Calgary firm hopes to strike
gold near capital
QUENTIN CASEY
FOR THE TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
20
Apr 2012 03:43AM
A Calgary-based company plans to spend the next year
hunting for gold and copper on a large tract of land west of Fredericton, the
first of 15 properties StrikePoint Gold is eyeing for exploration in Atlantic
Canada.
StrikePoint (TSXV:SKP) will launch its exploration
work on the Pokiok project within the next month. The hunt will take place over
5,468 hectares of land located 45 kilometres west of the New Brunswick capital.
Ideally, StrikePoint will find the Pokiok property
“stuffed” full of gold and copper, says company chairman and CEO Richard
Boulay.
“We’re looking for very, very large footprint
deposits,” he said from Calgary on Thursday. “It is exploration, so there is
risk. But if you look at the risk versus potential reward … it’s really, really
excellent.”
Boulay says the Pokiok area is strewn with large
boulders and rocky outcrops that reveal the presence of numerous elements and
metals, including gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, lead, zinc and antimony.
“We’ve found a whole menu of metallic stuff just lying
in big boulders on the ground,” he said.
To this point, StrikePoint’s activity has been
restricted to “reconnaissance operations”. But the company will soon start more
detailed exploration of the Pokiok property.
Boulay says the company will spend at least $200,000
exploring the property over the next 12 months. Additional exploration dollars
could flow depending on the company’s findings.
“The contribution into the local economy in the first
year will be fairly modest,” he said. “It starts off pretty small, but if you
have success, it ramps up quickly in terms of costs and local impact.
“I want to be positive, but I don’t want to mislead
anyone … It’s an exploration play.”
According to Boulay, the property is rugged but easily
accessible. An aerial map of the area reveals the Pokiok property spans both
sides of the St. John River. The Trans-Canada Highway slices across the
northern end of the property.
“The infrastructure is incredible. There’s cell phone
coverage. You can walk into it. It’s great,” Boulay said.
The Pokiok property is just the first of many
“targets” StrikePoint is aiming for in Atlantic Canada.
Last October, the company pulled away from an
investment it held in the Dufferin gold mine near Sheet Harbour, N.S. According
to Boulay, the company decided to push its cash into exploring new areas.
StrikePoint is now eyeing up to 15 properties across
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Boulay said StrikePoint could
secure three or four of those properties within the next year.
“We believe it’s an unexplored area,” Boulay said of
the Atlantic region. “That is a strange thing to say because it was the area
first explored going back 300 to 400 years. But technology changes everything.
Old land becomes new land.”
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