Teck joins Loubel at Lemoine in Quebec

In the wake of its acquisition last year of the Lemoine polymetallic property, near Chibougamau, Que., Loubel Exploration (LBX-M) has found a major partner for the project.

Serving as operator, Teck (TEK-T) can acquire a 60% interest in the 210-claim property by fulfilling obligations that include: paying $50,000 in cash; spending $3 million on exploration over 60 months; buying $300,000 worth of Loubel shares via private placement over two years, either at market price or at 15 cents per share (whichever is greater); and making two $25,000 payments to a subsidiary of Australia’s WMC Ltd. (WMC-N). (Loubel acquired the first half of Lemoine from Quebec government-owned Soquem and the second half from WMC.) As well, Teck will hold a right of first refusal on Loubel’s share of any production financing.

“Taking into consideration the financial markets for juniors, we are very pleased with this agreement,” says Gilles Fiset, president of Rouyn-Noranda-based Loubel. “Teck is a great partner and they are really bullish on this one.”

The property comprises 3,344 ha on the southern flank of the Chibougamau pluton. Included in the land package is the past-producing Lemoine mine, which, from 1973 to 1985, exploited

a volcanogenic-massive-sulphide deposit that yielded, from surface to a depth of 458 metres, more than 750,000 tonnes grading 9.6% zinc, 4.2% copper, 4.54 grams gold per tonne and 83.83 grams silver per tonne.

Fiset says the property holds exploration potential both at depth beneath the old workings and along strike from the mine over a distance of 17 km. He says Teck intends to begin a deep electromagnetic (EM) geophysical survey this winter before drilling gets under way at summer’s end.

He also expects Teck to make an application under a program, recently introduced by the Quebec government, that subsidizes half the drilling costs of work carried out below a depth of 400 metres. The program does not include drilling campaigns financed by flow-through share financing.

Soquem spent $1.3 million exploring Lemoine in the 1990s and produced many potential drill targets. The work included some induced-polarization and pulse-EM surveys, as well as the drilling of 14 stratigraphic holes.

Says Fiset: “Soquem was able to prove that the marker horizon has never been correctly tested — some holes were too short. There was some drilling in the past, but when you’re not sure where your marker horizon is located, your hole has been drilled for nothing.”

Exploration of Loubel’s other major property, the Queylus polymetallic deposit, also near Chibougamau, has been discontinued, owing to low grades and weak metal prices.

“We still have confidence in Queylus,” says Fiset. “Our game plan is simple: we’d like to complete another private placement with a mutual fund based in Quebec and retain a consultant specializing in porphyry deposits who can help us bring in another major. Since 1995, we’ve drilled about 40 holes and everybody knows that, for a porphyry situation, you need 400-500 holes.”

Also active in the Chibougamau camp is Loubel’s sister company, Tom Exploration (tum-m), which recently optioned the Jaculet mining concession.

Tom can acquire a 100% interest in one mining concession, two mining blocks and 38 mining claims from privately held Arca Exploration by issuing 125,000 shares and 125,000 warrants exercisable at 40 cents over 54 months. As well, Tom must spend $800,000 on exploration over the next 54 months.

During the 1960s and ’70s, the Jaculet mine produced 1.1 million tonnes grading 2.2% copper and 2.4 grams gold per tonne from workings that reached a depth of 366 metres. A mineralized corridor between Jaculet and the former Bateman Bay mine has never been tested. The Jaculet concession is subject to a back-in clause in favor of MSV Resources (MSV-T), which can reacquire a half-interest by paying all exploration and development costs incurred by Tom.

“There’s a huge potential in Chibougamau, but it is underexplored,” says Fiset. “In the good years of flow-through [the mid- to late-1980s], not a lot of money was spent in Chibougamau; most was spent in Val d’Or, Rouyn-Noranda and then Timmins. You can still buy or stake a property in Chibougamau for practically nothing — it’s amazing.”