West zone expanded

Vancouver — The first hole of this year’s drill program by Starfield Resources (SRU-V) has expanded the West zone on the Ferguson Lake copper-nickel-cobalt-platinum-palladium property, 160 km south of Baker Lake in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.

Hole 68 was collared 120 metres east of hole 67 (three mineralized zones ranging up to 1.5% copper, 0.74% nickel, 0.09% cobalt, 1.85 grams palladium and 0.27 gram platinum per tonne over 14.4 metres) and hit the mineralized zones at the same depth. It returned:

• 1.05% copper, 0.85% nickel, 0.1% cobalt, 1.93 grams palladium and 0.37 gram platinum over 5.3 metres from 422 metres down-hole;
• 1.04% copper, 0.69% nickel, 0.09% cobalt, 1.7 grams palladium and 0.33 gram platinum over 17.8 metres from 438 metres down-hole; and
• 0.7% copper, 0.91% nickel, 0.11% cobalt, 1.98 gram palladium and 0.18 gram platinum over 2.6 metres from 469 metres down-hole.

Hole 69 tested the downdip extension of this mineralization some 80 metres lower. Assay results are pending. The rig is drilling hole 70, which is testing the zone 80 metres below hole 67.

At last count, the West zone hosts an inferred resource of 28.2 million tonnes grading 0.85% copper, 0.56% nickel and 1.2 grams combined platinum-palladium. Included in this resource is a higher-grade core with 7.2 million tonnes averaging 1.1% copper, 0.8% nickel and 2 grams combined platinum-palladium. A 4.8-km-long geophysical conductor has traced the zone. The resource occupies only 20% of this geophysical anomaly.

The copper mineralization at the West zone was initially discovered in the 1950s by Inco (N-T). It was followed up three decades later by a unit of Homestake Mining (HM-N). Inco pegged the West zone with a resource of 6.4 million tonnes grading 0.87% copper and 0.75% nickel, whereas Homestake discovered showings of platinum, palladium and cobalt mineralization in sulphide-bearing outcrops.

Manual resource estimates for the East I zone come in at 2.9 million tonnes grading 1% copper, 0.8% nickel and 1.2 grams combined platinum-palladium. The East II zone tallies 1.3 million tonnes grading 0.9% copper, 0.8% nickel and 1.2 grams combined platinum-palladium.

This year’s program is aimed at drill-testing the mineralization at greater depths, along with other geophysical targets.

Starfield can earn a 100% interest in the 20,000-ha property by paying $75,000 in cash, issuing 4.25 million shares and spending $1.7 million on exploration.