Strateco options Campbell’s Discovery

Strateco Resources (RSC-V) has signed a letter of intent to acquire a 50% interest in Campbell Resources‘s (CCH-T) Discovery gold project in Bruneau and Desjardins Townships, about 205 km west southwest of Chibougamau, Que.

Strateco can earn its stake in the 177-sq.-km project, which comprises the Desjardins and Borduas-Martel properties, by spending $4.5 million on exploration and issuing 600,000 shares over three years. Each share comes with half a 2-year purchase warrant. One warrant allows the holder to buy one at a 20% premium over the price of the shares on the TSX Venture Exchange at the time the warrant was issued.

The deal is subject to, among other things, due diligence and regulatory approval.

The property is situated on the eastern extension of the Harricana-Turgeon belt, which is host to the Matagami, Joutel and Casa Berardi mining camps. It contains a mineralized zone stretching more than 800 metres with a depth of 600 metres. The zone is subdivided into three sub-vertical gold-bearing lenses, each 100-200 metres thick. All three zones remain open at depth; the Central and East zones are also open laterally.

Drilling below the 400-metre level on the East zone returned up to 12 grams gold per tonne over 4.35 metres and 12.4 grams gold over 2 metres. On the Central zone, the deepest hole at the 580-metre level returned 4.3 grams over 7.6 metres, including 5.5 grams over 5.1 metres.

A 1997 geological resource calculation at the Discovery zone by came in at 2.1 million tonnes grading 5.1 grams gold over an average horizontal thickness of 6.85 metres. Campbell says there is potential to add to the resources, particularly to the east where shear zones stretch for more than 2 km.

Gold mineralization is associated with a series of subvertical ductile-brittle shear zones several tens of metres thick. Gold occurs at the contact of quartz-ankerite-albite-sulfide veins and veinlets with the altered host rock.

Campbell says the deal will allow it to focus more effort on its Bachelor Mine project about 70 km to the northeast. Bachelor’s undiluted measured geological resources stand at 185,456 tonnes running 8.8 grams gold, with undiluted indicated resources of 196,568 tonnes grading 10.8 grams.