Copper One Inc. (TSX VENTURE:CUO) has announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent with Cartier Resources Inc. (TSXV: ECR) to acquire up to a 75% equity interest in its Rivière Doré Copper Nickel property, located near the town of Val-d'Or, Quebec.
The 460 square kilometer project area covers an 80 kilometre long newly discovered mafic layered intrusive complex containing net textured and copper–nickel bearing semi-massive sulphides.
Subject to customary conditions and legal, technical and business due diligence, both parties have agreed to work towards signing a definitive Earn-In Option Agreement on or before January 15th 2011.
Under the terms of the non-binding LOI, Copper One will earn 51% interest in the Property by funding $5 million of exploration expenditures by December 31, 2015, including $750,000 in Year 1, and by paying $250,000 cash and issuing 350,000 common shares of Copper One to Cartier. Copper One can earn an additional 24% in the Property, for an aggregate total interest of 75%, by completing a definitive feasibility study or by making further expenditures of $20,000,000.
The Rivière Doré Property includes over 46,000 hectares of Quebec provincial mineral claims that cover the basal section of an underexplored layered mafic igneous complex. Copper and nickel mineralization has been discovered in outcrop and glacial boulders in several areas. A highlight of Cartier's first phase of sampling is a diamond saw channel cut averaging more than 1% copper over 6 metres.
A recent Hydro Quebec project and current timbering activities have opened access to this previously remote, poorly explored area that was first defined by an 82 kilometre long airborne magnetic anomaly in Quebec provincial data. Cartier staked the claims in 2009 based on a till sampling and follow-up program that preceded a Quebec government report detailing copper anomalies in lake sediment sampling in the area.
"Copper One is pleased to join Cartier in the exploration of the Rivière Doré Property, a large and underexplored layered mafic complex with demonstrated copper and nickel mineralization. The net-textured and semi-massive sulfides in cumulate mafic rocks identified by early sampling are consistent with major copper-nickel sulphide districts," commented Alan Edwards, President and CEO of Copper One.
"Together with Cartier, upon earning our interest in the Property, we will control a district-scale land position that we believe covers all the most prospective parts of the mafic complex. Cartier is an ideal partner; they are well established in the area with a strong team and committed, field-oriented expertise. Quebec has a long tradition of being one of the leading jurisdictions in the world for exploration investments; and the 42% exploration tax credit offered in Quebec enables us to extract more value per dollar invested," commented Alan Edwards.
Cartier will manage the exploration program during the initial option period. After the first year of the option Copper One may elect to operate the project. If it so elects, Copper One will make an annual cash payment to Cartier of $50,000. The proposed agreement contemplates that once Copper One has vested at 51%, a joint venture will be formed. The parties would now work expeditiously to complete and execute a definitive Earn-In Option Agreement.
A project finder's fee is payable to Axemen Resource Capital, an Exempt Market Dealer.
The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Thomas R. Kilbey, Copper One's Vice President – Exploration, a certified professional geologist and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
Source: Copper One Inc.