Jan 23 2019
Champion Iron Limited has announced that it has reached a joint exploration agreement with Supreme Metals Corp. to access the claims situated on the Bloom Lake East Property.
In 2018, Supreme Metals Corp. carried out magnetic survey work that detected iron ore prospects at the Bloom Lake East Property, which might be strategically significant to Champion Iron Limited and its subsidiary Quebec Iron Ore Inc., as it can be possibly regarded as a source of iron ore feed for the Bloom Lake Mine concentration plant, which is owned and operated by Quebec Iron Ore Inc.
Geologically continuous with the Bloom Lake orebody, the southern section of the Bloom Lake East Property is situated east of the Quebec-Labrador Boundary, within 3 km from the Bloom Lake mill. Additionally, the northern part of the Bloom Lake East Property, which hosts iron ore will be evaluated by Champion Iron Limited in accordance with the Newfoundland and Labrador Geoscience Atlas.
As per the agreement, Supreme Metals Corp. will have access to the Walsh Prospect situated on Quebec Iron Ore’s Bloom Lake Mining Lease. The Walsh Prospect, situated 1.3 km farther from the present mining operations, was found in 1951 and produced results “running to better than 11% Cobalt”.
Apart from speeding up the exploration work on the Walsh Prospect, the one-year agreement will enable Champion Iron Limited to assess further mineralization beyond the current claims and lease of Quebec Iron Ore and may possibly boost the resources in the locality of Bloom Lake operations.
In order to obtain geological data on the Walsh Prospect, Champion Iron Limited will invest CAD$50,000 of its exploration budget and will further invest a minimum amount of CAD$100,000 towards exploration of the Bloom Lake East Property. Supreme Metals Corp. will not only provide its know-how on cobalt deposits but will also share the findings and data resulting from its exploration activities to date. Pursuant to these commitments, a long-term agreement will then be considered, if the prospect for one or both commodities is believed to be positive by both companies.
Following this agreement, Champion Iron Limited will retain a right of first refusal to collaborate with Supreme Metals Corp. on the Bloom Lake East Property for a period of three years.
The Champion team has been tracking the results of Supreme’s exploration program. Partnering with them at this juncture is a natural progression to evaluate prospects near our operations. Not only will it give Champion and QIO the opportunity to add resources to the Bloom Lake Mine, it will also increase the potential for cobalt by combining underexplored occurrences into a single project. I am confident that this agreement will lead to great gain for both companies and we are looking forward to this collaboration with Supreme.
Hugues Longuépée, P.Geo and Geology Manager, Champion Iron Limited.