-O), a Canadian- based international mining group, which will allow the Australian explorer to be carried in its first years of exploration in Canada.
Dundee Precious Metals will earn a 51% stake in the Minotaur project areas by financing C$4 million of exploration over three years.
Following the earn-in period, Dundee Precious Metals will have the choice to raise its stake in selected properties up to 70% by financing them through to a decision to mine.
Plans for the Nova Scotia venture include a first-year commitment of C$1 million on major gravity surveys.
In a written statement, Minotaur’s managing director, Derek Carter, said iron occurrences and production within the Chedabucto-Cobequid fault zone date back to the 1800s.
“But it is only in very recent years that an associated enrichment of copper, gold, cobalt, and nickel has been recognized as part of Nova Scotia’s mineral character.”
Minotaur wants to bring its experience exploring for iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposits in Australia to Canada’s bucolic eastern seaboard.
The Adelaide-headquartered company said that the area “has not been subjected to modern Australian exploration methods including intensive gravity surveys to identify drill targets” and that “existing gravity coverage over the province is poor and has been little used in previous exploration.”
In 2001, Minotaur discovered the Prominent Hill copper-gold deposit in southern Australia in what was one of the decade’s most outstanding greenfield discoveries in the country.
Prominent Hill is 650 km northwest of Adelaide and 130 km northwest of BHP Billiton’s (BHP-N, BLT-L) Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine.
Minotaur has high expectations for the A$775-million mine development. A prefeasibility study in 2005 confirmed that development of Prominent Hill would be highly economic.
The study indicated that an open-pit operation would be capable of producing 90,000-100,000 tonnes copper and 110,000-130,000 oz. gold annually.
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