Committed to platinum Laurasia acquires Fleck

With the acquisition of the controlling block of shares in Fleck Resources whose principle asset is the 34-million-ton platinum group metals deposit in Marathon, Ont., Toronto-listed Laurasia Resources has made clear its commitment to platinum.

“We rather like the property and feel it has potential,” Dennis MacLeod, director of Laurasia tells The Northern Miner.

Fleck’s Marathon deposit has an average grade of 0.039 oz per ton platinum/palladium. Teck Corp had an option on the property this past fall, but chose not to pursue it (N.M., Dec 1/86). At that time, the estimated cost to bring the property into production was in the order of $100 million.

Mr McLeod could not say what plans are now in store for the Fleck property explaining that Laurasia has just an investment position in the company. Fleck President John McGoran was unable to be reached for further details.

The salient points of the Laurasia/Fleck deal are:

* Laurasia has signed agreements to acquire all of the issued shares of two private companies, P.G.M. Platinum Inc. and Platco Holdings Inc, for the issuance of 10,780,203 common shares of Laurasia.

* The main asset of these two private companies is 1.54 million common shares, representing 34% of the issued shares of Vancouver- listed Fleck.

This agreement follows close on the heels of another platinum deal proposed earlier this month which sees Laurasia acquiring ownership of Imperial Platinum Corp., a private company involved in several exciting grassroots platinum plays.

Imperial has about 2,000 platinum prospect claims located in the Marathon, Atikokan, Killala Lake, Lac des Iles and Reaume areas of Ontario and in the Ungava and Labrador trough areas of Quebec and also in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

Imperial has funds and promissory notes which provide about $2 million for exploration on these claims over the next two years. Currently, the Reaume and Atikokan properties are the subject of an exploration program.

The main points of the Laurasia/Imperial deal are:

* Laurasia’s purchase of 2.1 million common shares of Imperial by the issuance of Laurasia common shares over the period up to Sept 31, 1988. The share exchange ratio for the proposed acquisition will be 8.257 common shares of Laurasia for one common shares of Imperial. This ratio is based on a calculated net asset value as of Dec 31 of $1,554,433 for Laurasia and $2,685,674 for Imperial.

* Following the completion of the purchase Lauras ia will own all of the issued shares of Imperial.

* Imperial will have options outstanding to other parties to purchase an additional 1,524,900 shares of Imperial, which if exercised may be at Laurasia’s option converted into shares of Laurasia on the same basis.

In other company news, Laurasia has also reached agreement to acquire 170,542 common shares of ERG Resources for the issuance of 1,583,604 common shares of Laurasia.

ERG is involved in a $65 million gold tailings project near Timmins which will yield between 60,000- 70,000 oz gold per year over its projected 17 year life.

Agreement has also been reached with private investors for a private placement of 6.5 million common shares of the corporation at a price of 37 cents per share to raise $2,405,000. Following the completion of all these transactions, there will be about 44.7 million common shares of Laurasia on issue.