Independence Resources, which moved into the mineral/natural resources sector back in 2010 and has since aggressively assembled a solid project footprint focused largely on their Iron Creek project (copper-cobalt with an additional gold target) in Idaho (near the town of Salmon) and the Gray Eagle Mine project (copper and gold) up in Northern California, reported the acquisition today of 70% of eminent, Pacific Northwest veteran mining shop, Coeur d’Alene Mine Contracting LLC (CDA Mine Contracting).
SNKTY will issue 2M shares of common stock in conjunction with the acquisition, paying $200k in cash for the transaction, and obtaining 100% ownership of some highly prospective silver/gold property in Lemhi County, Idaho (42 mining claims) which will extend the company’s already strong land position there.
CDA Mine Contracting has developed an extremely powerful hands-on training model for bringing personnel to the peak of capability, an established reputation for a continually demonstrated ability to attract/retain highly skilled miners, and most importantly, brilliant leadership. You see, CDA has Jeff Lambert and Steve Ivie at the helm as its two principal owners, men who have spent over 24 years in the trenches of the underground hard rock mining sector developing the kind of experiential knowledge that only such activities can produce.
Lambert and Ivie both climbed the ladder, working their way up through the ranks in different positions back at Sunshine Mine in 1988 and onwards. Years spent as lead miners in some of the deepest, most challenging hard rock mines throughout North America has forged the kind of logistical intelligence, tactile knowledge, and systems level experience required to help turn out some of today’s best miners, miners who are ideally suited to working in precisely the kind of difficult environments this work calls for.
In fact, Lambert and Ivie started the mine contracting company which grew into United Mine Services, now a part of United Silver (Toronto listed public company) and a key factor in that company’s evolution/success. CDA is able to grow through training new personnel and improving the skill level of already skilled miners, making it a one-stop-shop for resource developers that need to move development/production forward.
CEO of SNKTY, John Ryan, emphasized this vast experience when praising CDA’s owners, underscoring the meticulous approach to ensuring productivity and safety applied by CDA, as well as their circumspect compliance with mining safety laws/regulations.
Mr. Ryan explained the dynamics of the mining industry to illustrate, noting the significant shortfall in skilled mining personnel that continues to plague the industry, resulting in major mining companies often failing to fulfill contract requirements due to a lack of experienced miners. Ryan pointed to the elephant in the room, the fact that companies have more work than miners to do it.
These fundamental reasons make the deal very attractive to SNKTY and Mr. Ryan expressed great confidence in the ability of CDA to bring substantial, steady, highly profitable near-term revenue to SNKTY, while ensuring optimum safety (something very important to both John Ryan and the SNKTY Board)
Mr. Ryan indicated that this majority stake of 70%, at any earlier stage, in what is destined to become one of North America’s premier underground mine contracting service companies, combined with the improved acreage footprint in Idaho (that will strengthen the company’s existing Iron Creek project), is a big win for SNKTY, as many junior mining companies never even get to the stage of producing revenue.
Iron Creek has copper-cobalt reserves of some 10M tons at 2% copper equivalent (intercepts up to 25ft grading 5.54% copper and 0.19% cobalt), with a 1k foot by 400 foot gold target (3.85 opt in some rock chip/soil samples), high-grade underground cobalt deposit of around 1M tons (at 0.61% cobalt and 0.3% copper – 4.1% copper equivalent). With an extensive drilling profile and good historic guidelines, this 100% owned (no royalties and some patented mining claims) acreage, in combination with the new land obtained in today’s acquisition, as well as the Gray Eagle Mine project, should give CDA plenty to sink their teeth into.
For more information on today’s acquisition, or to find out more about Independence Resources Plc, please visit the company’s website at: www.senetekplc.com
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