FAIR USE Doctrine: Educational Purposes Only: --Stripped of Fluff---
International Gold Hunter - Joey Freeze, P.Geo. Candente Resource Corp.
By Ellsworth Dickson Feb 27 2003 www.resourceworldmag.com
Excerpts: THIS ON PERU ONLY: NEXT POST ON BOTWOOD BASIN
Joey's first field job was coal exploration in northeast BC that convinced her
mineral exploration was going to be a career. Following two years in coal, Joey worked for Art
Troup at the Hughes-Lang Group exploring for gold for four years in BC, Yukon and northern U.S.
After a stint with Glen White Geophysics, she consulted for various companies, including some
majors such as Placer Dome.
Peru
From 1994 to 1997, Joey lived in Peru where her husband, Art was working. Working for a junior company she got to know Peru’s
geology and mineral belts quite well. During these years Canadian companies were beginning to
explore Peru, which enabled Joey and Art to receive geological contracts. Because she had
written many geological reports that were filed with the stock exchange (VSE), Joey was in
demand as a consultant.
"We had to watch out for the Sendero group of terrorists," explains Joey. "When we first arrived in
Peru, things were considered dangerous as it was believed it was the Sendero that had killed a
geologist. Sometimes they would invade a farm and kill the family living there.
"It was a providential day when Vancouver entrepreneur Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, president of
Arequipa Resources, hired Joey to explore their Paron property where drilling was underway.
Arequipa was also getting ready to drill their California Quattro property. On her second day in the
field, Peruvian geologist Fredy Huanqui (Candente’s current vice president of exploration)
mentioned that if she liked the California Quattro property, she would really like the Pierina
property. .....After the Arequipa takeover, a colleague suggested Joey get together with Fredy and launch their own resource company. "We thought about it for five months, during which time Fredy had been working for Barrick," says Joey, "We finally took the plunge and raised seed money for our new company, Candente Resource Corp."
Initial funds were to be used for regional exploration and acquiring properties of merit. The first
property Candente acquired was the Pamel, located in west-central Peru. "It has a high
sulphidation gold target that needs drilling," says Joey. "We have completed rock geochemistry
and mapping but we are not quite ready to drill it yet – it needs more systematic sampling. Other
nearby gold discoveries have made the property more attractive and now there are majors taking
a look at it."
Candente has over a dozen properties in Peru, mostly gold, but some copper. "Just on the cusp of going public we acquired from another Vancouver junior a 50% interest in the El Tigre, Las
Sorpresas and Lunahuana properties on favourable terms, considering that over $500,000 had
been spent on the properties – plus an option on the remaining interests. Las Sorpresas is
adjacent to the Yanacocha mine. We staked the Picota ourselves and found the Las Brujas
ground on our own."
Then Hecla Mining Company [HL-NY] told Candente they didn’t want to work in Peru any longer.
"We optioned a 100% interest in Hecla’s Alta Dorado property from them subject to a 2.5%
royalty," notes Joey. "Hecla had dropped some contiguous ground. We liked it because it was a
high sulphidation target with many favourable geological characteristics such as the vuggy silica
with good gold numbers."
"We won the adjacent claims in an auction," explains Joey. "In Peru, a previously held claim does
not come open the moment it expires – it takes about a year. The government publishes a notice
in the newspaper, sets a date and lets everyone know that on a certain date the land can be
staked via paper staking. If more than one person ‘paper stakes’ the ground, the stakers are
considered to be equal bidders. In this case, only Barrick Gold and Candente staked the ground.
This led to a bidding war with Barrick."
Now the intrigue began. "We spoke to Barrick regarding a possible joint venture; however, we
couldn’t come to an agreement. To make a long story short, at the auction we bid up to $50,133
and won the ground. Barrick lost because they stopped bidding at $50,000 – a close call.
Basically, the auction was a game of high stakes poker. We viewed the acquisition as a bargain
because Hecla has spent several hundred thousand dollars on exploration. In addition, two
majors were visiting the property and were interested in some kind of deal. I think Barrick
eventually acquired a small property nearby. Under the Peruvian regulations, one has 48 hours to
pay or it goes to auction. Since Hecla had spent a great deal of money exploring Alto Dorado and
Fredy understood high sulphidation systems, we had enough geological information to accurately
gauge the value of the property."
Currently, Joey and her team continue to explore their various properties in Peru. |
