Fairfield to spend $1.1 million on B.C. properties

This season Fairfield Minerals (TSE) plans to spend about $1.1 million to further explore its prospective 160-sq.-mile landholding in the Okanagan district of southern British Columbia. The bulk of the funds, about $750,000, will be spent on the Elk property where the company made a high-grade gold vein discovery called Siwash North last summer by prospecting and geochemical methods.

Fairfield has eight properties in its Okanagan property package, most of which were acquired by staking. The Elk property is one of four that are subject to various option agreements with Placer Dome (TSE).

The Siwash North gold system has been traced along strike for 2,700 ft. by trenching, stripping and preliminary diamond drilling. Encouraged by positive results from panel sampling, Fairfield drilled 12 holes totalling 2,500 ft., all of which intersected the gold-bearing vein structure.

President John Stollery said the widely spaced preliminary drilling returned an encouraging distribution of mineralized intercepts along a 2,200-ft. strike length to a depth of 700 ft. The best result was 0.76 oz. gold across 6.6 ft. true width. The zone is still open downdip and along strike, and a second gold vein exposed on surface was confirmed at depth by one drill hole.

This season the junior company will further test the Siwash North gold system and other known veins, and it also plans to explore other areas for similar mineralized structures. The bulk of the funds is for drilling the Siwash North discovery.

Fairfield also has several properties in the Yukon, one of which is the Logan deposit hosting a geological inventory of 13.6 million tons grading 6.17% zinc and 0.77 oz. silver. This deposit has a higher- grade core of five million tons grading 10.2% zinc and 1.12 oz. silver per ton. Fairfield and Total Energold (TSE), which owns a 60% interest, are seeking a buyer for this property.