Cartier Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:ECR) has announced the start of its exploration work on its properties situated in the Abitibi in the province of Quebec.
The work will consist of 15,000 meters of diamond drilling on five of its gold and base metals (copper-zinc and copper-nickel) properties. The drilling aims to enhance the value of the various zones discovered by Cartier over the past two years on its MacCormack, Xstrata Option, Dollier, Cadillac Extension and Rivière Doré properties.
"2011 will be a very active year in the field" states Philippe Cloutier, President and CEO of Cartier, "Our work will focus on drilling known mineralized zones and on discovering new zones." The work will be conducted throughout the year in order to optimize logistics and control costs.
DOLLIER PROPERTY
A 4,000-meter drill program on this property aims at delineating the enriched gold zones along the gold-bearing shears zone that have been traced over 2 kilometers. Recent work has demonstrated the gold potential at surface with several channel samples returning up to: 3.85 g/t Au over 3.2 m including 9.17 g/t Au over 1.1 m, 7.94 g/t Au over 1.0 m; 7.08 g/t Au over 1.0 m and 3.62 g/t Au over 2.0 m. The mineralization is associated with a deformation corridor that hosts mylonitized porphyritic dykes.
MACCORMACK AND XSTRATA OPTION PROPERTIES
A 4,500-meter drill program on this property will target recent discoveries of three horizons hosting copper-zinc-silver and gold-rich massive sulphides as well as the extensions of the gold zones of the Porcupine-Destor fault zone.
The potential for base metals of the volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) horizons is demonstrated at surface in trenches and at depth by diamond drilling with intersections that returned: drill hole MC-09-01 : 4.81 % Zn, 0.41 % Cu, 28.7 g/t Ag, 0.15 % Pb and 0.27 g/t Au over 1.25 m including 11.50 % Zn, 1.24 % Cu, 65.1 g/t Ag and 0.29 g/t Au over 0,35 m and drill hole XTA-10-01 : 0.51 % Cu, 0.49 % Zn and 7.5 g/t Ag over 1.2 m including 1.29 % Cu, 0.67 % Zn, 17.2 g/t Ag over 0.40 meters.
The potential for the gold-bearing dykes is confirmed by diamond drill hole intersections by Cartier such as: drill hole KI-08-23 : 0.34 g/t Au over 67.0 m including 0.53 g/t Au over 20.5 m, drill hole KI-08-29 : 0.70 g/t Au over 19.0 m including 7.27 g/t Au over 1.0 m. Mineralization in these intersections are reminiscent of mineralization associated with the Kerr Addison Mine (10.0 Moz Au) and the Harker-Holloway Mine (5.5 Moz Au) and, more recently, with the Lake Shore Gold project in the Timmins area.
CADILLAC EXTENSION PROPRERTY
The principal feature of this property is the historic discovery of the Langlade deposit in 1993. The area was initially explored for copper and zinc with results at surface reported to grade: 16.00% Zn, 4.20% Cu, 38.00 g/t Ag and 0.44 g/t Au over 1.1 meters in channel samples and at depth in drill hole 4CW-92-01 returning 41.3 g/t Ag, 0.60% Cu, 0.73% Zn and 0.26 g/t Au over 49.6 m including 5.50% Cu and 9.30% Zn over 0.95 meters.
Cartier's work in the summer of 2010 demonstrated the presence of a zone enriched in gold and silver with an average width of 3 meters and a length of 120 meters. Cartier's work returned grades up to 7.68 g/t Au over 0.85 meters, 1,162,0 g/t Ag, 1.40 g/t Au over 0.60 meters in the vicinity of a previous channel reported by Cominco of 15.0 g/t Au over 2.65 meters.
The 2011 exploration program consists of drilling the extensions of the Langlade deposit as well as field work on targets similar to Langlade within the property.
RIVIÈRE DORÉ PROPERTY
Cartier recently signed an agreement with Copper One which allows Copper One to earn a 51% interest in the Rivière Doré property by funding $5 million of exploration expenditures, including $750,000 before December 31, 2011, and by making a cash payment of $250,000 to Cartier and issuing to Cartier 350,000 common shares before December 31, 2015. Refer to January 27th 2011 press release for additional details.
This property covers an entire layered mafic intrusive complex where recent showings of copper and nickel and platinum group elements were discovered. The team has identified near term drill targets and has developed a parallel programme to systematically explore the entire property.
Drilling is planned on this property for the second quarter of 2011.
PROPERTY ACQUISITIONS
In order to complement the exploration of its own properties and meet its objective of adding a resource to its assets, Cartier is seeking an opportunity to acquire a project hosting a resource. It will consider acquisition alternatives in relation with the target asset.
Qualified Person and Quality Assurance/Quality Control
The exploration programs are conducted under the supervision of Mr. Philippe Berthelot, P. Geo., Cartier's Vice President – Exploration, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The scientific and technical information presented in this press release has been reviewed by Mr. Berthelot. Cartier has implemented and adheres to a strict Quality Assurance/Quality Control program which includes mineralized standards and blanks for each batch of samples. Assay samples are taken from drill core sawed in half with one half sent to a commercial laboratory and the other half retained for future reference. Analyses are either performed by Techni-lab S.G.B. Abitibi inc. in Sainte-Germaine, Quebec, or by ALS-Chemex in Val-d'Or, Quebec, both of which are accredited laboratories.
Source: Cartier Resources Inc.