Jaba Watchers(plural I just hope)When I visited the PDAC, I had a Cornation Map in my hand talking to Jim Briscoe, he pointed out the 2 claim blocks they had at JBA one in the NW Corner and one on the NE corner( see NE Corner of the Play Area Talk below at another compay):REMEMBER like JBA shares out are: less w : Consolidated Jaba Inc JBA
Shares issued 7,058,658
Stornoway Ventures Ltd - Street Wire
Stornoway and Navigator expand their diamond hunt
Stornoway Ventures Ltd SWV
Shares issued 11,715,482 Apr 29 2002 close $.500
Tuesday Apr 30 2002 Street Wire
by Will Purcell
Two new deals between Eira Thomas's two junior exploration companies, Stornoway Ventures and Navigator Exploration, have made partners of the one-time rivals. Late last year, the two companies had gone shopping for prospective properties in the developing Coronation diamond play in Nunavut. At first, the two former gold hunters were operating quite independently of each other, but that seemed likely to change when Ms. Thomas popped up with both companies. One of the new arrangements gives Navigator a stake in a larger piece of the North Slave region, while the other adds to Stornoway's large land position in the area southeast of Kugluktuk.
Early in 2000, Ms. Thomas took over as president of Navigator Exploration, which had been created in 1996 by Ray Cahill and Mr. Thomas as a gold explorer. The arrival of Ms. Thomas began a shift toward diamond exploration however, and today, Navigator is a gem hunter in a number of areas in the North, and in Ontario. Meanwhile, her father, Gren Thomas, who founded Aber Diamond Corp. and seemed headed for retirement in the mid-1990s, is still active with Navigator as a director and chairman of the board.
Late last year, Navigator got into the developing North Slave play, through an agreement with Lawrence Barry's 524520 B.C. Ltd. The arrangement allows Navigator to earn a 70-per-cent share of the Bear property, which is on the northeastern portion of the district, to the northeast of all of the recent discoveries. To earn the interest, Navigator must spend $1-million exploring the 22,000-hectare Bear property, pay for staking costs and issue 75,000 shares to Mr. Barry's company. A month later, Mr. Barry sold his interest in the Bear property to a company controlled by one of his frequent partners, John Robins. His Northern Empire Minerals acquired Bear for just 100,000 shares, and the company will not have to spend anything on the property until Navigator earns its majority stake in the play.
Navigator has remained busy with its other diamond plays across the North and in Northwestern Ontario, and the company seemed content with its limited position in the Coronation district, sitting on the sidelines while several other companies dashed about, acquiring what they hoped would be promotable blocks of land surrounding the core area that was the centre of interest last summer and fall. Late last year, Ms. Thomas joined the board of Bruce McLeod's Stornoway Ventures, along with Catherine McLeod-Seltzer. The seemingly moribund Stornoway unexpectedly optioned a large land position on the northern fringe of the Coronation play.
That first big acquisition for Stornoway came from Mr. Barry as well. The company can earn a 70-per-cent share in about 250,000 hectares of land included in the Coronation properties, which stretch across the northernmost portion of the district, along the coast of the Coronation Gulf. To earn the interest, Stornoway will have to spend $1-million on exploration by the end of June, 2003, as well as making the usual payments of cash and stock to Mr. Barry's private company. Furthermore, it will also have to pay the full shot of the next $4-million in exploration on the claims.
As with the Navigator deal, Mr. Robins's Northern Empire was not far behind, picking up the pieces left over. In mid-January, the company acquired the Coronation properties from Mr. Barry's company, for 400,000 Northern Empire shares, worth about $300,000 at the time. As a result, it seems a good deal for Northern Empire, considering the terms of Mr. Barry's arrangement with Stornoway. As part of the option deal, Stornoway agreed to pay Mr. Barry's company $400,000 in cash and issue 1.2 million shares, worth about $750,000 at the time.
Just a few weeks later, Stornoway picked up an option to earn a 60-per-cent share in the Sceptre and Tiara properties, covering about 85,000 hectares further to the south, near the central core of the developing play. To earn the full interest from the property owners, Cantech Ventures, International Samuel Exploration and Dasher Energy, Stornoway will have to spend $7-million on exploration, although it can earn a 40-per-cent share for just $1.5-million.
Less than a week later, Stornoway was at it again, picking up an option for 70 per cent of the 45,000-hectare Orb property, which is on the northeastern portion of the district, just north of Navigator's Bear property. For it to earn the interest from 4763 NWT Ltd., Stornoway must spend $600,000 on exploration over the next three years. That was followed within days by another deal that saw Stornoway and four other junior partners pick up an option that would allow each to earn a 20-per-cent slice of the Jubilee claims, covering about 50,000 hectares just southwest of the Coronation North properties. To earn their interests, the partners will have to spend $1-million on exploration over the next two years.
Early last month, Stornoway looked further south. The company picked up the contiguous Aqua and Diva properties, covering about 60,000 hectares on the southern edge of the play, near Napatulik Lake. The deal, with 4763 NWT, allows Stornoway to earn a 100-per-cent interest in the property by spending $750,000 over the next three years. The latest acquisition brought the company's land position in the Coronation region to about 500,000 hectares, but the deals require Stornoway to spend a substantial sum of money over the next few years.
With a bit of luck, it might just be worth it, as the play remains quite promotable. There had been a few kimberlites discovered in the district in the late 1990s, but none of those amounted to much. The first real crack at touting the North Slave play came in 2000, when De Beers discovered the large Knife Lake kimberlite pipe on ground owned by Rhonda Corporation. Rhonda was not one to let the opportunity for a good promotion pass it by, and its stock quickly tripled, hitting a peak of $1.35 that fall. The diamond counts from the drilling that year were not sufficient to maintain the lofty share price, and Rhonda's stock soon retreated to its earlier level. De Beers went back last year, collecting a nine-tonne sample for macrodiamond processing, but the numbers from that program are still not in, and investors have grown quite weary of the wait. Rhonda's stock had rebounded to the 70-cent mark last June, but it currently trades for about half of that, as the wait drags on.
Nevertheless, speculators now had their eye on a possible new diamond play, and several new kimberlite finds followed last year, adding to the interest. Ashton Mining of Canada came up with two kimberlites that returned encouraging diamond counts. The Artemisia kimberlite produced 1,241 diamonds from 332 kilograms of rock, including 38 two-dimensional macros, of which two were large enough to remain on a one-millimetre screen. That offered hope that the find would have a decent grade, and Ashton collected about 1,000 kilograms of surface material for macrodiamond processing. That program indicated a grade of just 0.17 carat per tonne, and although the sample was far too small to be representative, the disappointing news sparked a sell-off, as speculators realized that the Coronation play was far from a sure thing.
The market may have soured a bit, but Ashton still has high hopes for Artemisia. The company recently drilled seven holes, coming up with 11 tonnes of kimberlite for macrodiamond testing. Adding to its hopes, the company has just come up with a new find nearby. Diamond counts from the Thrift kimberlite are still pending. The two pipes are about 25 kilometres to the west of the Bear property, and about 30 kilometres south of Jewel. Ashton is also expected to collect a 10-tonne sample from the Potentilla kimberlite, about 15 kilometres to the east of Artemisia and Thrift, about 10 kilometres west of Bear.
Possibly the best find in the district so far is the Anuri kimberlite, discovered last year by Kennecott Canada on ground owned by Tahera Corporation. Kennecott processed about 656 kilograms of kimberlite last year, recovering 937 diamonds although it used a larger screen size than Ashton. Included in that haul were 61 stones that were macros in two dimensions, of which nine were big enough to remain on a one-millimetre screen. One of the diamonds weighed an impressive 0.75-carat, which was enough to offer some hope that Anuri might have a decent grade. A second find was made nearby, but recent drilling suggests that Anuri East might actually be connected with the main Anuri kimberlite. Despite the encouragement from the Anuri finds, Kennecott is reluctant to formally say that it will take a mini-bulk sample from the pipe this spring, although the move seems likely at this stage. The Anuri finds are about 40 kilometres to the south of the Bear property, and about 100 kilometres to the south of Jewel. Stornoway's Aqua and Diva claims are much closer however, lying about 15 kilometres south of Anuri.
Meanwhile, Stornoway has been making more changes at the top. Early this month, Ms. McLeod-Seltzer took over Mr. McLeod's role as president of the company, and Ms. Thomas filled his position as chief executive officer. A few weeks later, Stornoway added Mr. Thomas to its board of directors, as his daughter may have had the chance to return a favour to her father. In any case, the two now grace the boardrooms of Stornoway and Navigator, active diamond hunters that seem to be believers in the North Slave diamond play.
With their common interest in Coronation diamonds, and the presence of the Thomases in both boardrooms, it is no great surprise that Stornoway and Navigator decided to work together. Through one deal, Stornoway can earn half of Navigator's interest in the Bear property by spending $2-million over the next five years, with a minimum $300,000 annual expenditure required. The financial terms of the second deal are similar, although the roles of the two companies are reversed. Navigator can earn half of Stornoway's share in the Jewel property, which is part of the Coronation ground now being optioned from Northern Empire.
Ms. Thomas touts the Coronation play as an underexplored but emerging diamond district that could see as much as $20-million spent on exploration this year alone. That could well come to pass, especially if a number of the juniors can come up with the cash to do justice to their properties. Included in that group are Ms. Thomas's two companies. With its large land position, Stornoway will bear a significant financial burden in the coming years, although the company seems to have met the challenge in the shorter term. Stornoway had less than $7,000 in the bank at the end of October, and it reported a small working capital deficiency. Since then however, the company has come up with several millions of dollars. That is enough to get things started on a number of fronts, but it resulted in a considerable amount of dilution for the company's shareholders. A year ago, Stornoway had just 1.5 million shares outstanding, but that figure ballooned to 11.7 million shares at the end of January, largely due to private placements that brought in about $2-million. Since then, additional financings have brought in more than $2-million in new cash, with close to four million more shares added to the books.
Nevertheless, the Coronation play has been good for the company's long-term shareholders. The company's stock had been trading for less than 25 cents for much of last year, dipping to a low of just a dime in mid-November. The move to Nunavut diamonds changed all that however, as Stornoway's shares climbed as the acquisitions mounted, hitting a high of $1.07 in early February. Things have cooled since then, largely due to Ashton's modest Artemisia sample, and the stock has levelled off near the 50 cent mark of late. Navigator has several other irons in the fire, and a much smaller exposure to the Coronation play, at least for now. As a result, its stock has not responded significantly to the same market mood swings.
Still, the region should be important to the performance of both companies this year. Results from as many as four mini-bulk samples should have an impact on all of the explorers in the region, and with large-scale exploration programs now under way on several of the properties, new finds seem likely as well. In the meantime, the market appears to be in a holding pattern. Stornoway continued to trade in a narrow range, trading intraday Tuesday at 50 cents, while Navigator was 40 cents.
(c) Copyright 2002 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
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