Just as a $4.5-million bought-deal financing was about to close,
Aquiline, a Toronto-based junior led by Marc Henderson, owns the rights to the Calcatreu gold-silver project, which straddles the Argentine provincial boundary between Rio Negro and Chubut, 40 km northwest of the Navidad discovery. Aquiline acquired the project from
Calcatreu covers a large land package totalling 730 sq. km centred on a low-sulphidation, epithermal gold system. Gold-bearing mineralization was discovered in the Calcatreu area by LaSource Developpement Argentine in late 1997, when a geologist sampled quartz float along the roadside. The project passed to Normandy Mining of Australia when it purchased LaSource from the French government in 1998.
Follow-up work from the float samples led to the discovery of mineralized vein systems at 11 prospective areas of the project. With a strike length of over 2 km and widths of up to 20 metres, the near-surface Vein 49/Nelson prospect has been the most intensely explored. Field exploration includes ground geophysics, soil sampling, prospecting and rock-chip sampling. Normandy also completed regional stream-sediment sampling consisting of 429 BLEG (bulk leach extractable gold) samples collected at an average spacing of 5 sq. km per sample, and regional geological mapping.
Four rounds of drilling were completed at Calcatreu between 1999 and 2001. Aquiline also completed a small due diligence drilling campaign comprised of 1,275 metres in 14 holes. Aquiline reported results highlighted by 22 metres of 7.8 grams gold and 31 grams silver per tonne, 14 metres of 13.5 grams gold and 64 grams silver, and 19 metres of 7.8 grams gold and 40.2 grams silver.
In total, 65 holes, for 7,992 metres, have been completed on the two main deposits. Normandy estimated a mineral resource for the Vein 49/Nelson area of 5.6 million tonnes containing 2.97 grams gold and 26 grams silver, equal to 531,000 oz. gold and 4.6 million oz. silver. Because this resource estimate does not meet the requirements of National Instrument 43-101, Aquiline has engaged Toronto-based consultant Micon International to deliver an independent calculation.
Through its acquisition of Normandy in 2002, Newmont acquired the Calcatreu project, only to put it up for sale. IMA was apparently one of a dozen companies that reviewed the project and signed a confidentiality agreement. IMA, however, did not bid on the project. IMA’s president, Joseph Grosso, says the confidentiality agreement extends only for a 2-km buffer zone around the Calcatreu land package, which is 40 km from Navidad.
Aquiline reached an initial agreement with Newmont over Calcatreu in January 2003. IMA reports that Aquiline is requesting information regarding the events and methods that led to the discovery and staking of the Navidad claims. “The letter makes no specific factual allegations or claims and asserts no specific cause of action against the company, and appears to be part of a general investigation by Aquiline to determine whether the bidders for the Calcatreu project, including the company [IMA], complied with the bid process for the Calcatreu project,” states IMA.
Grosso says the timing of Aquiline’s letter, which is worded in a way that could lead to a potential lawsuit, has disrupted the closing of its bought-deal financing with Canaccord Capital and First Associates. The $4.5-million offering priced at $2.25 per unit was scheduled to close on or about Oct. 2.
“Their inquiry is groundless,” says Grosso.
IMA’s geologists made the grassroots discovery of a large high-grade zone of outcropping and subcropping mineralization on the Navidad hillside in north-central Chubut in early December 2002, while conducting preliminary field investigations of targets derived from a compilation of satellite data and regional maps. The Navidad discovery area has no known exploration history, and there is no indication that any of the showings were previously discovered or sampled, states consulting geologist Paul Lhotka in a technical report. IMA has been exploring for gold in Argentina and Peru for almost a decade, under the guidance of Grosso, who founded the company in 1993. Grosso says the company has been conducting field investigations in the Patagonia region since 1995. Today the company owns 37 projects and properties.
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