TerraX hoping to revive former Northwest Territories gold mine
The TerraX Minerals core shack in the Northwest Territories. Source: TerraX Minerals Inc.
TerraX Minerals Inc. [TXR-TSXV, TRXXF-OTC Pink, TXO FSE] said Friday January 12 it has struck a deal to acquire the Ptarmigan Mine property near the City of Yellowknife in the Canadian Northwest Territories.
Ptarmigan is one of a number of former mines that historically made the Yellowknife area a major centre for gold exploration and production. The acquisition of the Ptarmigan property adds to TerraX’s already large property position in an area where it hopes to re-establish Yellowknife as a premier mining district in Canada.
Ptarmigan produced 112,213 ounces of gold, averaging 9.56 g/t from 1941-43, in 1983, and from 1985 to 1997. The main Ptarmigan vein was accessed by a shaft extending to a depth of 275 metres. It was mined over a strike length of 400 metres. When the mine closed in 1997, the vein was still open along strike to the west on claims now owned by TerraX, and open down dip below the mine workings.
“With paved road access from Yellowknife, and high tension powerlines connected to the former mine site, Ptarmigan, with exploration success, could easily be brought back to life,” said TerraX CEO Joe Campbell.
The Ptarmigan Mine site is located on the Eastbelt property. It is also east of TerraX’s Yellowknife City Gold (YCG) project covering 440 km2 of contiguous land, north, south and east of the City of Yellowknife.
YCG lies on the prolific Yellowknife greenstone belt, covering 45 kim of strike length along the main mineralized break in the Yellowknife gold district, including the southern and northern extensions of the shear system that hosted the high-grade Con and Giant gold mines.
The Giant Mine produced 7.0 million ounces of gold from 1948 to 2004. The Con Mine produced over 5.0 million ounces of gold from 1938 to 2003.
“The acquisition of the Ptarmigan Mine property gives TerraX nearly 1 km of strike coverage along the Ptarmigan vein trend,” said Campbell.
“This provides an opportunity not only to extend the mineralization below and along strike of the main vein at the mine, but also offers opportunity to explore parallel vein systems discovered south of the main vein and reported in historical documents and identified as potential production areas.”
The Ptarmigan property consists of a mineral lease and a mineral claim totalling 47 hectares. The option agreement is for a 100% interest in the property in return for $5,000 in cash payments and 40,000 TerraX shares to be issued upon TSX Venture Exchange approval.
TerraX shares were unchanged at 50 cents Friday. They are trading in a 52-week range of 92 cents and 38 cents.