International Prospect Ventures Announces Agreement to Acquire 50% Interest in 8 Properties in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia
VAL-D'OR, QUBEC--(Marketwired - Nov. 14, 2017) -International Prospect Ventures Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:IZZ) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with a New South Wales, Australia company (the "Joint Owner"), pursuant to which the Company and the Joint Owner will jointly acquire certain mining claims located in Western Australia (the "Claims"), each with an undivided 50% interest. The Joint Owner will be responsible for arranging to have had the Claims acquired, registered and held in good standing. The Company will pay all of the costs of acquiring the Claims, and other related costs including the costs of initial technical compilations and program reviews. The parties will arrange for an initial technical compilation and program review on the Claims in order to allow the parties to establish a joint venture arrangement on or around December 31, 2017, if warranted.
The Company and the Joint Owner have staked 8 properties to date, in an area Southeast of Karratha, Western Australia, covering a total area of approximately 927 sq-km. The acquisition strategy involved a review of known geology and historical exploration results, and a focus on coarse-grained conglomerate host rocks at, or in proximity to, a prominent and well-documented geological unconformity.
Several early-stage gold discoveries in the area southeast of Karratha, have been reported by Novo Resources Corp. (NVO) from several properties ("Comet Well" and "Purdy's Reward"; and near Marble Bar and Nullagine at "Beaton's Creek") and separately by two Australian listed companies, De Grey Mining ("Louden's Patch") and Artemis Resources Ltd. (JV with Novo Resources and other 100% owned properties). Collectively, these gold discoveries appear to indicate a potentially gold-rich district, analogous in broad geological terms to the Witwatersrand Basin and its related clastic sedimentary-hosted gold deposits.
The Pilbara Craton
The Early to Late Archaean Pilbara Craton, a 600 kilometre-wide portion of ancient crust, underlies the northwestern region of Western Australia. Comprising igneous and metamorphic basement rocks that formed over 3.1 billion years ago, the Pilbara Craton is thought to have been previously connected with the Kaapvaal Craton that underlies much of South Africa. When connected, these two cratons formed the Vaalbara supercontinent and between 3.1 and 2.7 billion years ago, layers of terrestrial sedimentary and volcanic rocks were deposited across the Vaalbara. In South Africa, these sedimentary and volcanic rock units make up the Witwatersrand and Pongola basins and in Australia similar sedimentary and volcanic rocks make up the Hamersley Basin. Sometime following deposition (~2.7 billon years ago), the Vaalbara continent broke apart, separating the Kaapvaal Craton (South Africa) from the Pilbara Craton (Australia). While not identical, there are strong geological similarities between the South African Kaapvaal Craton/Witwatersrand Basin and the Australian Pilbara Craton/Hamersley Basin.