The company will spend US$1 million on exploration and pay US$115,000 in cash over four years in a deal that is subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty, which can be purchased at any time for US$2.5 million.
The property hosts stratiform copper mineralization and is said to be geologically similar to the Kupferschiefer copper-shale deposits in Europe and the Zambian copper belt deposits in Africa. These deposits have been described as having a syngenetic chemical sedimentary origin within redox basin environments.
Caribou Dome is accessible by road and is near a major highway.
The property was previously owned by a private company, which conducted exploration in the late 1960s. Little work has been done since that time. Based on calculations by the previous operators, Caribou Dome contains a preliminary resource of 550,400 tons averaging 5.8% copper.
Past work included surface trenching and percussion and diamond drilling, as well as some 2,900 ft. of underground development. In total, 224 surface and underground holes, spanning 34,074 ft., were sunk.
The deepest drill hole cut 50.6 ft. (true thickness 40 ft.) grading 7.01% copper at a depth of 800 ft. from the surface. Metallurgical tests in the 1970s indicated that recovery of a high-grade concentrate would be difficult to produce. However, Atna says metallurgical improvements since that time have done much to alleviate the problem.
The resource is contained in three of nine known sulphide lenses that outcrop over a strike length of 2,400 ft. Mineralization remains open along strike and downdip. Host stratigraphy continues for about 1,000 ft. to the northwest and up to 7,000 ft. to the southeast.
In June, Atna plans to begin geological mapping, geochemistry, geophysics and diamond drilling.
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