Starfield kicks off 2002 exploration program (February 28, 2002)

Vancouver — Starfield Resources (SRU-V) has commenced mobilization for this year’s drilling campaign on its Ferguson Lake copper-nickel-platinum-palladium project in Nunavut.

Drill crews are expected to arrive on site during the first week of March. This year’s drill program is designed as a three-phase project. The first phase will expand a high-grade zone discovered in the final hole drilled last year. This hole, FL-1014, was collared on section 6,800 west, the western most drill section on the Main zone and cut 0.35 metres grading 103 grams palladium and 26.7 grams platinum as well as 2.74 grams rhodium.

The platinum-palladium-rhodium mineralization is hosted in a discrete sulphide-poor horizon that is sub-parallel to the main massive sulphide system. Starfield believes that this PGM mineralization may be situated near a mineralizing source area.

Drilling will also test deep targets that were recently outlined through a new interpretation of geophysical data. This method, known as the inverse magnetic method has defined a strong anomaly in the area of drill section 5,720. Drill hole FL 67 will be extended by an additional 500 metres in order to test the lower limb or hinge of the folded system.

The phase two and three drill programs will outline and define higher grade bodies of mineralization within the already defined 60.1 million tonne resource. In addition, the West zone mineralization will be tested for an additional two km along strike to the west from sections 6,800 to 8,800 west.

Since Starfield acquired the property in 1999, the junior has spent in excess of $14 million on exploration which included geophysical surveys, geological mapping and over 43,000 metres of diamond drilling. This in addition to the 30,000 metres of drilling performed by Inco (N-T) in the 1950’s.

The Ferguson Lake project has a total inferred resource of 60.1 million tonnes grading 0.93% copper, 0.59% nickel, 1.32 grams palladium and 0.19 gram platinum (using a 1% combined copper-nickel cutoff), hosted in the West zone and the East 1& 2 zones. At a 2% cutoff, the resource shrinks to 12.7 million tonnes grading 1.39% copper, 0.85% nickel, 1.92 grams palladium and 0.28 gram platinum.

The West zone hosts 92% of the tonnage and includes two areas of higher-grade mineralization (in excess of 1.5% combined copper-nickel). These areas are estimated to contain 8.2 million tonnes grading 1.07% copper, 0.82% nickel, 1.48 grams palladium and 0.25 gram platinum. The estimate is based on a cutoff of 1.5% combined copper-nickel. The zone also includes a higher-grade section pegged at 2.6 million tonnes averaging 1.18% copper, 1.04% nickel, 1.88 grams palladium and 0.32 gram platinum, using a 2% copper-nickel cutoff.

Starfield reports that this massive sulphide resource represents only 25% of the known target.