Sep 14 2016
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. ("Constantine" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the start of road construction and provide an update on work programs at the Palmer VMS Project, Alaska ("Palmer" or "Project"). Information on the Company's gold assets is also provided.
Exploration Access Road and Permit Approvals
Construction on a road that will provide access to the deposit area has commenced following a Record of Decision received August 18 from the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM"). An Environmental Assessment completed by BLM resulted in a finding of no significant impacts, with Constantine authorized to conduct expanded exploration activities of up to 40 acres.
Garfield MacVeigh, President and CEO states, "A road to the mineral resource at Palmer is a major advancement for the Project. It improves our ability to conduct ongoing exploration, environmental and geotechnical work, reduces dependency on helicopter, and enhances the safety of our employees. It also highlights the excellent location and access of the Project, which is 40 miles by paved highway and logging road to the deep sea port town of Haines. Permit approvals are the culmination of a rigorous environmental review process. We thank the many community members who offered their support and assistance and acknowledge the thoroughness and professionalism of the regulatory agencies involved in our permitting process."
2016 Work Program Update
- The 2016 summer drill program is now complete. Drilling included four reconnaissance exploration holes (1465 m) and three geotechnical holes (502 m) for a combined total of 1967 meters, with assays now received for three of the four exploration holes. See news release dated July 6, 2016 for details on the target areas.
- Highlights include a 20.5 meter thick zone of chert and semi-massive pyrite intersected at the CAP prospect. The intersection, which is anomalous in silver and other pathfinder elements, is geologically significant. At the South Wall and RW zones, located 2500 meters to the northeast, chert grades laterally into high-grade massive sulphide, and similar zoning is predicted at CAP. The thickness of the chert horizon at CAP, which occurs at the contact between overlying argillite and altered footwall volcanics, suggests good potential for a well-developed massive sulphide system within the immediate area. The limited 2016 drilling provides an important vector to the potential massive sulphide component of the CAP prospect for follow-up drilling.
- Analysis by a recognized, independent structural geologist has provided new insight into the direction and sense of displacement of fault structures identified in the 2015 down-dip resource drilling that intersect and offset the lowermost portion of the South Wall zone. The work included review of the fault and adjacent rocks in drill core and on surface, and has produced new drill targets to test for extensions of the deposit.
- Mapping and rock and soil sampling programs were completed at several areas throughout the Property with the objective of advancing prospects to the drill stage. Results of this work will be summarized following receipt of assays, all of which remain outstanding at this time.
- Significant new environmental and geotechnical data was collected over the course of the summer exploration program. This includes hydrogeology, water quality, aquatic resources, wildlife, rock geochemistry, rock and soil geotechnical engineering, and natural hazard assessments. These studies support the ongoing evaluation of the inferred mineral resource.
A more comprehensive summary of exploration results will be provided pending receipt of assay data for all drill holes and surface samples.
About the Palmer Project
Palmer is a resource expansion stage, high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) project, with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 8.1 million tonnes grading 1.41% copper, 5.25% zinc, 0.32 g/t gold and 31.7 g/t silver*. The Project is being advanced in partnership with Dowa, who can earn 49% in the project by making aggregate expenditures of US $22 million over four years (about US$19 million spent to date). The project is located in a very accessible part of coastal Southeast Alaska, 60 kilometers by road from the year-round deep sea port of Haines. Mineralization at Palmer occurs within the same belt of rocks that is host to the Greens Creek mine, one of the world's richest VMS deposits. There are at least 25 separate base metal and/or barite occurrences and prospects on the Palmer property, indicating the potential for discovery of multiple deposits.
Strategic Review of Constantine Gold Assets
Constantine controls several high quality gold projects in the Timmins camp, Ontario and Yukon which were systematically acquired and advanced over a 7 year period prior to the recent resurgence of gold. The Company is actively considering various strategic alternatives to realize the value of these assets for our shareholders. The assets include:
(1) 100% owned Timmins area Munro-Croesus Project (16.7 square kilometres) - a past-producing mine property that yielded some of the highest grade gold ever mined in Ontario. The project covers a 6.5 km extent of the prospective Munro Break that hosts the robust Canamax gold prospect and a 6.5 kilometre target area along the Pipestone fault where management has identified numerous gold bearing structures which are largely undrilled but, where tested, shows good potential for discovery of new "Croesus-type" gold mineralization. One of these structures that hosts the high-grade Croesus Mine has only been tested in the immediate mine area and the 1 kilometre southwest extension of the vein corridor remains untested. The project also includes strategically located claims adjacent and on trend with Tahoe Resource's Fenn-Gib gold deposit with a NI 43-101 resource containing 1.35 million ounces indicated and 0.75 million ounces inferred. The Munro-Croesus land holdings represent a rare opportunity to control an extensive, high potential project in the prolific Timmins gold camp area.
(2) the large (68 square kilometre) Golden Mile property in the Timmins gold camp, 9 kilometres northeast of Goldcorp's multimillion ounce Hoyle Pond Mine, and
(3) a 50/50 Joint Venture formed in 2010 with Carlin Gold Corporation exploring a >600 sq. km land position in a new Carlin-type gold district in Yukon.
Source: http://www.constantinemetals.com/