An aerial view of Kugluktuk. The town is less than 100 km east of Kaizen Discovery Inc.'s Coppermine River project, providing easy airport access. Kaizen Discovery now holds more that 4,000 square kilometres of mineral rights in the district, after recently acquiring Tundra Copper Corp. - photo courtesy of Tundra Copper Corp. |
Copper property changes hands
Coppermine district attracts attention of junior with strong backing
Walter Strong
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 8, 2014
KUGLUKTUK/COPPERMINE
After not seeing any exploration interest since the early 1990s, the Coppermine district near Kugluktuk has seen a comparative flood of interest over the past year.
First, newly formed Tundra Copper announced early this summer that it had purchased rights to 311 square kilometres of property southwest of Kugluktuk after considering the property's prospects for about a year.
According to historic resource estimates, the staked property contained four million tonnes of ore at five per cent grade, or potential for up to 400 million pounds of copper.
At the time, former Tundra Copper president Don Penner said the next step was to raise financing to begin a small drilling program in a first step toward confirming the historical estimate with a modern NI 43-101 resource statement.
Instead, Penner and investors in Tundra Copper recently sold the company and its claims to Vancouver-based Kaizen Discovery Inc.
(TSX.V:KZD) in an all-share transaction valued at approximately $1.69 million.
"They have the same vision that we had for the area and what it's going to take to make it successful," Penner said. "They understand that geology has to be figured out in more detail, but there's huge potential there. It's a 140 km-long district. It's got elephant target written all over it."
Penner said Kaizen became aware of Tundra Copper through a chance meeting between project geologists at B.C. mineral exploration conference in Kamloops.
Kaizen Discovery, with a market capitalization of USD $58 million, has projects in B.C., Africa, and Australia.
Technically, the acquisition of Tundra Copper's properties in Nunavut is not Kaizen's first foray into the North. A month or so prior to announcing the deal with Tundra Copper, Kaizen staked claim to more than 3,330 square kilometres of property in the Coppermine district.
Kaizen is backed by the ITOCHU Corporation of Japan, which holds a 6.35 per cent interest in Kaizen and has signed an exploration agreement with the company to develop base metal - copper in particular - resources for Japanese industrial consumption.
"Kaizen's long-term growth strategy is to work with ITOCHU Corporation... as well as other Japanese entities to identify, explore and develop high-quality mineral projects that have the potential to produce and deliver minerals to Japan's industrial sector," Kaizen Discovery president and CEO Matthew Hornor said.
ITOCHU is a large trading company with interests in metals and minerals, textiles, machinery, industrial equipment, reality, and energy, including heavy investment in U.S. shale oil projects.
The company, which employs more than 100,000, posted a gross profit of USD $9.9 billion on revenues of $53.7 billion last year.
In a corporate presentation, Kaizen described its strategy as picking up base metal assets now while commodity prices are in the basement, and properties are up for grabs at what may be a bargain.
Before being acquired by Kaizen Discovery, Tundra Copper geologist completed a surface prospecting program on the property late this summer.
The prospecting program was to confirm historical surface showings and grades, as well as to open up other areas of the property.
"Results confirm the spectacular high-grade nature of copper mineralization in the basalts of the Coppermine district," Hornor said.
Details are not available yet, but the company plans a 2015 exploration season that includes drilling. Recently, Tundra Copper received permitting from the Nunavut Water Board for water use and waste disposal related to mineral exploration.
