Starfield ups West zone

Vancouver – Junior Starfield Resources (SRU-V) continues to increase the tonnage at the West zone on the Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-cobalt-PGM project in Nunavut.

So far, this year’s drilling activities have increased the inferred resource on the project to 60.1 million tonnes grading 0.93% copper, 0.59% nickel and 1.32 grams palladium and 0.19 gram platinum per tonne, using a 1% combined copper-nickel cutoff.

At a 1.5% combined copper-nickel cutoff, the resource weighs in at 30.6 million tonnes grading 1.17% copper, 0.77% nickel and 1.69 grams palladium and 0.25 gram platinum. Using a 2% copper-nickel cutoff, the resource is reduced to 12.7 million tonnes averaging 1.39% copper, 0.85% nickel, 1.92 grams palladium and 0.28 gram platinum.

The higher-grade zones occur in two principal areas of the West zone, which hosts 92% of the total resource. The first area strikes for about 1.3 km and is contained in at least two parallel lenses near the surface, generally not exceeding depths of 100-150 metres. The other zone is 100 metres west of the first and has a strike length of 840 metres. Mineralization generally can be found at depths of between 200 and 600 metres.

The updated resource does not take into count the newly discovered low sulphide; high-grade platinum-palladium zones cut in the footwall and the hanging wall of the massive sulphide zone.

The West zone lies 160 km south of Baker Lake. Copper mineralization there was initially discovered in the 1950s by Inco (N-T) and followed up three decades later by a unit of Homestake Mining.Inco pegged the West zone with a resource of 6.4 million tonnes grading 0.87% copper and 0.75% nickel. Homestake discovered showings of platinum, palladium and cobalt mineralization in sulphide-bearing outcrops. Manual resource estimates for the East I zone come in at 2.9 million tonnes grading 1% copper, 0.8% nickel and 1.2 grams combined platinum-palladium. The East II zone tallies 1.3 million tonnes grading 0.9% copper, 0.8% nickel and 1.2 grams combined platinum-palladium.

Starfield is currently reviewing core from drill holes completed on the West Zone to obtain samples from horizons that appear similar to the high-grade platinum-palladium horizons recently discovered. The company is also planning its drill program for next year.