The Buck Lake Project has an important past, is a significant discovery, with a great location. It also experienced some very recent good luck, set out below, which has Empire really excited about the future exploration at Buck Lake. As we learned more about the geology, our enthusiasm for the project increases exponentially.
The Buck Lake discovery is located 25 km west of North American Palladium’s Lac des Iles mine, near Thunder Bay Ontario. The Lac Des Iles Mine is the only producing PGE producer in Canada.
In past years exploration had slowed to simply maintaining yearly assessment requirements as the burden of reclaiming acres of land in the Main Discovery Area at a challenging cost in a difficult market had to be done before more trenching. Part of the project was optioned to Goldbank Mining Corporation so our company lost control of exploration.
However, things quickly and dramatically changed for the better at Buck Lake.
Recently the timber rights holder harvested the timber covering most of our property, and with clear cutting the forest, came road building. Essentially the timber rights holder provided expensive mechanical trenching at no cost to the company. Historically, exposing mineralized outcrops through road building has led to some of the most valuable mineral discoveries in Canada. Our geologist and prospectors have been on the area exposed by the road building, and timber clear cutting. We also acquired substantial new mineral claims from Mr. Richmond, one of Buck Lake’s original prospectors, announced on October 14, 2015.
The road building/ clear cutting is simply an exceptional, fortunate turn of events for exploration and development at Buck Lake.
Empire made the decision to reacquire 100% of the Buck Lake Project from GoldBank Mining, which was completed in 2014.
North American Palladium Back on Track
North American Palladium (“NAP”) (“PDL” on the TSX), owner of the Lac Des Iles Mine, successfully reorganized and refinanced in 2015. Its stock price has risen from a low of $0.02 in 2015 to currently trading above $5.00.
The importance of the dramatic reorganization and turnaround at North American Palladium to Empire’s Buck Lake platinum/ palladium/ nickel discovery cannot be overstated, especially as NAP announces it is depleting its natural resources. NAP also owns a portion of the Buck Lake intrusion.
Empire congratulates’ NAP and its management, directors and committed investors on this success, and wishes them success in the future.