Jascan/Atlantic take Dawson claim dispute to Colo. court

A dispute has erupted over the validity of a mining lease on a small portion of the Dawson project in Colorado.

Alberta-listed Jascan Resources and joint venture partner Atlantic Goldfields, whose shares trade on COATS, have launched a court action against the lessors of eight claims on the property.

The owners of a one-half interest in the claims allege the lease expired due to the lack of exploration work, Jascan president, Will Felderhof says. The two companies are seeking monetary damages from the lessors for the delays caused by their allegation.

The claims were leased to Jascan and Atlantic following a deal with U.S. Borax early last year. Since then about $1 million has been spent exploring the property, according to Jascan.

About 300,000 tons of gold mineralization have been identified in the main Dawson ore shoot. Grades average 0.27 oz gold per ton.

The most recent drilling has identified three new promising zones of mineralization. One, about 300 ft west of the main Dawson shoot, returned values of 0.33 oz gold per ton over a true width of 9.4 ft.

The other two, have been discovered about 2,000 ft west of the main zone. Drill results from one of these shoots — the Windy Gulch East — returned grades of 0.74 oz over 8.0 ft.

The other shoot — Windy Gulch East — has been identified in a road-cut where channel sampling returned values of 0.66 oz over 10.4 ft and 0.32 oz over 9.0 ft.

One hole put down below the road-cut yielded 0.11 oz over a 5.2-ft width.

Drilling continues on the property.

Jascan has also started the third phase of drilling on the Dufferin mine property in Halifax Cty., N.S. About 10,000 ft is planned to test two parallel zones of gold mineralization which have been delineated over a strike length of about 1,800 ft.