Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (EPL:TSX-V) and Providence Capital Corp. (TSX-V:PV) have now completed six diamond drill holes for a total footage of 2368.0m
A seventh hole was collared on November 15th and is now underway. As announced on November 2nd, an additional 35,800 ha of claims were added to the existing land package, resulting in a total of 56,200 ha - an area approximately 11km x 50km. The partners continue to test the stratigraphic interval known to host the Sullivan deposit, located 70km to the north. Current exploration work is funded by Providence Capital.
The decision to expand the budget and continue exploration follows the intersection in Hole IR10-02 located at or near the Sullivan time horizon containing pervasive tourmaline and albite-altered sediments interlayered with discrete conformable bands of pyrite, pyrrhotite (iron) and chalcopyrite (copper) sulphides (see news release October 12th, 2010). Further encouragement was seen recently in Hole IR10-05, located approximately 1.2km from IR10-02. In Hole IR10-05, visible lead-zinc mineralization was intersected over two separate intervals (151.0m to 156.0m and 276.0m to 278.0m). This mineralization, though not layered as is seen in the Sullivan deposit, is interpreted by Eagle Plains geologists to potentially represent remobilized material from a yet-undiscovered primary source. Rocks in the area- both on surface and in drill-core are extensively albite-altered, which is consistent with the alteration assemblage located proximal to the Sullivan deposit. Core logging and sampling of these mineralized intervals is currently underway.
The Iron Range project is owned 100% by Eagle Plains. Providence holds the option to earn a 60% interest by spending $3,000,000 on exploration, making $500,000 in cash payments and issuing 1,000,000 shares to EPL over 4 years.
Iron Range Project Summary
The Iron Range property consists of 56,200 hectares and has no underlying royalties or encumbrances. The claims are well-situated with respect to infrastructure with a high-pressure gas pipeline, high-voltage hydroelectric line, railway and major highway all located within property boundaries.
The Iron Mountain structure has been mapped with widths of up to 150m and a strike length of over 50km. Claims held by Eagle Plains cover over 30km of the structure, with significant iron-oxide mineralization occurring over 15km. Copper and gold mineralization have been discovered along the structure, highlighting the potential for iron-oxide copper-gold ("IOCG") mineralized systems associated with the structure. The claims also overlie rocks of the Aldridge Formation, including the same stratigraphic time horizon which hosts the world-class Sullivan Deposit located 70km to the northeast. Over its 100 year lifetime, Sullivan produced approximately 150,000,000 tonnes of ore including 300,000,000 ounces of silver, 8,000,000 tonnes of zinc and 8,000,000 tonnes of lead, collectively worth over $25 billion at current metal prices. The parties caution that past results or discoveries on proximate land are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be achieved on the Iron Range property.
Property History
The Iron Range deposits were originally staked in 1897 and were covered by Crown Grants held by Cominco Ltd. and the Canadian Pacific Railway. Past work on the Iron Range deposits by Cominco focused on the considerable iron oxide resource with trenching and very shallow (20m depth) diamond drilling along the Iron Range Mountain ridge. Eagle Plains staked the current claims immediately after the Crown Grants reverted in 2000 and have been exploring the property since then. Exploration work to date includes geological mapping, geochemical surveys, diamond drilling and a 690 line-km airborne geophysical survey.
Eagle Plains completed diamond drilling programs in 2005 and 2008, testing primarily for base-metal mineralization. A number of holes from these programs intersected gold mineralization, including drill hole IR08006, which returned 7.0m grading 51.52 g/t (1.50 oz/ton) gold from 20.0m to 27.0m (see EPL news release dated April 20th, 2009).
Swift Resources optioned the property in late 2009 and completed a total of 580m of drilling in 7 holes. One hole was drilled in close proximity to IR 08006 and returned 1.0m grading 7.53 g/t gold. (see EPL news release dated March 5th, 2010).
Fieldwork completed on the Iron Range property during 2010 is being carried out under the supervision of J.K. Ryley. Technical aspects of this news release have been reviewed and approved by T.J. Termuende, P.Geo., hereby designated as a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.
Source: Eagle Plains Resources Ltd.