New Shoshoni Ventures Ltd. (the “Company”) has negotiated the purchase of the Arrowsmith property located approximately 20 kilometers southwest of Parksville BC on Vancouver Island.
The company will, subject to receipt of TSX Venture Exchange approval, pay the vendors $10,000 and issue 800,000 shares from treasury for a 100% interest in the property subject to a 2% Net Smelter Royalty, of which the Company will have the option to purchase one-half (1%) for one million dollars at any time prior to commercial production. The Arrowsmith property covers an area of 1981 hectares (4895 acres) and includes four different historic mineral occurrences. These occurrences have not previously been under single ownership.
The Arrowsmith property is underlain by Triassic, Vancouver Group, Karmutsen Formation basic to intermediate volcanic and tuffaceous rocks with intermember (upper part of Karmutsen Formation) limestone units (Quatsino Formation). These rocks are unconformably overlain by Upper Cretaceous, Nanaimo Group, Benson Formation conglomerate. Intruding these rocks is Jurassic Granodiorite. Rock exposure on the property is limited with outcrops along road cuts, creek beds and hilltops.
The Arrowsmith property covers ground which brings four known historic properties under one ownership for the first time. This will now allow for a comprehensive exploration evaluation of the entire belt. Previously, exploration of the Arrowsmith property has occurred sporadically since copper and gold mineralization was first noted on the property in the 1890′s.
In addition to the problems associated with fractured ownership, the area in which the Arrowsmith property is located is within the historic E&N Railway Land Grant of 1875, which assigned ownership of minerals (except gold and silver which were reserved for the Crown) to the E&N Railway. Historically there was always difficulty encountered in making satisfactory arrangements with the land department of the E&N Railway to obtain title to mineral claims staked, or to even obtain permission for exploration or development of mineral deposits within the boundaries of the Land Grant. The E&N Land Grant problem no longer exists.
Mineralization discovered to date on the Arrowsmith property occurs in three distinct geological environments and the relationship between them is at this time uncertain.
The first targets explored were quartz-carbonate veins and breccias located in major shear zones, considered in the 1890′s to be the potential source of (uneconomic) placer gold present in local creeks. Silver-copper mineralization is also present in skarnified limestone units of the Karmutsen Group. Finally, copper (chalcopyrite) occurs disseminated with pyrrhotite and pyrite in altered intrusive rocks.
Two of the prospective known zones on the property were historically explored with underground drifting, with four tunnels built at two different properties which now form part of the Arrowsmith property. Historical information recorded assays of 3.7% copper to over 7% copper across width of 0.6 to 1.3 meters in underground samples. The mineralized zones at these locations are contained within silicified shear zones near the contact of a porphyritic andesite with an altered granodiorite.
The main Arrowsmith mineralized zone consists of a magnetite-chalcopyrite-bornite bearing skarn zone traced for a length of over 700 meters by trenching and geophysical surveying. Work on this mineral occurrence, which included a small drill program in 1971, was conducted at various times between 1901 and 1990. This work was hindered again by claim ownership complications since the anomaly trended onto adjoining claims which now form part of the Arrowsmith property. One drill hole from the 1971 program, drilled through the skarn zone, returned 2.94% Copper over 6.1 meters.
Copper mineralization at a fourth, formerly independently-owned site consists of chalcopyrite, pyrite and pyrrhotite disseminated in altered granodiorite. Historic prospecting reports suggest that this may represent porphyry-style mineral deposition. No historical assay results are available for this location. The last available report of exploration from this site dates from the 1930′s. Porphyry style copper deposits occur elsewhere on Vancouver Island and are a permissive deposit model for the Arrowsmith claims.
The property has been largely logged since the 1960′s, resulting in a substantial network of logging roads available to provide access for a planned program of exploration. The area in general is accessed by all-weather gravel roads leading off from paved highways.
The Company cautions the reader that historical exploration results referred to herein predate the reporting standards set by NI43-101 and should not be considered reliable.
Mike Magrum P.Eng., a Qualified Person under NI43-101 has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release.
The Company has negotiated a private placement to raise gross proceeds of $800,000. The private placement will consist of 6,250,000 Flow Through Units priced at $0.08 per unit and 5,000,000 Non Flow Through Units priced at $0.06.
Each Flow Through Unit will consist of one flow through share plus one warrant exercisable into one non flow through share at $0.15 per share for a period of 12 months and at $0.30 for an additional 12 months. The Company plans to spend the flow-through funds raised for exploration on its DS and Arrowsmith properties located on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
Each Non Flow Through Unit will consist of one non flow through share plus one warrant exercisable into one non flow through share at $0.15 per share for a period of 12 months and at $0.30 for an additional 12 months.
The share purchase warrants attached to the Units are subject to an acceleration clause, whereby the Company may, at its discretion call for the exercise of the warrants within 10 business days, if the closing price of the Company’s common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange is $0.40 or higher for 10 consecutive trading days, provided that the mandatory hold period has passed.
Shares issued pursuant to this private placement and shares that may be issued as a result of the exercise of any warrants attached to this private placement will be subject to a mandatory hold period expiring four months from the date of closing. Finders’ fees in accordance with TSX Venture Exchange policy will be payable in respect of a portion of this private placement. This private placement is subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.