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VVC Exploration Corporation announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent ("LOI") to acquire a 100% interest in the Beauce-Bellechasse Gold Property (BB Gold Property) consisting of 250 mining claims covering over 13,500 hectares (135 km2). The Property is located 70 km southeast of Québec City.
Under the terms of the LOI, VVC can earn a 100% interest in the claims by paying C$45,000 and issuing 800,000 common shares to the vendor on the signing of the definitive option agreement, subject to a four month hold period from their date of issuance, and incurring at least C$500,000 of exploration and development expenses within three years. The vendor retains a 2% net smelter returns royalty (NSR) on the claims. The NSR is subject to a buy-back clause, whereby VVC can purchase 1% for C$1,000,000 at any time. The Vendor is awaiting confirmation from the Quebec government of the registration of the claims, which should be confirmed shortly. The transaction is subject to the approval of the Board of Directors and the TSX Venture Exchange.
The Beauce Area, and the Eastern Townships in general, situated in the southern Quebec Appalachian Belt, have a century long history of mining and is known for its chromite and copper deposits and gold placers. The region was the site of Canada's first placer gold rush in the 1850's, decades before the Klondike rush. Despite the fact that gold occurrences have been discovered in volcanic, intrusive and sedimentary rocks in the area, no major bedrock source has been discovered to account for the significant placer gold of the area.
The BB Gold Property and surrounding area was explored for base and precious metals by a number of individuals and companies since the beginning of the 20th century up until the 1960's. The exploration included prospecting, grab sampling, trenching and limited diamond drilling plus some small scale artisanal mining.
The BB Gold Property hosts a number of showings and mineral occurrences with values of up to 12 grams per tonne gold (GM 44648 – Ministry of Natural Resources of Quebec). Several past producing gold placers are also located in the vicinity. On February 8th, 2010, Fancamp Exploration Ltd., announced two wide drill hole intersections grading 0.46 grams per tonne over 29 metres (hole RD-09-02) and 0.57 grams per tonne over 23.3 metres (hole RD-09-07). These results confirm that two target types are present in the Beauce area, ie: small, high grade, lode deposits and large tonnage, lower grade gold deposits related to regional scale silicification and mineralization, in the strongly deformed siltstones, shales and tuffaceous rocks characteristic of this part of the Appalachians.
The Property is located in southern Quebec's Cambrian (544 Ma to 500 Ma) / Ordovician (500 Ma to 440 Ma) rocks of the Appalachian Orogen that extend from the Gaspé Peninsula in the northeast, southward to Alabama in the USA. The southern Quebec Appalachians comprise three lithotectonic assemblages: the Cambrian-Ordovician Humber and Dunnage zones that include the Property, the Silurian (440 Ma to 410 Ma) and Devonian (410 Ma to 360 Ma) granites and sediments located south of the Guadeloupe Fault. The Humber Zone represents the vestiges of a continental margin sequence, while the Dunnage Zone is an assemblage of oceanic terrains. The Property lies along the contact of argillites, to the west, and interbedded argilites, sandstone and felsic tuffs of the St. Daniel Formation, to the east. Lithologies are oriented northeast-southwest, subparallel to one of the major faults that cut the area.
The Beauce and Thetford Mines areas are enjoying a major staking rush, rumoured to be the result of gold discoveries in sedimentary units. Bowmore Exploration Ltd./Osisko; Niogold Mining Inc., Golden Hope Mines Ltd., Midland Exploration Inc., Nevado Venture Capital Corp, Diamond Discoveries International Corp and others have staked significant parts of the area over the last few months. It is apparent that companies are realizing that this area, the site of significant placer deposits, has been under-explored. Despite the fact that gold showings associated with quartz veins and sulphides, hosted by volcanic, intrusive and sedimentary units have been discovered in the area, these showings do not appear to explain the placer gold noted. Recent discoveries may indicate that sedimentary units intercalated with felsic intrusive and volcanic rocks may be the source of the placer gold mineralization.
Exploration, including soil geochemistry, rock chip sampling and geological mapping will be carried out when snow conditions permit.