Fort Knox pursues Inco property.Fort Knox Fort Knox [for Henry Knox], U.S. military reservation, 110,000 acres (44,515 hectares), Hardin and Meade counties, N Ky.; est. 1917 as a training camp in World War I. It became a permanent post in 1932. In the steel and concrete vaults of the U.S. Gold Resources Inc. are negotiating with Inco Ltd. to acquire five properties in the Sudbury Basin The Sudbury Basin, also known as Sudbury Structure, is the second largest known impact crater or astrobleme on Earth, and a major geologic structure in Ontario, Canada. The basin is located on the Canadian Shield in the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario. to explore for platinum group The platinum group (alternatively, the platinum group metals or platinum metals) is a collective name sometimes used for six metallic elements clustered together in the periodic table. elements and other base metals. The properties include four inactive mines, McCreedy West, Levack, Victoria and Kirkwood as well as the Norman North PGE-Cu-Ni mineralized min·er·al·ize v. min·er·al·ized, min·er·al·iz·ing, min·er·al·iz·es v.tr. 1. To convert to a mineral substance; petrify. 2. To transform a metal into a mineral by oxidation. 3. zones. Inco has accepted the acquisition proposal to negotiate a commercial arrangement whereby Fort Knox and its joint-venture partner Dynatec Corp. can acquire the five properties. They have until Dec. 31, 2001 to strike a deal. The properties, considered non-core assets, were closed in the last few years when reserves became depleted de·plete tr.v. de·plet·ed, de·plet·ing, de·pletes To decrease the fullness of; use up or empty out. [Latin d . "The remaining resources are considered marginal and higher risk because they're low tonnage and low grade," says Inco spokesman Cory McPhee. "We just don't have the capital right now to proceed with marginal, high-risk exploration in these properties. "We have some properties that do have some exploration potential and the higher platinum group metal prices have improved the economics of some of the mineralization Mineralization The process by which the body uses minerals to build bone structure. Mentioned in: Rickets mineralization, n the bioprecipitation of an inorganic substance. there." But McPhee says Inco prefers to focus on their core operating mines and their Kelley Lake and Totten projects. Should the deal come to fruition, McPhee says, it has the potential to bring a considerable amount of investment into Sudbury and add production to Inco's smelter and refinery facilities. "We're looking to make money off of this, which could be in the form of initial payment in the form of stock in the company, royalties on any production and a toll processing agreement where we would benefit from having our own processing facility operating at capacity." The acquisition proposal was jointly prepared and submitted to Inco by Fort Knox and Dynatec, a major Canadian mining contracting and service company. Dynatec would maintain a 25 per cent position in the joint venture to explore, develop and mine the properties. In the Fort Knox press release, the company says the properties "offer exposure to excellent exploration and production potential in the world's largest nickel camp and third most important PGE PGE Pacific Gas and Electric Company PGE Portland General Electric PGE Prostaglandin E PGE Platinum Group Elements PGE Pacific Great Eastern (Railroad) PGE Phenyl Glycidyl Ether PGE Perfect Girl Evolution environment." The five brownfield See greenfield. properties are within 40 kilometres of downtown Sudbury. Officials with Fort Knox say they believe all of the properties have potential for significant copper, nickel and PGE resources. Successful completion of these negotiations would already add to the super-heated PGE exploration boom going on in the Sudbury area, says McPhee. |
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