Joutel will sell units to fund Cuban exploration prospects

In order to finance further exploration of its Cuban holdings, Joutel Resources (TSE) will sell up to 12 million units at 30 cents each for gross proceeds of up to $3.5 million. Each unit consists of one subordinate voting share and one warrant, with each warrant entitling the holder to buy one subordinate voting share for up to 18 months from the offer’s closing at 60 cents.

Vancouver-based Teck (TSE) has agreed to subscribe to $500,000 of the offering. Last year, the company signed an agreement allowing the senior to earn up to a 50% interest in three of Joutel’s Cuban properties.

Once funds have been received, Joutel plans to complete development drilling of the Barita zone on the Sierra Maestra concession near Santiago de Cuba. Trenching and drilling have outlined a preliminary geological resource of 476,810 oz. gold and 1.8 million oz. silver. Joutel plans to complete a 43-hole, 7,500-metre program to expand and elevate the existing resource to the status of being minable by open-pit methods. In addition to development drilling, a 6-hole, 3,000-metre exploration program will be conducted along portions of a 4-km-long geophysical anomaly adjacent to, and possibly coincident with, the Barita zone. The programs will employ two rigs and take about three months to complete.

Over the past two years, Joutel outlined about 30 precious and base metal targets in Cuba, and these will be tested over the next 18 to 24 months.

Two of the more promising targets are found in the Vidot-Cascorro concession in the Camaguey area.

La Purisima, at the junction of two major structures, represents a strong hematitic-limonitic gossan zone measuring more than 125 metres in width. Assays from the zone include a 410.6-gram-gold-per-tonne grab sample taken from a large boulder found along strike from the zone. Other samples assayed between 1.07 and 4.12 grams.

The second target, the Vista de Principe, is composed of several scattered, gossanous boulders which lie parallel to an east-west-trending regional structure. Three grab samples taken from the boulders ran between 1.52 and 108.6 grams. At present, Joutel is cutting a grid over these targets in preparation for geological and geophysical surveys.