Orefinders consolidates prospective Shining Tree district, in Ontario’s famed Abitibi

1st December 2017 By: Henry Lazenby - Creamer Media Deputy Editor: North America

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed Orefinders Resources has entered into agreements for a series of three acquisitions of adjoining properties from two individual landholders and from private company Premet.

Orefinders said in a press release on Thursday that it views the Shining Tree District as a significantly underexplored and a not well understood region of Ontario's Abitibi, which holds great potential for a district scale mining camp.

Orefinders' Shining Tree consolidated land package now includes 67 claims and 14 patented leases covering over nearly 2 348 ha, which makes the company a significant mineral landholder in the region.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Orefinders has agreed to issue 22.76-million shares and 3.41-million warrants to acquire 100% of Premet shares and warrants. To acquire a 100% interest in the Tyrenite Extension and the Porphyry Lake claims, Orefinders will be issuing five-million shares from its treasury.

All the properties that Orefinders is acquiring are subject to existing and various legacy royalties. Closing of the acquisitions remains subject to final approval of the TSX-V Exchange, as well as certain other customary conditions.

Orefinders pointed out that groups with limited access to capital for exploration and development held the previous fragmented assets, giving the company an opportunity to consolidate. With the acquisition of this consolidated land package Orefinders will now unify the extensive data that has been compiled on the various properties into a single cohesive model and can allocate the technical expertise and capital required to unlock the potential of its Shining Tree properties.

"The Orefinders team has been working on this complex transaction for some time now. It has involved numerous properties and multiple vendors to bring a fragmented area into a cohesive land package of which Orefinders now owns 100%. The core assets are all contiguous, gold-focused properties, which have had a significant amount of work completed by previous owners,” noted CEO Stephen Stewart.

Further to acquiring the core gold assets, Orefinders also acquired the Mann-Bartlett mines, which are former producing cobalt/silver operations, but they will not be the company’s immediate focus. The company said it will consider selling them to interested parties.

Orefinders will acquire seven adjoining properties from Premet, including five former producing mines in the Minto mine, Tyrenite mine, Duggan mine, Mann mines, as well as the MacMurchy, Fawcett, and Corona claims.

Several of the properties host significant high-grade and/or long gold mineralisation intercepts as demonstrated by drill results between 2010 and 2013, notably on the Minto mine, which included a cut of 13.3 g/t gold over 82.5 m in drill hole MC-09-01, and 18.2 g/t gold over 65.7 m and 4.61 g/t gold over 79.6 m in drill hole MC-09-02.

The properties had collectively seen about 30 000 m of historical drilling; several hold historic resource estimates. Some of the assets have substantial mining infrastructure, including a mine shaft rehabilitated in the 1990s, a headframe, a skip and hoist, a core shack with core, a ramp, and six on-site buildings.

Meanwhile, Orefinders said it expects to receive initial data on a preliminary economic assessment on its flagship Mirado gold project, near the town of Kirkland Lake, in January 2018.

The company’s equity rose as much as a third on Thursday, to C$0.08 a share.