New Canamin in search for copper

With the recent acquisition of interests in two porphyry copper properties, New Canamin Resources (VSE) has joined the search for the next copper mine in British Columbia.

The company recently signed an agreement with Placer Dome (TSE) to earn a 50% interest in Placer’s Nanika property about 18 miles northeast of Kemano, B.C. New Canamin can earn the interest by spending a total of $75,000. Previous work on the Nanika property conducted by Quintana Minerals in the late 1960s indicated the presence of a northeast trending zone of copper-molybdenum mineralization measuring more than 400 ft. thick and 2,400 ft. long. Drilling on the property returned a number of wide intersections grading in excess of 0.50% copper.

Alan Savage, president of Canamin, said the company will spend at least $75,000 on infill drilling on the property before year-end.

The second property agreement gives New Canamin the right to acquire a 100% interest in the Poplar property about 45 road-miles south of Houston, B.C. To acquire the interest, New Canamin must make staged payments totalling $2 million during the next three years. The company is also issuing 480,000 treasury shares in the acquisition.

The treasury issue as well as a recently announced 600,000-share placement to Rayrock Yellowknife Resources (TSE) at a price of 60 cents per share will give New Canamin about 2.9 million shares outstanding and working capital of about $300,000.

Savage said a crew is now on the Poplar property re-establishing Utah Mine’s old grid. Utah Mines spent about $2.5 million on the property prior to 1982, drilling 73 holes in a small area of a larger prospective area measuring about one by two miles.

Utah’s preliminary estimates from this work puts potential reserves at 290 million tons grading 0.37% copper equivalent including molybdenum, gold and silver credits.

Savage said the company is conducting some base-line environmental studies and plans to begin a 5,000-ft. drilling program on the property within two weeks. Five infill holes are planned for Utah’s reserve area and an additional five holes will be drilled immediately to the west to test a strong goechemical anomaly.

A further five holes will be drilled to test another large anomaly located about two miles to the east. Soil sampling in the area has returned values of 0.1-0.2% copper and although Utah did some trenching on the anomaly, these results have been misplaced.