Expat joins Amarc at Fox River (November 28, 2001)

Vancouver — Having just acquired the Fox River nickel-copper-platinum-palladium property from sister company Rockwell Ventures (RCW-V), Hunter-Dickinson (HD) led Amarc Resources (AHR-V) has dealt a 12% interest in the Manitoba project to Expatriate Resources (EXR-V).

Harlan Meade-led Expatriate can earn its stake by contributing $1.3 million to the 2001 exploration expenses and $1.2 million in 2002. A $1.3 million loan from HD has been arranged to cover the exploration costs for this year. The loan consists of a convertible debenture bearing an 8% interest rate payable semi-annually and must be repaid in full by the end of 2002. Expatriate has until Jan. 31, 2002 to contribute the $1.2 million, or must repay the loan by immediately, in cash or by issuing 7 million shares.

Amarc picked up the Fox River property earlier this month through a reorganization agreement with Rockwell. Under the deal, Amarc takes over the project by assuming exploration expenditures of $2.5 million and issuing up to 1 million two-year warrants initially exercisable at $1. The junior then holds the option to a earn a 60% interest in the property from Falconbridge (FL-T) by spending $12.5 million over 5-years. The Fox River project covers a 150-km section of the Fox River belt, a 10-by-25 km sequence of Proterozoic rocks hosting on the World’s largest ultramafic intrusive complexes, in northern Manitoba.

Located 250 km east of Thompson, the property is roughly the same size as the Thompson belt, which holds 180 million tonnes of better than 2% nickel.

Lying just south of New Blue Ribbon Resources (NBL-V) and BHP’s (BHP-N) Moose diamond claims, the property features a 150-km section of a 250-km-long ultramafic body that has been traced by means of airborne geophysics. Inco (N-T) originally explored the sill for nickel in the 1950s and 1970s.

In the 1990s, Falconbridge picked up where Inco left off and drilled 15 holes into the eastern section of the sill.

The sill is known to contain at least two horizons of platinum-palladium-bearing mineralization. At the base of the Upper Central Layered zone, mineralization has been identified over widths of up to 20 metres. Below this, the Lower Central Layered zone grades into a marginal zone that contains disseminated sulphides with platinum-palladium mineralization.

At the western portion of the sill, the Great Falls showing returned grab samples grading 4.4 grams platinum, 4.1 grams palladium and 6.7 grams gold per tonne, plus 1.9% copper and 0.68% nickel. At the nearby KO zone, samples yielded up to 1.3 grams platinum, 3.5 grams palladium, 2.1% copper and 0.94% nickel.

Significantly, the property lies in the heart of the Manitoba diamond play, and although no kimberlites have been identified in the province, a recent till-sampling programs outlined a large diamond indicator mineral train just south of the Fox River property.

This year, Rockwell tested a number of geophyscal anomalies with 12 drill holes but failed to cut any significant mineralization. The new partners are currently defining drill targets for the 2002 season.