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Introduction
Forum Uranium Corp. and Aurizon Mines Ltd. have entered into an option agreement for Forum to earn up to a 65-per-cent interest in Aurizon's rare earth property in southwestern Quebec, located 95 kilometres northeast of North Bay, Ont. The property adjoins Matamec Exploration's Zeus project in association with the Kipawa alkaline complex. Aurizon's prospecting activities along the Kipawa alkaline complex have identified areas of rare earth mineralization similar to Matamec's Kipawa deposit.
The property is underlain by part of the Kipawa alkaline complex, a sheet of peralkaline syenite and granite and comprises three blocks of claims that have been optioned from Aurizon. The West, Central and East blocks cover 120 claims for 6,960 hectares. In its exploration work last summer along the south part of the West block, Aurizon discovered many boulders containing anomalous rare earth elements ranging from 1.34 per cent to 16.77 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO). HREO to TREO ratios range from 0.8 per cent to 57 per cent in an area covered by thin glacial till. To the north of this boulder field, a grab sample from an outcrop reported 3.12 per cent TREO and a 34-per-cent ratio of HREO to TREO. Other areas evaluated by Aurizon have identified rare earth targets for further follow-up.
Option agreement with Aurizon Mines
Forum can earn a 50-per-cent interest by completing $200,000 in exploration as a firm commitment within 12 months and a further $150,000 in exploration, including a minimum of 1,000 metres of drilling, within 24 months of the date of the agreement. Forum has the option to earn a further 15-per-cent interest, totalling a 65-per-cent interest in the project by establishing a National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate on the property within four years of the agreement date. Forum is operator during the earn-in period. Upon completion of its earn-in, Forum and Aurizon will form a joint venture with Forum as operator. Forum has engaged Alex Knox, PGeol, and Daniel Beauchamp, PGeol, members of its rare earth advisory team, to manage the upcoming field program.
About Matamec's Kipawa rare earth deposit
Matamec reports an NI 43-101-compliant resource of 8,249,000 indicated tonnes grading 0.596 per cent TREO and 2,011,000 inferred tonnes grading 0.572 per cent TREO at a cut-off of 0.04 per cent TREO. The Kipawa deposit is a good source of heavy rare earth oxide, and the HREO to TREO ratio is very high at 36 per cent. Rare earth minerals in this deposit include eudialyte, mosandrite, britholite and vlasovite. Matamec believes that the magnitude and quality of the new resource estimate in TREO combined with the optimization of the metallurgical process flow sheet in progress show that the Kipawa deposit's scoping study is promising.
Maps
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