Altius misses the mark at Moosehead

Six drill holes aimed at some very low frequency electromagnetic (VLF-EM) conductors on the Moosehead property in central Newfoundland have failed to cut high grade gold values for partners Altius Minerals (ALS-V) and Sudbury Contact Mines (SUD-T).

The best hole of the bunch, MH02-03, cut a mafic dyke and included a 3.9-metre section running 2.4 grams gold per tonne. The rest of the holes contained either anomalous or no significant mineralization.

Altius plans a 4,000-metre drill program beginning in late spring. The drilling will test mainly along strike and down-dip from high-grade veins identified during the fall 2001 drilling campaign. That program was highlighted by 1.5 metres of 170.31 grams gold.

Sudbury Contact, an affiliate of Agnico-Eagle Mines (AGE-T), can earn up to a 60% interest in the property by spending a total of $1.8 million.

Altius recently staked a large epithermal-style quartz stockwork zone at Jocko Pond also in central Newfoundland. The zone is exposed along strike for more than 600 metres and varies in width from 30 to 100 metres. A second quartz stockwork is exposed 3 km to the east along the same regional fault. Both zones are covered by the 16-sq.-km property and have not undergone detailed prospecting and systematic sampling.

Altius has also staked about 47 sq. km near Burnt Lake based on some cover sediment hosted gold targets. Results from till geochemical surveying by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador revealed high gold values in till accompanied by elevated values of silver, barium, arsenic and antimony. The values occur along a 10-km-long path.