TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Foran Mining, the Canadian junior that owns a base metals deposit in Saskatchewan, aims to complete a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) at its McIlvenna Bay project in early 2013, corporate development VP Fiona Childe said on Friday.

The company, in which Franco-Nevada Corp chairperson Pierre Lassonde holds a near-14% stake, has also received “no end of approaches from a variety of different companies” interested in the asset, she commented in an interview.

McIlvenna Bay, located 60 km west of Flin Flon, is a volcanic massive sulphide deposit, first discovered in 1988.

The project boasts a resource of 308-million pounds of copper in the indicated category, and 981-million pounds of zinc. It also contains gold and silver.

Foran updated the resource in November, and is carrying out a winter drill programme to provide another update in the middle of the year.

At the same time, the company is carrying out metallurgical test work that will be complete in the second quarter.

All of this, along with environmental work, will provide the main inputs for the PEA, set to launch by the end of the year.

In the meanwhile, Childe said that Foran has already started engaging potential funding partners for McIlvenna Bay.

“We know that these things take time – it can often take more than a year after you start talking to a specific group until you actually end up reaching an agreement with them,” she said.

Foran had both approached companies, as well as received approaches, Childe added, declining to provide further details about the discussions.

HudBay Minerals, which owns the bulk of its operations in the Flin Flon belt, is a likely acquirer of Foran, Fraser Mackenzie analyst Vishal Gupta said in an interview.

"The company has managed to protect its territory around Flin Flon for the last 100 years and they’re probably not going to easily allow a new company in," he commented.

HudBay also had a copper "ore gap" in the area that it needed to "plug", Gupta commented.

The base metals producer has what it calls a "farm" system, where it invests in early stage explorers.

While the company is focusing its efforts on the McIlvenna Bay deposit, which forms a small part of its land holdings in the area, volcanic massive sulphide deposits often form in clusters and Foran is hoping to prove it can build a larger mining camp in the area.

The company ended 2011 with around C$10-million in cash, which Childe said should take it through to the end of the PEA.

Shares in Foran were slightly higher on Monday morning, changing hands for $$0.73 in thin trade, which valued the company at C$45-million.
 

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