Cornerstone among first to list on CDNX

Cornerstone Capital Resources (CTP-V) is among the first companies to obtain a listing on the new Canadian Venture Exchange. The company began trading in late November, having completed a public offering at 15 per share under the junior capital pool requirements of the Alberta Stock Exchange.

By March 2000, Cornerstone Capital expects to have merged with Cornerstone Resources, which holds various properties in Newfoundland. The list includes the Princess properties in the Musgravetown area, which are prospective for copper, gold, silver, zinc and rare metals.

American copper giant Phelps Dodge (PD-N) has already taken an interest in Cornerstone’s Princess properties, triggered by initial work suggesting potential for volcanic red-bed-type copper deposits and/or epithermal porphyry copper-gold mineralization.

Cornerstone views its exploration work in Newfoundland as “part of a pioneering effort” insofar as the search for red-bed copper is new to the region. Previously, companies exploring in Newfoundland were largely focused on volcanogenic massive sulphides and gold, primarily in the central portion of the island.

Situated on Newfoundland’s Bonavista Peninsula, the Princess properties are underlain by a sequence of undeformed, sub-aerial Late Precambian clastic sediments and bimodal volcanics. Several showings have been identified on the property, including chalcocite and secondary copper minerals, which occur as disseminations and in quartz and quartz-carbonate veinlets hosted by mafic volcanics and clastic sediments. These showings are believed to be structurally contolled.

Phelps Dodge can earn up to a 70% interest in the properties by spending $2.5 million on exploration, paying $637,500 in cash and spending a similar amount to buy the junior’s shares.

The major has carried out geological, geophysical and geochemical surveys on the properties and is now evaluating those data before planning the next phase of work.

Elsewhere in the province, Cornerstone has properties prospective for copper, gold, silver and industrial minerals (including barite and limestone).

On the management front, John Crosbie and John Fleming recently joined the board of Cornerstone Resources.