Argo Gold sees precious metal potential among the banded iron formations near Pickle Lake.
The Toronto exploration company picked up 760 hectares of claims in a cash-and-share deal with Denison Mines, then staked some additional claims to create a land package of 7,982 hectares.
The property acquired from Denison Mines, known as the Talbot Lake Gold Project, is 60 kilometres northeast of the town of Pickle Lake.
In a June 11 news release, Argo said Talbot Lake has several unexplored iron formations containing quality gold targets and one partially-explored high grade vein-type gold deposit.
In the early 1980s, Dome Exploration identified banded iron formations in the Pickle Lake and Red Lake greenstone belts. Some of those targets spawned the Musselwhite and Dona Lake mines.
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Prospecting back then revealed a high-grade gold quartz vein which became the focus of exploration. The vein was drilled to a depth of 200 metres.
After Denison picked up the property in 1998, they drilled to 250 metres and discovered the vein increased in strike length at depth. Denison briefly optioned the property to Abbastar Resources and a drill program found gold in both quartz vein and iron formation host rocks.
Argo's plan for the property this year is to consult with area First Nations, do basic geological mapping of the iron formation and GPS relocation of the old diamond drill holes, and compile all the historical exploration data on the property.
According to the details of the deal, Argo sends $135,000 and more than 1.35 million common shares, plus a 2 per cent net smelter return to Denison.
If Argo Gold calculates a mineral resource at Talbot Lake of greater than one million ounces of gold, the company will make a one-time payment to Denison of $1.5 million in cash or common shares which equates to $1.50 per ounce of gold resource.
Argo has three other gold exploration properties in the Red Lake-Patricia mining districts, three gold projects near Wawa, and a zinc-silver-cobalt project near Timmins.
