Starfield cuts high-grade PGE interval (September 06, 2002)

Vancouver — Starfield Resources (SRU-V) has encountered a high-grade platinum palladium intercept while definition drilling the eastern side of the West zone at its Furguson Lake nickel, copper, cobalt PGE project in Nunavut.

Starfield is currently in the midst of a 22-hole drilling campaign that is focused on further delineating the shallow eastern portion of the West Zone with the goal of identifying a potential open-pit resource. While drilling hole 135, Starfield cut a 1.11-metre low-sulphide zone, which averaged 13.96 grams platinum and 19.13 grams palladium per tonne. This represents the thickest platinum and palladium mineralization discovered on the property to date.

Holes 02-134 and 02-135 were drilled 30 metres east and west, respectively, of hole 02-109 which cut a similar PGE-rich low-sulphide interval grading 56.79 grams palladium and 5.99 grams platinum over a 0.21 metre section.

Hole 02-135 was collared at 43+50W and intersected 8.06 metres averaging 1.01% copper, 0.95% nickel, 0.105% cobalt 1.88 grams palladium and 0.28 gram platinum starting 87.84 metres down-hole. Further down-hole at 100 and 144 metres, the hole cut two intervals that returned low values of copper, nickel and cobalt but averaged higher grades of PGE. The first interval cut 2.79 grams palladium and 0.22 gram platinum over 0.84 metre and the second interval cut 2.25 grams palladium and 1.15 grams platinum over 0.78 metres. At a depth of 147.30 metres down-hole, a 1.11 metre section cut 19.13 grams palladium and 13.96 grams platinum.

Hole 02-134 was collared at 45+90W and cut 4.70 metres averaging 1.15% copper, 0.43% nickel, 0.062% cobalt, 0.85 gram palladium and 0.18 gram platinum, starting 84.07 metres down hole. Further down-hole at a depth of 92 metres, a 0.51-metre section averaged 1.56% copper, 0.05% nickel, 0.008% cobalt, 0.15 gram palladium and 0.03 gram platinum. At 108.98 metres down-hole a 1.17 metre interval cut 0.31% copper, 0.33% nickel, 0.075% cobalt and 3.14 grams palladium and 0.41 gram platinum. This was followed by a 2.28-metre section that averaged 0.41% copper, 0.50% nickel, 0.066% cobalt, 1.95 gram palladium and 1.03 grams platinum, starting 153.87 metres down-hole.

Starfield points out that both holes contain multiple footwall, PGE-enriched low-sulphide intervals, a feature which has been reported previously in adjacent holes 02-108, 109 and 111. These multiple intercepts generally occur in the footwall rocks 30-to 50 metres below and sub-parallel to the PGE-enriched massive sulphide units. They are variably bleached and contain biotite, chlorite in the distinctly hydrothermally altered host gabbro. These high-grade PGE, low-sulphide intervals exhibit subtle magnetic susceptibility lows when compared to their adjacent host gabbroic rock. Starfield believes that this may be a result of iron depletion due to the hydrothermal alteration process of the PGE mineralizing event.

The West zone hosts an inferred resource of approximately 55.14 million tonnes grading 0.95% copper, 0.59% nickel, 0.065% cobalt, 1.35 grams palladium, 0.23 grams platinum using a 1.0% copper+nickel cutoff grade. Mineral resources for the eastern shallower part of West Zone are based mainly on 50 drill holes. The area hosts a resource containing 8,076,363 tonnes grading 1.07% copper, 0.83% nickel, 1.53 grams palladium and 0.20 grams platinum per tonne using a 1.5% copper+nickel cutoff grade.