OTTAWA, Dec. 20, 2017 /CNW/ - Northern Shield Resources Inc. ("Northern Shield" or the "Company") (TSXV: NRN) is pleased to announce that, through a wholly owned subsidiary, it has signed an Option Agreement with a prospector ("Prospector") that gives the Company the right to acquire up to an 80% interest in the Shot Rock Gold Property ("Property") in Nova Scotia, which is being explored for conglomerate-hosted and epithermal-type gold mineralization.
Under the terms of the Option Agreement which is subject to TSX approval, Northern Shield can earn a 50% interest in the Property by incurring $500,000 in expenditures on the Property within two years. The Option Agreement also contains cash payments totaling $50,000 and share issuances totaling 650,000 Company shares to the Prospector over three installments during the initial two-year period.
Over an additional two-year period, Northern Shield can increase its interest to 80% by incurring $1.5M in expenditures, while making $50,000 in cash payments and issuing 500,000 Company shares to the Prospector.
The Prospector will retain a 1% NSR of which half (0.5%) can be bought back by Northern Shield for $1M.
The Shot Rock Gold Property consists of 200 claims covering a 25 kilometre strike-length of a previously unknown unconformable, quartz-pebble conglomerate (see image). While outcrop is generally poor in the area, the Prospector has consistently panned gold from streams that transect a certain area of the Property. Prospecting also resulted in the discovery of quartz-adularia-pyrite veins (see image) moderately anomalous in gold and epithermal pathfinder elements including mercury, arsenic and antimony.
Approximately 70 kilometres to the west of the Property, geologists from the Nova Scotian Department of Natural Resources have also identified epithermal-type mineralization and they have drawn similarities to the gold belts in Nevada, USA. The area in Nova Scotia has temporarily been withdrawn from staking as the DNR seeks proposals from interested mining companies. "We have all the indications that there could be something there," said a geologist for the Department of Natural Resources in a recent newspaper article, "Basically, it's the same sort of deposits as (are) down in Nevada." (The Herald Chronicle, November 23, 2017). Northern Shield believes that the rocks and mineralization discovered on the Shot Rock Gold property are part of the same system as those described by the DNR to the west.
"We felt that the 'out of the box thinking' by a local prospector provided an ideal opportunity for diversification and to become a first mover in a potentially new gold district," says Northern Shield President and CEO, Ian Bliss. "The prospector's interpretation is already being supported by similar discoveries by government geologists. As the project is held through a wholly owned subsidiary it allows Northern Shield to continue its Ni-Cu-PGE focus."
Exploration work will begin immediately in the new year which will include community engagement, surficial sampling, prospecting as conditions allow, and likely an airborne geophysical survey.
The programs will be overseen by Christine Vaillancourt, P. Geo., the Company's Chief Geologist and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.
Northern Shield Resources Inc. is a Canadian-based company focused on exploring for platinum group element ("PGE") and nickel-copper-PGE deposits. It is known as a leader in grass roots exploration for Ni-Cu-PGEs and the understanding of magmatic systems as it applies to exploration.
