Comaplex-WMC join forces

Vancouver — Comaplex Minerals (CMF-T) and the Canadian subsidiary of Australian-based WMC Resources (WMC-N) have agreed to merge.

The move gives Comaplex 100% of WMC’s Canadian exploration properties, including the 56% interest in the Meliadine West gold property in Nunavut.

The price tag comes in at $6.75 million and 5.2 million shares. At the end of the day, WMC will own 15% of Comaplex. The deal, which is still subject to due diligence, is expected to close on Oct. 1. The companies also agreed to share consulting services and expertise on a non-binding basis.

The merger ups Comaplex’s ownership in Meliadine West to 78%, while retaining 50% of Meliadine East’s diamond property.

Covering 371 sq. km and centred 20 km north of Rankin Inlet, the Meliadine East project is a 50-50 joint venture between Cumberland Resources (CBD-T) and Comaplex. Meliadine has been the focus of gold exploration since the fall of 1989, when Comaplex and Asamera Minerals jointly discovered promising gold values while prospecting over an area that was later named the Discovery zone.

A large package of ground was staked in February 1990, covering an east-west structural trend extending from the western shores of Hudson Bay inland for 70 km.

Cumberland bought out Asamera’s interest in each of the Meliadine and Meadowbank projects in mid-1993. The western half of the Meliadine property was subsequently optioned to WMC in 1995. WMC has since earned a 56% interest in Meliadine West by spending more than $58 million to advance the project through prefeasibility studies; in the process, it outlined six closely spaced gold deposits with a total resource of 22.1 million tonnes grading 6.33 grams, equivalent to 4.5 million oz., at a cutoff grade of 3 grams per tonne.

In early 2001, WMC announced its intention to divest itself of its stake in Meliadine West following a corporate decision to get out of the gold business. WMC has since shopped the project around at a reported price tag of US$22 million.

Cumberland and Comaplex, each of which has a 22% carried interest, hold a right of first refusal pertaining to the sale of WMC’s stake in Meliadine West.

The slowdown at Meliadine West gave Cumberland and Comaplex the opportunity to evaluate the potential of their adjoining, wholly owned Meliadine East project, which covers the eastern, 35-km-long extension of the Meliadine gold trend.

Meliadine East hosts several gold showings, including the Discovery zone, which contains an indicated resource of 1.8 million tonnes grading 6.72 grams, or 398,000 oz.

WMC handed over magnetic data from a regional airborne survey flown over the Meliadine properties, including the eastern extension, in 2001. Earlier exploration drilling (for gold targets) on Meliadine East had intersected several narrow kimberlite dykes and one ultrapotassic dyke. The dykes were encountered at depths ranging from 19 to 121 metres and up to 1.9 metres in width.

Comaplex has been in talks with Cumberland about advancing the Meliadine West gold project and aims to move forward by completing a feasibility study.