Bema joins Wolfden in Manitoba

Wolfden Resources (YWO-V) has granted fellow junior Bema Gold (BGO-T) an option to earn up to a 70% stake in the high-grade Monument Bay gold property in northeastern Manitoba.

Bema can earn an initial 51% interest in the property by spending $3 million by the end of 2005 and making annual payments of $50,000. It can boost its stake by 19% by spending another $3 million dollars and paying a total of $150,000. Bema will pay $25,000 and issue 150,000 common shares on signing a formal option agreement.

Under the government of Manitoba’s Mineral Exploration Assistance Program, Bema will be able to recoup 35% of money spent on exploration in northeastern Manitoba to a maximum of $400,000 annually.

The new deal comes just two weeks after the Canadian exploration arm of Newmont Mining (NEM-T) cancelled a back-in right (inherited via Newmont’s takeover of Battle Mountain Gold) on the Monument Bay gold property.

In return for the cancellation, Newmont Canada will be paid $500,000 if a feasibility study is tabled, and another $500,000 if commercial production follows. It retains a small smelter royalty. Wolfden can earn a 100% interest in the project by spending $3 million on exploration over six years.

High-grade gold mineralization at the 67-sq.-km Monument Bay property is hosted by the Stull Lake greenstone belt. Gold is associated with narrow quartz veins and silicified zones in the 30-km-long Twin lakes – Monument Bay deformation zone. The property is underlain by a sequence of overturned volcanic and sedimentary rocks.

Noranda (NRD-T), a past owner and the only other company besides Wolfden to have drilled the property, outlined four zones of mineralization. Results from both companies varied but ran as high as 107 grams per tonne over a few metres.

Most of the widely spaced holes tested three zones along a 3.5-km-long section of the deformation zone; the remainder remains untested. The higher-grade intersections appear to form continuous ore shoots within the three individual zones. The shoots remain open in several directions. There has been very little drilling between the zones.

Bema plans to begin its own drill program in mid-to-late February.