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Exploration company Canadian Zinc Corporation says it is ready to probe for gold in the Tuvatu gold project in the Nadi highlands.
The North American company also has 20 percent shares in the Vatukoula Mines as well.
Canadian Zinc has a six month option to evaluate the Tuvatu property and to acquire Tuvatu, at any time up to October 31, 2009. The exploration program will assist the company in further assessing the property.
The exploration program has been designed to test for extensions of previously defined gold bearing zones and to further investigate some recently discovered gold anomalies located elsewhere on the large Tuvatu property.
The Mineral Resources Department said these features represent potential hosts to gold mineralisation and were targeted in the upcoming drill program.
A number of gold anomalies have been found within two to three kilometres of the main resource and some of these are also targeted for drill testing.
A reported 51,484 metres of surface diamond drilling, 13,407 metres of underground diamond drilling and 9,265 metres of reverse circulation drilling has previously been completed on the Tuvatu property by Emperor Mines Ltd.
The Tuvatu Project is currently owned by American Eagle Resources Inc. through its 100 percent owned Fijian subsidiary Lion One Limited.
American Eagle was incorporated under the laws of Delaware on January 3, 1978 and was continued under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) on February 6, 2008. The Tuvatu Gold Mine property was acquired by American Eagle in September 2008 in exchange for 7,300,000 American Eagle shares at a deemed price of $4.43 per share.
Canadian Zinc has made an option payment of $3 million to the majority shareholder of American Eagle and under the Option Agreement has an option for a period of six months ending October 31, 2009, to carry out an evaluation of the Tuvatu property.
