Toronto’s Inventus Mining has signed a letter of intent to acquire three mineral properties next to one of its Sudbury projects.
In a series of transactions in the next few months, Inventus will pick up the Wolf Lake, Cobalt Hill and Rathbun Lake properties from Flag Resources in exchange for “nominal share consideration” and two per cent smelter royalty.
The deal still requires approval from Flag’s shareholders and the TSX Venture exchange.
Exploration in the Wolf Lake area has been somewhat controversial as activists want the area protected for conservation purposes.
Inventus has two nearby properties, Sudbury 2.0 and the Pardo Paleoplacer Gold Project, 40 kilometres and 65 kilometres northeast of the city, respectively.
In early November, the company made claims that it had opened a “new exploration frontier” on the outskirts of the Sudbury Basin that could possible yield a second Sudbury mineral camp based on their discovery of three offset dykes.
A Nov. 27 Inventus news release said the Wolf Lake and Cobalt Hill properties have shown past signs of gold and copper.
But based on surface samples collected by Inventus, there are also indications of cobalt, nickel and gold.
Flag picked up the properties in 1980 and drilled until 2001, reporting high-grade assays of gold and copper about a kilometre apart and along the same geological structure.
In October, Flag obtained a drill permit for some follow-up work. Inventus insists there’s potential for cobalt, nickel, platinum and palladium mineralization at Cobalt Hill and Wolf Lake.
Inventus obtained public records of Flag’s drilling programs from the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, but haven’t been able to find any old drill core.
At Rathbun Lake, Inventus sees the potential for high-grade palladium, platinum, copper, nickel and gold.
The property was mined in the 1890’s with a 45-foot deep shaft and 35 feet of drifting. The area was explored in the early 1950s before Flag Resources picked it up in 1982.
Based on records of historic assays, and from Inventus’ own research, the company believes there is a previously unknown Sudbury offset dyke that could host high-grade platinum group metals, nickel, gold and silver.
