The Beschefer property is located in Bapst and Beschefer townships in northwestern Quebec, approximately 140 kilometres northwest of LaSarre and 190 kilometres west of Matagami. The Selbaie Mine is approximately 10 kilometres to the northwest. The property is in a region of large swamps, where access is difficult except in the winter. However, the property is criss-crossed by a network of heavy-equipment roads built for reverse-circulation and diamond drilling programs. These roads provide access to the entire property.
The Beschefer property covers an area of approximately 4,075 hectares and is composed of 257 claims. Yorbeau owns a 100% interest in all of these claims, except for the 137 claims that were acquired from Explorers Alliance Corporation, in which Yorbeau owns an 80% undivided interest and which are subject to a 1% net smelter return royalty. Yorbeau has the option to acquire the remaining 20% interest in these claims at any time, in consideration of either a cash payment of $500,000 or the issuance to Explorers of 1,800,000 Class A common shares.
The Beschefer property is located in the northern part of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt, in the eastern part of the Superior orogenic province of the Canadian Shield. The rocks in this region are almost all Archean. Regional metamorphism has changed the greenschist facies to the amphibolite facies at the contact with intrusions or near the Grenville front.
The property is underlain by basaltic-to-rhyolitic rocks of the Matagami-Brouillan domain in the north and by Enjalran basaltic rocks in the south. Ore deposits in the region are of two types: 1) polymetallic, including Matagami-type copper-zinc deposits with silver and Selbaie-type copper-gold-zinc deposits; and 2) gold. The Beschefer property has potential for both types of deposits.
Since the discovery of the Selbaie Mine at the beginning of the 1970s, exploration in this sector has focused on base metals. The major companies involved were Noranda Exploration and Matagami Lake Mines. Many small areas along electromagnetic conductors were tested by drilling between 1975 and 1977, without significant results. Exploration in this area has been hampered by the thickness of the overburden and a lack of outcrops. Interest in exploration only revived following the discovery of the Golden Pond and Douay gold deposits in 1983.
These deposits were discovered by some of the many reverse-circulation holes drilled on till in the region. Although such holes generated promising results, diamond drilling was only done on the till anomalies at the end of the 1990s. The core did not reveal gold or massive sulfide structures, although some good isolated results were obtained (e.g., 19.85 g/t Au over 0.77 m).
In the late 1990s, Billiton discovered two copper-gold-zinc showings to the west of the property (the B-26 showing and its East extension) and one gold showing to the north (the B-14 showing). These discoveries again revived interest in the area.
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