Ascot searches for Sullivan-type deposits

Having walked away from a joint venture on the Fort copper-molybdenum-silver property in the Babine Lake area of central British Columbia, Ascot Resources (AOT-V) has turned its attention to the Cranbrook area, in the southeast, in search of Sullivan look-a-like massive sulphide deposits.

The Vancouver-based junior recently entered into two separate option agreements on properties it considers prospective for sedimentary exhalative-type mineralization. Ascot can initially earn a half-interest from Chapleau Resources (CHI-V) in the Cruz property, 25 km south of Cranbrook, by spending $700,000 on exploration over three years and issuing a total of 150,000 shares over the next two years. Once vested, Ascot can earn an additional 10% by paying $500,000.

Ascot has also acquired an option to acquire the Smoker and DA Vent properties from privately held Super Group Holdings (SGH). The company is required to make cash payments totalling $7,000, issue 100,000 shares and commit to first-year expenditures of $85,000. After year one, Ascot must spend $1.7 million on exploration over four years and distribute an additional 300,000 shares of the company to SGH.

Earlier this summer, Ascot and joint-venture partner Eastfield Resources (ETF-V) carried out mapping, prospecting, soil geochemistry and induced-polarization (IP) geophysical surveys to evaluate a grassroots copper-molybdenum discovery at the Fort property, 100 km west of Fort St. James.

This program defined a 300-by-800-metre copper soil anomaly adjacent to the western margin of a 1,600-metre-long IP chargeability anomaly. Both features are said to be coincident with potassic altered monzonite and granodiorite dykes, sediments and breccias along the margins of a large pyroxenite intrusive body.

Ascot concluded that while the extent of the copper and IP anomalies was interesting, the geological setting with respect to a porphyry copper-style of target did not warrant further exploration and so the company dropped its option.

Eastfield, in the meantime, says it is in discussions with several groups concerning participation in the Fort project. The company has applied for permission to construct a 2-km drill access road into the heart of the target area.