Majescor Acquires Diamond-Uranium Project from De Beers in the Eastern Arctic
MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(CCNMatthews - Oct. 25, 2005) - Majescor (TSX VENTURE:MAJ) is pleased to announce that is has signed an agreement with De Beers Canada giving Majescor an option on De Beers' Baker Lake project located some 50 km west of the town of Baker Lake, in the eastern Arctic area of Nunavut. The project has both diamond and uranium potential and the agreement provides for separate options for the two commodities.
De Beers acquired a large land position for diamond west of Baker Lake in 2004. They proceeded to carry out regional sampling for indicator minerals across the property, a continuation of the regional prospecting they had undertaken in the region in 1998. Part of the original property located immediately north of the Majescor/De Beers ground has recently been optioned to Cameco Corporation (see De Beers press release dated August 2, 2005). The land package under option to Majescor consists of 51 mineral permits covering over 9,000 square kilometers. Thirteen of the permits have been set aside for uranium exploration while the rest has been retained for diamond.
De Beers will have spent an aggregate of some Can$1,240,000 in diamond exploration by the end of the year on the property of interest which lies on the Archean Rae craton. Six target areas were defined by the 2004 regional effort which generated more than 350 samples. Five of the targets were followed up in the fall of 2005 through more detailed till sampling and airborne geophysics. Counts upwards of 25; spinel, garnet and ilmenite, were reported in 2004. Results for the 2005 work are expected by this coming December at which time the program for 2006 will be established by the partners.
The 13 permits retained for uranium are either directly located on the projected southwest-trending extension of the Kiggavik Trend or contain known uranium showings which appear to be closely associated with the Snowbird Tectonic Zone. The Baker Lake property rests on the eastern margin of the Thelon Basin and it has the potential to support an unconformity-style uranium deposit as it is bears striking geological similarities with the Athabasca Basin located 300 km to the southwest, in Saskatchewan. The latter hosts a number of high-grade unconformity and subunconformity deposits. However, compared to the Athabasca Basin, the Thelon Basin is relatively under-explored and it has not yet been prospected using modern technologies as the bulk of work was mostly reconnaissance work done in the boom years of the 1970's and 1980's. The interest for the Thelon Basin has surged in 2005, especially with Cameco's deal with Uravan Minerals and De Beers. Cameco is one of the world's largest uranium producers.
Cogema's Kiggavik uranium deposit, first discovered in 1977, contains some 48.5 t of U at an average grade of 0.405% U (see Diamonds North Resources press release September 22, 2005). Located less than 20 kilometers north of the property, it occurs on a 25 km long zone called the Kiggavik trend, whose southwest direction projects onto Majescor's property. Some seven occurrences and small deposits of uranium, known from the 1970's, form a northeasterly trend in the southeastern corner of the property. This trend correlates with the Snowbird Tectonic Zone and the showings are hosted by rocks of the Baker Lake Group. They are epigenetic and hosted mainly by sedimentary units. They include disseminations in sandstone and conglomerate, along arkosic lamellae in siltstone, and in thermal aureoles of the lamprophyric dykes related to the volcanic units. The common metallic association is U + Cu + Pb + Ag.
The terms of the agreement can be summarized as follows. For diamonds, the parties intend to form a 50:50 joint venture once Majescor has solely funded $1,240,000 in exploration by December 31st, 2008, starting in January. De Beers will be the operator at the onset. For uranium, Majescor can earn a 50% interest in the project by spending $400,000 until December 31st, 2008, Majescor being the operator. Majescor can further increase its interest to 80% in the uranium project by solely funding a further $240,000.
"These deals consolidate Majescor's position as a major player in the diamond industry in Canada. We are also very pleased to pursue our strong alliance with De Beers in this country. The Baker Lake project has a great potential for both diamond and uranium and we are most fortunate that the large land package was assembled by De Beers in the promising Thelon Basin area before the current uranium rush began last year. We intend to spin-off or option the uranium project and concentrate on the diamond asset" says Andre Audet, CEO and Chairman for Majescor.
In other news, De Beers Africa has advised Majescor that it was abandoning the strategic alliance with Majescor in northern and central Madagascar in view of its large commitments elsewhere in Africa. Majescor retains a 100% ownership of this large land package, all indicator minerals-supported. The kimberlites recently discovered by Majescor in Madagascar are located well outside of the area of interest of the agreement with De Beers, on ground held in partnership with Madagascar Mining Development.
Majescor is an exploration company with a large portfolio of diamond properties in Quebec, as well as projects in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Brazil and Madagascar.
AI
