VANCOUVER, Aug. 29, 2017 /CNW/ - Amarc Resources Ltd.
("Amarc" or the "Company") (TSX-V: AHR; OTCBB: AXREF) is pleased to
announce that option agreements have been concluded with each of
Gold Fields Toodoggone Exploration Corporation ("GFTEC") and
Cascadero Copper Corporation ("Cascadero") which enable Amarc to
purchase 100% of the 323 square km PINE mineral property (the
"Property").
The PINE property is located adjacent to the south of Amarc's
JOY property and adjacent to the north of AuRico Metal's Kemess
District developments in the Toodoggone, British Columbia ("BC"); a region considered
to have high potential for the discovery of important scale,
porphyry copper-gold deposits. Combining the JOY and PINE mineral
claims along with recently staked adjoining claims creates a
consolidated, 464 km2 mineral property. An updated
corporate presentation is available on Amarc's website at
www.amarcresources.com.
Agreement with Gold Fields
Amarc's wholly-owned subsidiary ("Amarc Subco") has entered into
an option agreement with GFTEC (the "GFTEC Agreement") pursuant to
which Amarc Subco obtained the option (the "Option") to acquire all
of GFTEC's 51% interest in the Property.
Amarc Subco can exercise the Option at any time within four
years from the date of the GFTEC Agreement (the "Option Period") by
completing the public listing of Amarc Subco on the TSX Venture
Exchange and issuing to GFTEC securities in the capital of that
Company so that GFTEC holds 15% of the shares and 15% of any
warrants on issue (on a fully diluted basis) following completion
of the listing. GFTEC has the right to maintain its 15% pro
rata interest through participation in future fundraisings and
other share issuances.
To maintain the right to exercise the Option at any time over up
to the four-year Option Period, Amarc must conduct in stages, up to
a total of $2.75 million of
exploration expenditures on the Project. But no expenditures
are required after the Option to acquire GFTEC's 51% interest is
exercised.
GFTEC will retain a 2.5% net profits interest royalty ("NPI") on
mineral claims comprising about 96% of the Property which are
subject to a net smelter return royalty payable to a former owner
("Underlying NSR") and a 1% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR") on
the balance of the claims that are not subject to the Underlying
NSR. The NPI can be reduced to 1.25% at any time through the
payment to GFTEC of $2.5 million in
cash or shares. The NSR can be reduced to 0.50% through the payment
to GFTEC of $2.5 million in cash or
shares. If Amarc Subco does not exercise the Option or terminates
the GFTEC Agreement at any time during the four years Option
Period, then Amarc Subco may be required to make a termination
payment to GFTEC. The level of termination payment, if any,
varies with the year of termination and the amount of any
exploration expenditures completed; varying over the four-year
option from a low of no payment to an absolute maximum of
$1,375,000 in the event no
exploration work was done by Amarc.
Agreement with Cascadero
Amarc has also entered into an option agreement (the "Cascadero
Agreement") with Cascadero pursuant to which Amarc was granted an
option (the "Cascadero Option") to acquire all of Cascadero's 49%
interest in the Property. In order to exercise the Cascadero
Option, Amarc is required to make staged cash payments to Cascadero
in the aggregate amount of $1 million
before October 31, 2018, and issue on
a staged basis common shares in its capital to Cascadero having an
aggregate value equal to $950,000
before October 31, 2018. In lieu of
issuing any common shares, Amarc may elect to pay to Cascadero the
value of the shares in cash.
As noted above, the Property is subject to a 3% Underlying NSR
royalty payable to a former owner. Amarc has reached an
agreement with the former owner to cap the 3% NSR at $5 million payable from production for
consideration totaling $100,000 and
300,000 Amarc shares, payable in stages through to January 31, 2019 (the "Capped Royalty
Agreement").
The GFTEC Agreement, Cascadero Agreement and Capped Royalty
Agreement are subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
About the PINE Property
The PINE property is located 294 km north of Mackenzie, BC and is accessible by road or by
air via the Kemess Mine airstrip. The Property lies between Amarc's
JOY property and the Kemess District in BC's Toodoggone region, an
area considered to have high potential for the discovery of
important scale, porphyry copper-gold and epithermal silver-gold
deposits. The prolific Kemess District includes the Kemess South
Mine where Northgate Minerals produced 3 million ounces of gold and
784 million pounds of copper1 over a 12-year period
to 2010 and where the current owner, AuRico Metals recently secured
a BC EA Certificate for its Kemess Underground Project and also
announced a 628 m intercept grading 0.53 g/t Au and 0.41%
Cu2 at its Kemess East Project.
Amarc considers its JOY and PINE properties to be very
underexplored and to potentially be the northern extension of the
Kemess copper-gold district. Highly favorable geology, combined
with extensive surface sampling by past operators indicates a
number of significant targets. Most importantly, Deposit
Target 1 on Amarc's JOY property extends for some distance to the
east onto the PINE property. Deposit Target 1 is a regionally
significant, 9 km2 copper, gold, molybdenum, silver and
zinc soil geochemical anomaly that may reflect a large and
shallowly buried, copper-gold porphyry deposit that is ready for
drilling.
In addition, there are many known and incompletely tested
porphyry copper occurrences, along with untested induced
polarization, soil geochemical and magnetic anomalies located
across the PINE property. One prime target area, the PINE
Deposit is the subject of historical resource estimates that are
not categorized as prescribed by National Instrument 43-101.
About Amarc Resources Ltd.
Amarc is a mineral exploration and development company with an
experienced and successful management team focused on developing a
new generation of BC porphyry copper mines. By combining
strong projects and funding with successful management, Amarc has
created a solid platform to commence the creation of value from its
ongoing exploration and development programs.
Amarc is advancing its 100% owned IKE, DUKE and JOY porphyry
copper deposit districts, located in southern, central and northern
BC, respectively, each with proximity to industrial infrastructure,
power, rail and highways. These projects represent
significant potential for the discovery of multiple and
important-scale, porphyry copper-gold and copper-molybdenum
deposits.
The 462 km2 IKE Project is located 33 km northwest of
the historical mining community of Gold Bridge. Over the last
three years, Amarc has made a significant new porphyry
copper-molybdenum-silver discovery, completing over 12,000 metres
of drilling in 21 wide-spaced core holes in the IKE deposit that
indicate the potential for extensive resource volumes which remain
open to expansion in all directions. Extensive regional surveys
have also identified numerous porphyry copper
(±molydenum±gold±silver) deposit targets all within 10 km of IKE.
Amarc believes the IKE Project has the potential to possess the
grades and tonnages to develop into an important mining camp. Amarc
has partnered with Hudbay to efficiently fund the advancement of
the IKE Project and, as operator, has mobilized crews to the site
for the 2017 drilling season.
Amarc's DUKE deposit and an adjacent 190 km2 porphyry
copper district is located 80 km northeast of Smithers, BC and 30 km north of former mines
(Bell and Granisle) operated by
Noranda Mines. The DUKE
Project area is logging road accessible from Smithers or Fort St.
James. Historically, DUKE has been explored with surface
geochemical and geophysical surveys, as well as 30 shallow diamond
drill holes. Many of the holes drilled intersected
significant lengths of porphyry copper-molybdenum-silver-gold
mineralization which remains open both laterally and to depth. The
surrounding district, which is covered by Amarc mineral claims
hosts, multiple second-order porphyry copper deposit targets.
Plans are to drill the DUKE deposit target in fall 2017.
Amarc's 72 km2 JOY property is located 310 km north
of Mackenzie, BC, and 25 km north
of the Kemess South Mine where owner, AuRico Metals recently
secured a BC EA Certificate for its nearby Kemess Underground
Project. Past operators conducted prospecting-style work on
the JOY claims – collecting some 3,000 soil samples, 800 rock
samples and 30 silt samples – but undertook no drilling.
These surface surveys clearly indicate a number of substantial
porphyry copper-gold and epithermal silver-gold deposit targets
across the JOY property. The deposit targets located on the
JOY property are considered by Amarc to be a northern extension to
the prolific Kemess porphyry copper-gold district. Most
importantly, historical soil and rock sampling along with recent
soil surveying, has revealed a regionally significant, 9
km2 copper, gold, molybdenum, silver and zinc
geochemical anomaly, which potentially reflects a large and
shallowly buried, copper-gold porphyry deposit. Amarc has partnered
with Hudbay to efficiently fund the advancement of the JOY Project
and, as operator, has mobilized crews to the site for the 2017
drilling season.
Amarc is associated with Hunter Dickinson Inc. ("HDI"), a
diversified, global mining company with a 29-year history of
porphyry discovery and development success. Previous and
current HDI porphyry projects include some of BC's and the world's
most important mineral resources – such as Pebble, Mount Milligan,
Kemess South, Kemess North, Gibraltar, Prosperity, Xietongmen, Newtongmen,
Florence, Sisson, and Maggie. From its head office in
Vancouver, Canada, HDI applies its
unique strengths and capabilities to acquire, develop, operate and
monetize mineral projects to provide superior returns to
shareholders.
Amarc is committed to working collaboratively with governments
and stakeholders to achieve responsible development of its
projects, while contributing to sustainable development of the
communities in which it works. All work programs are
carefully planned to achieve high levels of environmental and
social performance.
Qualified Person as Defined Under National Instrument
43-101
Mark Rebagliati, P. Eng., a
Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101, has
reviewed and approved the technical content of this release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Ronald W. Thiessen
Chief Executive Officer
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor any other regulatory
authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this release.
Forward Looking and other Cautionary
Information
This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed
"forward-looking statements". All such statements, other than
statements of historical facts that address exploration drilling,
exploitation activities and other related events or developments
are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the
expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based
on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of
future performance and actual results or developments may differ
materially from those in the forward-looking statements.
Assumptions used by the Company to develop forward-looking
statements include the following: Amarc's projects will obtain all
required environmental and other permits and all land use and other
licenses, studies and exploration of Amarc's projects will continue
to be positive, and no geological or technical problems will occur.
The Company cannot guarantee that the Consolidated Loan and
issuance of securities contemplated by this release will
complete. There is no certainty that the Company will be able
to repay the Consolidated Loan or any other outstanding debt or
liability of the Company in a timely manner or at all.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those in forward-looking statements include market prices,
potential environmental issues or liabilities associated with
exploration, development and mining activities, exploitation and
exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties
related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and
tenure and delays due to third party opposition, changes in and the
effect of government policies regarding mining and natural resource
exploration and exploitation, exploration and development of
properties located within Aboriginal groups asserted territories
may affect or be perceived to affect asserted aboriginal rights and
title, which may cause permitting delays or opposition by
Aboriginal groups, continued availability of capital and financing,
and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are
cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future
performance and actual results or developments may differ
materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
For more information on Amarc Resources Ltd., investors should
review the Company's annual Form 20-F filing with the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov and its home
jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com.
__________________________________
1 MINFILE Number 094E 094, MINFILE Production Detail
Report, BC Geological Survey, Ministry of Energy and Mines, BC.
2 AuRico Metals website –
http://www.auricometals.ca/home/default/aspx
SOURCE Amarc Resources Ltd.
