Casa options Keaper polymetallic project in BC

Casa Minerals (TSXV: CASA) has optioned its Keaper polymetallic project 15 km northeast of Terrace, B.C., less than 5 km from the company's flagship Pitman polymetallic project, to a private company that has the right to earn a 60% interest in the property over four years.

In order to earn its interest, the optionee must spend $4 million on exploration, pay Casa $550,000 and issue Casa 2.5 million shares in yearly stages. Casa retains a 1.5% net smelter royalty that the optionee can buy back for $500,000.

Casa president and CEO Farshad Shirvani says the deal allows Casa to drill Keaper without further diluting the company. Keaper has never been drilled before.

The B.C. government granted Casa a drill permit for Keaper in late 2018, and the company plans to start drilling the property this spring after flying a geophysical survey in the coming months. It's looking to spend around half a million dollars on exploration at Keaper this year, drilling roughly 10 holes between 200 and 300 metres below surface. It says the property's optionee will fund exploration.

"I'm talking to drillers right now so we could possibly drill it in April or May," Shirvani says in an interview with The Northern Miner. "It's contingent on the airborne survey, and then we can finalize the targets."

Provincial survey geologists first identified the Keaper prospect in 2008. Casa picked up claims on part of the project that same year. It recently added two more claims, raising its Keaper land holding to 32 square kilometres.

"It started with one sample that graded 1,200 grams silver plus copper and zinc," Shirvani says. "We systematically followed that vein, but as we moved away from it we saw we not only have a vein system but a potential porphyry system. Right now we have an area that is very prospective for porphyry deposits."

Mineralization at Casa's newly optioned Keaper property. Credit: Casa Minerals.

During its 2018 field program at Keaper, Casa extended the property's Nelson prospect and discovered its Lucky Crew prospect with rock sampling.

Both areas sit in a 3.2 km northwest-southeast striking zone. Rock chip samples from that program graded as high as 1,152 grams silver, 13.9% zinc and 1.19% copper and 2,232 grams silver, 10.94% zinc and 1.12% copper.

Logging on the property has opened it up to road access. Shirvani says the company can drive right up to all of its drill targets. He adds that the area is less mountainous than other parts of Terrace.

Casa also took additional rock samples on its Pitman property in 2018. Since 2008, the company has collected more than 1,000 geochemical samples and 269 rock samples at Pitman.

"We discovered two areas at Pitman in 2018," Shirvani says. "One is a polymetallic Eskay Creek type of geology called, Dragon Tale. And then on Golden Dragon we've got high-grade gold veins parallel to each other."

In August 2018 the company discovered the project's Golden Dragon veining network while sampling near the historic Paddy Mac and Gold Dome gold prospects. A rock chip sample from a two-foot wide vein graded 574.42 grams gold, 109 grams silver, 0.1% copper, 1.56% lead and 0.23% zinc. Another sample from a three-foot wide vein graded 286.6 grams gold, 127 grams silver, 0.2% copper and 2.95% lead.

Later work on the property identified a second zone at Pitman about 1 km south of Golden Dragon. Samples from the company's newly termed Dragon Tale zone graded as high as 231 grams silver and 6.15% zinc. The company sampled the mineralization in outcrops in a 1.4 km by 700-metre zone.

Casa is still waiting on results from an airborne geophysical survey it flew over Pitman in 2018. After, it intends to start drilling the property.

"The first plan of action is to put 10 holes into Dragon Tale and 10 holes into Golden Dragon," Shirvani says. "At Dragon Tale we can drive right to the spot where we want to drill. Golden Dragon we have to have a use a helicopter.

"Once we get the results I'm hoping, we can continue with it at the end of the year."

Shares of Casa Minerals are currently trading at 16 ? with a 52-week range of 12 ? to 24 ?. The company has a $4 million market capitalization. It has about $750,000 in cash and a $100,000 drill credit.