From front page of the Montana Standard
Canadian company enters option to buy molybdenum property
By The Standard Staff - 02/25/2005
By Susan Gallagher Associated Press Writer HELENA — A Canadian company is expanding its presence in southwest Montana.
United Bolero Development Corp. of Vancouver, British Columbia, says it has signed an option to buy molybdenum property northwest of Helena — a site known as Bald Butte — for $5 million plus 600,000 shares in the company.
The company also said in December it was acquiring a potential molybdenum mine in the Pioneer Mountains southwest of Butte for $10 million and 500,000 shares.
"The company is very much interested in Montana,'' United Bolero board member Joe Bardswich said Thursday from Virginia City, where he lives. "Montana is rich geologically.''
Interest in molybdenum mining has risen because the metal, used chiefly in the production of steel, sells for about $30 a pound compared to about $2 in the 1980s. Much of the increase is tied to molybdenum demand in China as that country's infrastructure expands.
Bardswich said United Bolero entered the latest deal after examining information from Gulf Mineral Resources Co. Gulf's data, compiled after drilling at Bald Butte in the 1980s, indicate the property may hold about 1½ pounds of molybdenum per ton of rock, he said.
Bardswich said the Bald Butte deal was reached with some Montanans, people he declined to name. Some of the same people also were involved in the deal for Cannivan Gulch, the site in the Pioneers, he said.
United Bolero will further examine Gulf's information and anticipates exploratory drilling at Bald Butte, perhaps as early as this summer, Bardswich said. No government permits have been sought but the company is "well aware of the ... regulations,'' he said.
Patrick Plantenberg of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday that United Bolero has communicated with the agency and indicated it will submit a drilling plan for consideration.
United Bolero's plan for exploratory drilling at Cannivan Gulch, 30 miles southwest of Butte, has been submitted to officials with the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. Forest land surrounds the potential drilling site.
Ranger Charlie Hester of the Wise River District said Thursday that an environmental review will take place, but he could not say how soon the Forest Service will decide whether to approve or reject United Bolero's plan. A license must be obtained from DEQ for the company to proceed with exploration at Cannivan Gulch, Plantenberg said.
Bardswich said that "in terms of geological supervision,'' there would be some advantage to working at Cannivan Gulch and Bald Butte simultaneously.
^——— On the Net: United Bolero: unitedbolero.com |
