Bolero jumps on graphite trend

VANCOUVER — Proving there is still healthy demand for new graphite plays, new entrant Bolero Resources' share price nearly doubled after announcing it had secured some prospective graphite claims in northern Ontario.

VANCOUVER — Proving there is still healthy demand for new graphite plays, new entrant Bolero Resources' share price nearly doubled after announcing it had secured some prospective graphite claims in northern Ontario.

The claims happen to be contiguous to Northern Graphite's Bissett Creek claim block, a property that helped propel Northern's share price from 90¢ in mid-January to an early April peak of $3.72. And not only are Bolero's roughly 50 km2 of claims contiguous to the 30 km2 Bissett property, but they actually fully surround it.

On news of the announcement Bolero saw 4.3 million shares traded on the Venture as it's share price doubled from 9¢ to 18¢, and briefly traded as high as 21¢. The company has 38.6 million shares outstanding, or 53.2 million fully diluted.

To secure the property Bolero paid $50,000 on signing the deal and has agreed to pay a further $50,000 and a million shares once the Venture approves the deal. GeoInvest Enterprises, the vendor, also receives a 2% net smelter return royalty and a production royalty equal to $25 per tonne of all graphite mined from the property.

This is by no means the first time Bolero has made the most of a trend or area play.

In December 2009 the company secured an option on 44.5-sq.-km of claims contiguous to Imperial Metals ‘Red Chris project in northern B.C., later adding roughly 13 km2 more. Bolero's property border sits roughly 5.5 km southwest of the Red Chris East Zone discovery.

After completing preliminary work in 2010 on the property, which Bolero named Red Chris South, the company announced it would be drilling four holes totalling 1,400 metres in 2011 to follow up on two identified anomalies. After announcing the 2011 work plans in early July the company's share price spiked from around 24¢ to a high of 58¢.

The excitement quickly wore off and the share price dropped back to pre-announcement levels by early August. It was not until early March 2012, however, that the company released results from the program. Of the four holes drilled, three hit no mineralization and a fourth returned a high of 0.0075% Cu and 0.015 g/t Au.

In March 2010 the company also jumped into the rare earth market, entering into an option agreement on 226.6 km2 of claims surrounding Spectrum Mining's Wicheeda rare earth discovery in British Columbia. After preliminary survey work in 2010 the company drilled 1,830 metres on the Carbonatite Syndicate property to test anomalies in 2011, but none of the seven holes hit any significant alteration or mineralization, so the company did not assay the holes.

The company plans further geochemical sampling in the region in 2012, while as of the end of 2011 the company had spent roughly $790,000 in acquisition costs and $2.2 million towards deferred development expenditures on the property.

And in September 2010 the company took a go at the Yukon gold rush, acquiring 128 quartz claims covering 26.3 km2 in the White Gold district "in close proximity to recently announced discoveries by Kaminak Gold...and by Underworld Resources."

2010 work on the White Gold claims consisted primarily of soil sampling, with the highest values found coming in at 0.042 g/t and 0.045 g/t Au. 2011 work concentrated on infill soil sampling and returned a high of 0.121 g/t Au.

Bolero ended 2011 with roughly $857,000 in working capital. The company plans to soon start extensive work on its newly secured graphite project, as well as advance its Red Chris South and Carbonatite Syndicate properties this year.

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