Blackstone to acquire 97% interest in Kenbridge
2005-03-09 09:51 ET - News Release
Mr. Donald McInnes reports
BLACKSTQNE SIGNS FINAL ACQUISITION AGREEMENT FOR KENBRIDGE NICKEL DEPOSIT, WORK PROGRAM UNDERWAY
Blackstone Ventures Inc. has executed a definitive purchase agreement to complete the acquisition of a 97-per-cent interest in Kenbridge Nickel Mines Ltd. from Falconbridge Limited (see Stockwatch on June 3, 2004). Kenbridge Nickel Mines owns a 100-per-cent interest in the Kenbridge property, which hosts a partially developed nickel-copper deposit containing 62.5 million pounds of nickel and 32 million pounds of copper along with cobalt, gold and PGE credits. The property is located approximately 70 kilometres east-southeast of Kenora, Ont., and proximal to road and rail. The deposit is open at depth and there is excellent potential to expand the deposit along strike and to locate additional deposits on the property.
During the 1950s, Falconbridge carried out extensive exploration and development work on the Kenbridge property and estimated a mineral resource at the Kenbridge deposit totalling 2.7 million tonnes grading 1.05 per cent nickel and 0.54 per cent copper to a depth of 2,000 feet. The resource includes a higher-grade area that extends from surface to the 500-foot level with an inventory of 544,300 tonnes grading 1.41 per cent nickel and 0.62 per cent copper using a cut-off grade of 0.5 per cent nickel over a minimum width of six feet. Falconbridge also estimated an additional inferred resource of 594,000 tonnes grading 1.55 per cent nickel and 0.90 per cent copper in mineralization below the 2,000-foot level.*
Blackstone recently commenced a 60-line-kilometre ground-based UTem geophysical survey that will be followed by 2,000 metres of diamond drilling in the Kenbridge deposit. The UTem survey will be carried out on a five-kilometre-long grid extending northeast and southwest from the Kenbridge deposit to evaluate a broad structural corridor with excellent potential to host additional mineralized zones. Drilling within the deposit is designed to verify nickel and copper grades from previous drilling, determine grades of platinum group metals plus cobalt and to collect samples for metallurgical testing. Additional drilling elsewhere on the property may be carried out depending upon the results of the geophysical survey and ice conditions.
In addition to the Kenbridge property, Blackstone and its partner, Falconbridge, are currently conducting UTem geophysical surveys and diamond drilling on the Espedalen property in Norway where the company recently announced the discovery of high-grade nickel mineralization at the Stormyra target. Blackstone also owns the James River property located south of High Lake, Nunavut, which is currently under option to Wolfden Resources.
*It should be noted that the reserve and resource categories quoted above do not comply with current NI 43-101 standards. The results as reported by Falconbridge should be considered as historical, but are believed to be reliable as they reflect the standards of reporting at the time.
