NEWS: Abacus Minerals Signs Letter of Intent with Redstar
Resources
NOVEMBER 27, 1998
Newswire: CCN
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--Abacus Minerals Corporation announces
it has signed a Letter of Intent with Redstar Resources Corp.
whereby Redstar can earn a 50 percent interest in three contiguous
mineral claims known collectively as the Sarita Properties (the
"Properties") located in Santa Cruz, Argentina.
To earn 50 percent interest in the La Sarita, Sarita Sur and
Sarita Norte properties, Redstar will carry out US $2,000,000 in
exploration expenditures. In addition, the Company will make cash
payments totaling CDN $275,000 and issue 200,000 common shares to
Abacus over the next four years. All exploration expenditures,
cash payments, and share issuances must be completed by September
15, 2002. Redstar's first year commitments are to conduct US
$175,000 in exploration expenditures, issue 50,000 of its common
shares, and make CDN $25,000 in cash payments.
The La Sarita and Sarita Sur properties are a part of an option
agreement between Abacus Minerals Corporation and Barrick Gold
Corporation whereby Abacus is earning a 100 percent interest in
six exploration properties from Barrick. Abacus is in the first
year of its four year agreement with Barrick and has spent over US
$900,000 of the US $2,750,000 it must spend in exploration. Once
Abacus has vested, Barrick retains a 50 percent "back-in" right by
spending US $3,750,000 in ongoing exploration. If Barrick elects
not to "back-in", they will automatically convert over to a 3
percent Net Smelter Royalty. Redstar will retain a 25 percent
interest in the Sarita and Sarita Sur properties if Barrick elects
to "back-in" and 50 percent interest if it does not.
The Sarita properties, comprise 9,890 hectares and cover an area
of favorable volcanic stratigraphy which is bisected by northeast
and northwest trending regional structures. Within the property
area, hydrothermal alteration is apparent on satellite images.
Limited sampling on the property during the 1997 exploration
program returned values of up to 4.58 g/t gold and high grade
silver values of up to 1,137.9 g/t. The samples also returned
anomalous base metal and trace elements typically associated with
epithermal mineralization. This sampling has identified three
parallel mineralized vein trends. The southwest and northeast
zones have each been traced in sampling for over one kilometre and
the central zone for over 3 kilometres along strike.
Several companies are active in this area including Anglo
American/Perez Compac's Cerro Vanguardia Mine, Silver Standard's
Manetial Espejo project, Yamana's Bacon and Lejano projects,
Abacus' La Manchuria project, MIM/Newcrest's Cerro Negro property
and Minera Andes' El Pluma/ Cerro Saavedra project.
Yamana's Bacon property is located immediately to the southeast of
Sarita Sur. Reverse circulation drill holes on this property have
returned very high grade silver intersections including 6.0 metres
grading 2,579 g/t silver with 2.62 g/t gold (hole 16). The
Manetial Espejo project, which is located approximately 15
kilometres to the southeast of Sarita Sur, hosts a proven,
probable and inferred resource totaling 7.9 million tonnes grading
191 grams of silver and 2.87 grams of gold per tonne
(approximately 89,000,000 ounces silver equivalent).
This news release is subject to regulatory acceptance of the
Vancouver Stock Exchange and Barrick Gold Corporation.
ABACUS MINERALS CORPORATION
Steve L. Todoruk, P.Geo., President |
