Forum Energy Metals (TSXV: FMC) is expanding its portfolio. From focusing on copper and uranium in Saskatchewan, the Vancouver-based miner now wants to work on extracting a wider array of products, from precious metals to minerals aimed at supplying the EV market.
This week, Forum announced that it has executed a formal agreement to acquire, for a total of $75,000, the Quartz Gulch cobalt property located in the Idaho Cobalt Belt and the Juneau-Standard gold/silver/copper/cobalt property in Grant County, Oregon from Lumina Cobalt Corp.
In a press release, the Canadian miner explained that the Quartz Gulch claim block consists of 127 claims totaling 10.65 square kilometres, located approximately five kilometres to the southeast of the past producing Blackbird cobalt mine and eCobalt Solutions' Idaho Cobalt Project, the only permitted cobalt mine development in North America.
According to Forum's research, previous work carried out by Noranda at Quartz Gulch revealed that the site is prospective for stratabound cobalt mineralization and cobalt hosted in quartz-tourmaline breccias. To confirm such results, Forum says it plans to conduct initial exploration of the property this fall.
In Oregon's Grant County, on the other hand, the Canadian company plans to purchase the Juneau- Standard Gold/Silver/Copper/Cobalt.
This block consists of 155 claims totaling 9.43 square kilometres surrounding patented claims in the Juneau-Standard, Quartzburg historical mining camp.
"Numerous mines in the district were known for their high-grade gold/silver/copper/cobalt veins, the largest of which were the Standard and Keystone Mines," Forum's statement reads. "It appears that mineralization is within a series of vein and breccia systems that are zoned with a copper-rich zone and a gold-cobalt rich zone. The Keystone Mine was mined primarily for its gold and silver mineralization."
Based on the fact that Lumina geologists prospected the property and sampled historical mine dumps which resulted in gold grades ranging from 0.125 to 548 grams gold per tonne, Forum plans to conduct initial exploration of known veins and to identify new zones within the property this fall.