Cornerstone plans drill programs in central Nfld.

With the winter now behind us, Cornerstone Capital Resources (CTP-V) is gearing up to renew exploration at its Paul’s Pond and Island Pond gold properties in central Newfoundland.

Paul’s Pond overlies 7.5 sq. km of the Ordovician-aged Davidsville Group. The group consists of fine-to-coarse-grained greywacke interbedded with siltstone and shale. Shale intraclasts are common in the greywacke and conglomerate lenses, minor.

Past exploration by Noranda (NRD-T) led to the discovery of a gold-bearing zone of silicified and pyritic greywacke. Dubbed Goose, the zone was exposed over a strike length of 100 metres by trenching and drilling.

A total of 4 short holes were drilled, results from which include 3.14 grams gold per tonne over 2.5 metres and 7.54 grams over 1 metre. Two trenches averaged 4.06 grams over 2.5 metres and 1.28 grams gold over 5.7 metres.

In the fall of 2001, Cornerstone began following up Noranda’s work with geophysical surveying, soil sampling and geological mapping. The program resulted in the outlining of an open-ended chargeability anomaly extending 200 metres southwest of the drill area and a soil anomaly situated 1 km to the northeast, along strike.

At the Goose zone, the mineralized greywacke measures 2-10 metres in width. The soil anomaly has been less explored, though a trench exposed 1 metre of the mineralized greywacke averaging 1.8 grams gold.

Also of interest is the Gabbro showing, which is northwest of the Goose zone. Exploration carried out to date has exposed 1 metre of silicified and pyritic gabbro running 2.24 grams, and a grab sample of the same rock that displayed visible gold ran 25.4 grams.

The 2002 exploration program, including drilling, will be focused in the vicinity of the Goose zone. Drilling will mainly target the chargeability anomaly to the southwest.

The Island Pond property covers 9.5 sq. km of the younger-aged Botwood Group of central Nwfld., which has become known for its potential to host low-sulphidation epithermal deposits as a result of the efforts of Altius Minerals (ALS-V). The mineralization style is said to be similar to the deposits of the Carlin Trend.

Last year, Altius convinced Barrick Gold (ABX-T) to earn 75% interests in six of its properties by funding all exploration costs and making annual payments until the completion of a feasibility study. One of those properties, Moosehead, where up to 170.3 grams gold has been intersected in 1.5 metres of drilling, lies immediately north of Island Pond.

Cornerstone recently carried out a tightly spaced geophysical survey near the northern claim boundary to get a better handle on northwesterly trending conductors highlighted in past surveys. Several of the anomalies outlined are thought to represent faults or fracture zones, similar to those associated with high-grade mineralization at Moosehead.

Cornerstone also notes that some of the conductors coincide with soils anomalous in gold, silver and antimony. Boulders displaying quartz brecciation and quartz-sulphosalt mineralization are found there as well.

An upcoming program will include drilling to test the northern anomalies. Prospecting and soil surveying will be carried out elsewhere on the property, particularly in the vicinity of known gold, arsenic and antimony soil anomalies.