ArcWest Exploration Inc., formerly Sojourn Exploration Inc., March 20 announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sparrowhawk, a copper-gold property about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Smithers, British Columbia.

The road accessible Sparrowhawk property is adjacent to Glencore Canada's Bell and Granisle mine property in the Babine Porphyry Copper District in the northcentral part of the province.

The Bell Mine, operated by Noranda between 1972 and 1992, produced 77.2 million metric tons of ore averaging 0.39 percent copper and 0.16 g/t gold. Granisle, located eight kilometers (five miles) south of Sparrowhawk, produced 57.2 million metric tons of ore averaging 0.41 percent copper and 0.13 g/t gold from 1966 to 1982.

Prospective for similar mineralization, the 9,913-hectare (24,495 acres) Sparrowhawk property hosts several undrilled porphyry copper-gold targets, including:

• Sparrowhawk – a 3,000-meter corridor of copper-gold mineralized outcrops and historical soil and rock samples including a well mineralized breccia at the Sparrowhawk showing which has returned values up to 3.25 percent copper and 0.40 grams per metric tons gold; and

• DCA – a 560-meter trend of copper mineralized mafic volcanics that have returned assays of up to 0.87 percent copper;

• BFP – a 530-meter trend of highly altered crowded porphyry in outcrop and float, with anomalous copper values, including up to 1,576 parts per million (0.16 percent) copper in samples collected by previous explorers.

"Importantly, the Sparrowhawk project is situated along a prospective corridor which contains both the controlling structures for Babine-district porphyry copper-gold deposits, and associated, widespread porphyry copper-gold occurrences and high-grade breccias, all of which remain untested by drilling," said ArcWest Exploration President and CEO Tyler Ruks.

ArcWest is acquiring a 2,741-hectare (6,773 acres) core of this property from Rolland Menard for a cash payment of C$5,000 and 87,000 ArcWest shares. Menard retains a 1 percent net smelter return royalty, which ArcWest can purchase for C$2 million.

The balance of the Sparrowhawk property is claims staked by ArcWest.

"We are looking forward to exploring the project in 2019," Ruks said.

–SHANE LASLEY