Northern Lion Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE:NL)(FRANKFURT:N3E) has announced the signing of an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the St. Nikolas Project in the Republic of Cyprus.
The St. Nikolas project will augment the Company's existing land package of 17 permits covering over 53km2.
The mineralization within the St. Nikolas project is hosted by Upper Pillow Lavas, at the contact with the overlying sediments. Previous work by Noranda in 1978 and BRGM in 1984, located a massive sulphide body of unknown dimensions consisting dominantly of chalcocite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrite, containing significant precious metal values. The historical data is incomplete, however the Noranda drilling reported up to 6 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold along with 4.82% copper over a five metre interval in hole DD-4, and up to 67g/t silver over one metre in hole CH-3.
The property vendor has recently completed a rotary hole proximal to the location of Noranda's hole DD-4 in order to confirm the general tenor of the previous results. This hole intersected sulphide mineralization at a depth of 19 metres consisting of chalcocite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrite. As a result of the equipment used there is very significant contamination of the samples collected, and thus the results can only be used in a qualitative manner. Samples were collected at one metre intervals as the drilling progressed, however because only the top five metres of the hole had been cased there was extensive mixing of the overlying sedimentary lithologies with the mineralization, resulting in dilution of the mineralized interval. Northern Lion personnel examined the chips and sludge collected from each one metre interval and sent a representative sample to ALS Chemex Labs in Romania for analyses.
From surface to five metres the lithology consists of chalks and marls of the Lefkara Formation. The volcanic sequence commences at five metres depth with umbers; and from 5 to 19 metres the samples collected returned less than 1g/t gold within each interval. From 19 to 29 metres all of the intervals sampled contained greater than 1g/t gold to a high of 8.78g/t, and up to 60g/t silver, showing a good correlation with the Noranda results. Copper values averaged 1% between 19 and 29 metres.
The St. Nikolas project was entered into on the basis of historical information derived from the ongoing evaluation of data acquired from the Geological Survey of Cyprus, and information supplied by the Company's consultants in Cyprus. A small amount of mining was carried out within the property in the 1950's by the Hellenic Mining Company, when it reportedly extracted 3,500 tonnes of cuprous pyrite grading 1.5% copper from an adit near the present road. A series of gossanous outcrops are exposed over an area of 300 by 100 metres, however the post mineralization sedimentary cover is pervasive in the western portion of the permit area resulting in poor exposure of the volcanic sequence.
Mapping, soil and rock sampling along with an Induced Polarization ("IP") survey are currently underway on the property in order to provide targets for the 2011 drill program which is expected to commence in January.
Option Agreement Terms
An option agreement has been signed with the owner, George Poullaides, whereby the Company may earn a 100% interest in the St. Nikolas project by incurring exploration expenditures consisting of a minimum Euro 50,000 and making the aggregate cash payments of Euro 70,000 on or before October 13, 2014.
Source: Northern Lion Gold Corp.