Anglo signs Catamayo/Blu Starr joint ventures
Anglo Swiss Resources Inc ASW
Shares issued 38,237,606 May 2 close $0.27
Wed 3 May 2000 News Release
Mr. Len Danard reports
Anglo Swiss Resources and Hampton Court Resources have finalized their
joint venture agreements on both the Catamayo River property in southern
Ecuador and the Blu Starr property in British Columbia. Anglo Swiss has
also closed a private placement for proceeds of $600,000. The agreements
and the private placement are subject to regulatory approvals.
Catamayo River property
Hampton Court, as the operator, will proceed immediately with the
installation of a portable wash plant operation on the Catamayo River
property, with commercial production expected to begin within 120 days. An
independent geological report (Geoffrey Garcia, P.G. dated January, 1997)
estimated that the Catamayo River property contains 9.24 million cubic
metres of gravel (12 million cubic yards) with a 332,820-ounce
(10.3-million-gram) resource of unrefined placer gold, assayed at .8616
fineness.
Hampton Court's equipment has a planned design capacity of 150 cubic yards
per hour. Management expects to process an average of 90,000 cubic yards
per quarter and revenue shall be split 50-50 between the two parties. This
production level is expected to produce 2,220 ounces (68,800 grams) of
unrefined gold. By increasing production to 180,000 yards per quarter, HCR
will earn an additional pro rated 10 per cent of revenue to a maximum of 60
per cent.
Blu Starr property
Hampton Court will expend $1-million over a three-year period to earn a
40-per-cent interest in the Blu Starr property in the Slocan Valley of
British Columbia, Canada. This gemstone property now consists of over
15,000 acres of mineral tenure rights and 1,853 acres of placer mineral
rights.
Phase 1
$250,000 work program earned interests
HCR 10 per cent, Anglo 90 per cent
Phase 2
$250,000 work program earned interests
HCR 20 per cent, Anglo 80 per cent
Phase 3
$500,000 work program earned interests
HCR 40 per cent, Anglo 60 per cent
HCR shall have the right for a period of 180 days from the end of the phase
3 earning period to elect to purchase an additional 10-per-cent interest in
the Blu Starr property for $1-million or 20 per cent for $2-million.
Over the last year, Anglo's gemstone discovery has attracted coverage by
top, American jewellery trade magazines. The Gemological Institute of
America (the official non-profit educational organization for the jewellery
industry), in its Gems & Gemology, addressed the significance of Anglo's
iolite, garnet, star-sapphire discovery. The publication stated, "Clearly,
this area has the potential to produce a large variety of gem materials."
The National Jeweler stated: "The 13,000-acre area is a fertile source of
star cabochon sapphire, garnet, aquamarine, beryl, tourmaline, titanite,
moonstone, smoky rose and star quartz mines. Most customers are looking for
blue material, and there is a great market for beautiful stones."
The Jewelers Circular Keystone highlighted the company's iolite in its
North American Beauties series of articles. The article stated: "Gem iolite
recently found in British Columbia has been described as some of the
largest and finest quality in the world. Iolite is not a gem associated
with North America, but that's going to change. There's an important new
find in Canada that will add this beautiful, sapphire-like gemstone to the
North American repertoire."
The recent issue of Professional Jeweler commented: "Iolite is considered
rare in its best qualities, especially when it's over five carats. Demand
is climbing for two-carat to five-carat iolite, which sells for $40 (U.S.)
to $60 (U.S.) per carat wholesale."
The first iolite gems were cut by master gem cutters and designers, Bruce
MacLellan of Mountain Gems Ltd., and Ken Dale of Rusty's Gems Ltd., who
stated that the iolite is among the finest they have ever cut. The cutters
both remarked on the superb blue-violet colour, excellent clarity and
intense brilliance of the gems.
Anglo has identified six outcrops of iolite on the property covering a
total strike distance of 1,500 metres. The largest outcrop, which is open
at depth in all directions, has been estimated by an independent
geologist/gemologist (David Barclay C.I.G., December, 1998) to contain in
excess of one billion rough carats. The percentage of gem quality iolite is
hard to estimate due to the extreme effects of weathering, which has
altered these surface exposures. However, a conservative estimate of 1 per
cent gem grade is reasonable to expect.
"How big is the market for iolite?" is the question most frequently asked
of Len Danard, president of Anglo Swiss Resources. "My response, is to
quote the United States Department of Commerce, which reported retail
jewellery sales topped $23-billion* (U.S.) last year. However, the Basel
Magazine, believes the actual figure could be closer to $39-billion* (U.S.)
when department stores, discount stores and home shopping networks are
included. The coloured stone market is approximately 10 per cent of this
figure. More important to Anglo is that a leading jewellery retail analyst
recently predicted that the next decade is going to be one of the strongest
periods for jewellery sales in the history of U.S. retailing," said Mr.
Danard.
*Source: Basel Magazine, January, 2000, edition.
Private placement
In additional news, the company closed its recent private placement of
$600,000. The placement consisted of four million common shares at 15 cents
and four million share purchase warrants, exercisable over a two-year
period. The first year exercise price is 20 cents and 25 cents in the
second year. |
