Expatriate hits on WOL claims, adds ground to Islena

Drilling by Expatriate Resource (EXR-V) has intersected the downdip extension of the Wolverine deposit on the newly acquired WOL claims in the Finlayson Lake district of the Yukon.

The first hole drilled on the claims returned an 8.2-metre interval (7.4 metres true thickness) grading 13.56% zinc, 1.16% lead and 0.68% copper, plus 152 grams silver and 0.59 gram gold per tonne, starting at 426 metres.

The hole hit the massive sulphide horizon about 100 metres downdip of a previous hole, 96-64, which returned a true thickness of 4.2 metres grading 11.19% zinc, 0.78% lead, 9.82% copper, 399 grams silver and 0.95 gram gold.

Expatriate plans to continue drilling in hopes of boosting the existing resource at Wolverine, which stands at 6.23 million tonnes grading 12.66% zinc, 1.55% lead, 1.33% copper, 371 grams silver and 1.76 grams gold. The company’s land package in the region hosts two other deposits, Kudz Ze Kayah and GP4F. Kudz Ze Kayah contains an indicated resource of 11.3 million tonnes grading 5.9% zinc, 1.5% lead, 0.9% copper and 133 grams silver, whereas the smaller GP4F deposit, 6 km to the southeast, hosts an inferred resource of 1.5 million tonnes grading 6.4% zinc, 3.1% lead, 0.1% copper, 2 grams gold and 90 grams silver. The deposits contain appreciable amounts of selenium, a contaminant that can reduce the marketability of the concentrates.

Expatriate’s current exploration program is aimed at boosting reserves and resources in order to improve the economics of an eventual mining operation. A second rig has been added to test six priority targets on the Goal Net property, 15 km southwest of Wolverine. Line-cutting crews are at work on the Red Line property, preparing for a ground geophysical survey.

Farther afield, Latina Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of Expatriate, has struck a deal that will add 3.2 sq. km to its promising Islena copper-gold project in Chile.

The option-to-purchase agreement covers the northern extension of a gold-bearing mineralized trend outlined by Latina through mapping and geophysical surveys earlier this year.

The company can acquire a 100% interest in the property by paying US$160,000 over five years. The vendors will retain a 2% net smelter return royalty, which Latina can buy for US$3 million.

The 51-sq.-km property, 24 km east of the port city of Taltal, hosts several historic small-scale mine workings. Targeting the known prospects at Mina Union and Mina California, Latina completed 46 line km of ground magnetic geophysics and a 26-line-km induced-polarization survey earlier this year. The strongest induced-polarization anomaly occurred between the two target areas.

There is no previously known mineralization in this low-relief area, though the company discovered gold mineralization in quartz-filled breccias and within barite vein material. Initial grab samples from the breccia returned up to 59.27 grams gold per tonne. The barite-rich rock returned up to 0.46 gram gold. To date, the mineralization has been traced over a 500-metre strike length.

Expatriate reports that the trend of copper-silver-gold mineralization at Mina Union appears to extend northward under overburden for 1.5 km on the newly acquired property.