VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Base metals explorer Osisko Metals has inked a definitive accord with the Canadian Continental Exploration Corporation (CCEC) to acquire 27 mineral claims in the Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC), the company announced on Tuesday.

The individual mineral claims comprise 4 to 48 claim units totalling 320 claim units, or 6 976 ha. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Osisko has in recent quarters been actively consolidating base metals-focused assets in the region, with the aim of establishing a multi-deposit asset base that could feed a central concentrator.

The properties cover 27 distinct coincident gravity and electromagnetic geophysical anomalies located over a wide area and in a variety of geological settings throughout the BMC. CCEC selected these anomalies last year based on a compilation of publicly available geophysical data from recent airborne surveys.

CCEC drill-tested three anomalies with six holes, two of which encountered pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite mineralisation typical of stockworks that underlie most of the massive sulphide bodies in the BMC.

Osisko said it would test all of these anomalies in 2018 with roaming drills that will be added to the existing three drills defining resources around known deposits. The acquisition of the CCEC properties, which focus on newly defined anomalies that include recently released airborne gravity data, provides an important opportunity to discover new deposits in the BMC, the company said.

The company also announced that it has agreed to acquire the Camel Back deposit (CBD) from a vendor in the BMC. The CBD is located roughly 11 km north-east of the Mount Fronsac North deposit that was acquired by Osisko Metals in July 2017.

The CBD is situated at the same stratigraphic setting as the Mount Fronsac North massive sulphide deposit and the property containing the CBD consists of one claim block comprising five claims units, covering about 109 ha. Osisko advised that the CBD is the second deposit it has purchased in the western BMC, and will potentially contribute resources towards the evaluation of a concept using a central concentrator that could be fed by multiple deposits in that part of the camp.