War Eagle advances Mac tantalum property

Vancouver — War Eagle Mining (WEM-V) has released encouraging results from its Mac tantalum property in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Northwest Territories.

The 45-sq.-km property features a tantalum prospect associated with a lithium-rich, albite-spodumene dyke complex, referred to as the Little Nahanni Pegmatite group. These granitic bodies are of economic interest for their tantalum and tin content, as well as for spodumene, a high-grade lithium-bearing mineral. Previous exploration focused on the area’s lithium potential.

The Little Nahanni Pegmatite group hosts numerous individual dykes and dyke swarms exposed over a northwesterly trending belt that strikes for 12 km and is 2.5 km wide. Each swarm contains as many as 25 dykes ranging from 0.5 to 10 metres wide. Areas where en echelon dyke swarms overlap contain up to 50 metres of pegmatite collectively. Mapping has identified six steeply dipping, northwest-trending, dyke swarms that are individually traceable for up to 5 km along strike. War Eagle states that individual dykes often merge along strike or downdip.

Channel and chip samples taken from the southern portion of property which host three dyke swarms — Climbing Wall, Wall of Voodoo and Prison Wall — yielded up to 402 grams per tonne tantalum pentoxide and 1.45% tin oxide across 0.4 metre, as well as 201 grams tantalum pentoxide and 0.085% tin oxide across 6 metres.

Three more samples taken 700 metres along strike and about 300 metres vertically below the previous ones returned:

– 2,170 grams tantalum pentoxide and 12.83% tin oxide;

– 684 grams tantalum pentoxide and 2.25% tin oxide; and

– 526 grams tantalum pentoxide and 3.89% tin oxide.

These channel, chip and hand sample values were obtained in an area where the Climbing Wall and Wall of Voodoo dyke swarms coalesce. Similar values were obtained from samples taken from the northern portion of the dyke complex. Channel samples from the dykes of the Berlin Wall returned up to 563 grams tantalum pentoxide and 0.02% tin oxide over 0.5 metre, as well as 554 grams tantalum pentoxide and 2.58% tin oxide over 0.25 metre.

Sample assay results from a few samples taken from a 2-km portion of the Berlin Wall and Wall Mart swarms include:

– 1,023 grams tantalum pentoxide and 1.82% tin oxide;

– 999 grams tantalum pentoxide and 5.09% tin oxide; and

– 706 grams tantalum pentoxide and 2.20% tin oxide.

The central portion of the complex hosts spodumene/quartz/feldspar-type dykes, whereas the southern and northern portions contain larger quantities of quartz-feldspar-lepidolite plus or minus spodumene, quartz-albite plus aplite, and quartz-mica type dykes. The quartz-mica dykes generally contain significantly more tantalum and tin mineralization.

The central portion of the Little Nahanni Pegmatite group measures roughly 4 by 1 km and hosts the dykes dubbed the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall and the Berlin Wall. The area hosts mainly spodumene-quartz-feldspar-type dykes. Channel and chip samples across these dykes returned values of up to 187 grams tantalum pentoxide over 2.53 metres. Less common quartz-mica-rich float samples containing coarse cassiterite yielded up to 800 grams tantalum pentoxide and 2.93% tin oxide.

War Eagle holds an option to earn a half-interest in the Mac property from Strategic Metals (SMD-V) (formerly Nordac Resources) by funding exploration over three years.