Imperial gets Sterling drill results

Vancouver Imperial Metals (III-T) is breathing fresh air into the past-producing Sterling mine, 185 km northwest of Las Vegas, with positive drill results from its 144 zone.

Highlights of the underground drilling program include a newly discovered eastern extension of the zone with, for example, hole 32’s 67 metres grading 1.27 grams gold per tonne starting 47 metres downhole. And in the main mineralized area of the 144 zone results include 48 metres grading 5.7 grams gold in hole 48 starting 12 metres below surface.

Former Sterling mine operator Cathedral Gold U.S. discovered the 144 zone (but didn’t name it) in 1989 while exploring potential targets to the east and southeast of the mine. In drill hole 144 it hit a gold-bearing dyke and a silicified, partly brecciated dolostone. However, although the mine continued to operate for the next eight years, Cathedral did not pursue the discovery.

Soon after Imperial acquired 100% ownership of the property in 1999, it began exploring several new targets. The results were dismal, but for a single hole drilled around Cathedral’s number 144.

Naming the zone after Cathedral’s original discovery hole, Imperial concentrated on sussing out the target’s potential and sunk four more RC holes in April 2001. Encountering high grades of gold, as good as one to two ounces per tonne, it punched in an additional five holes in June and July that summer. During the following two summers it revved up its campaign into full swing, drilling 12,000 metres of core – enough to calculate its first resource.

By February, 2006 Imperial had delineated 195,000 measured and indicated tonnes grading 7.41 grams gold per tonne at the 144 zone potentially suitable for underground mining with an additional 93,000 tonnes grading 2.81 grams gold at the original mine site in the Panama zone.

Imperial says the new round of drilling in 2008, which includes newly discovered extensions of the 144 zone, will allow the company to recalculate the resource. The drilling also confirms that the mineralized area is open to the west and the latite dyke, dividing the main zone from the eastern extension, is itself mineralized.

Since bringing the 2008 program to a close, Imperial has sunk an eight metre stub drift off its 1000 metre decline to collect 16, nine kg metallurgical samples from a higher-grade zone of the eastern extension.

Based in Vancouver, Imperial operates two mines in B.C. the Mount Polley open pit copper-gold mine in central B.C. and the Huckleberry open pit copper-molybdenum mine in northern B.C. It also recently acquired the Red Chris property in northern B.C. where it plans to develop an open pit mine to take advantage of 276 million tonnes grading 0.349% copper and 0.266 grams gold in reserves.

On news of the drill results Imperial’s share price dropped 18 to close at $7.86. It has about 33 million shares issued.