Northgate picks up Sustut

Vancouver — Northgate Minerals (NGX-T) has announced plans to buy the Sustut copper deposit from Doublestar Resources (DSR-V). The deposit is in north-central British Columbia, 40 km south of Northgate’s Kemess South mine.

In return, Northgate has agreed to pay $1.7 million in five stages.

Falconbridge (FL-T), which retains a 9% net profits interest royalty, discovered the deposit in 1971, since which time almost 22,000 metres of drilling has been completed, as well as an engineering study.

The study identified a measured resource of 4.9 million tonnes grading 1.7% copper in the Southeast and Southwest zones, plus an indicated resource of 2.8 million tonnes of 1.61% copper. The estimates were based on a cutoff grade of 0.7% copper.

A 2003 feasibility study outlined an open pit containing 4.7 million tonnes of ore grading 2.02% copper and 2.02 grams silver per tonne, representing 208 million lbs. of in situ copper.

Doublestar retains a sliding-scale royalty of up to $2 per tonne when the price of copper exceeds US$1.40 per lb.

Northgate sees Sustut as a source of high-grade copper ore feed to blend with the lower-grade material from Kemess South and North.

The Kemess South mine (300,000 oz. gold and 75 million lbs. copper per year) and Kemess North (4.1 million oz.) are Northgate’s principal assets.