Unuk drilling sparks market activity

Drilling on the Unuk project in the Eskay Creek region of northwestern British Columbia is generating some market excitement, particularly in the two junior companies involved.

Granges (TSE) recently completed a 50% earn-in on the property from Cove Energy (VSE) and Springer Resources (VSE) which now hold 12.5% and 37.5% interests respectively.

The drilling has encountered gold-silver mineralization within zones of sulphide enrichment. The enrichment zones are hosted in felsic volcanics and argillites close to the contact between the volcanics and sediments. Granges stated that the mineralization appears to be volcanogenic in origin and conformable to stratigraphy.

The success of the program has prompted Granges to expand its drilling program to at least 16 holes from the original plan of six holes. Drilling is being carried out over a 1,400-metre-long geochemically anomalous area along a north-south trending contact between sediments and volcanics. The most recent hole, J-91-7, returned the best intersection to date with 33.3 grams gold and 248 grams silver per tonne over four metres. The hole also cut a lower zone grading 5.44 grams gold over two metres. Granges reports that the upper zone in J-91-7 appears to correlate with the 4.95-metre intercept in hole J-91-4 which grades 6.24 grams gold and 155.6 grams silver.

Hole J-91-7 was drilled about 50 metres to the east of hole J-91-4. The company also stated that hole J-91-10, drilled below holes J-91-2 and J-91-3, encountered six metres of mineralized argillite which appears to contain specks of electrum and minor sphalerite. Assays from the hole are pending.

Frederick Felder, senior vice-president of exploration at Granges, noted that the different styles of mineralization encountered in J-91-7 and J-91-4 compared with hole J-91-10 indicate there is more than one mineralized structure. He added that further drilling will be required before the company can get a good understanding of the area geology.

Although the intersections to date have been generally narrower and lower grade, the volcanogenic/strataform nature of the deposit is leading some to draw parallels with the nearby Eskay Creek property owned by Prime Resources Group, Placer Dome and Corona Corp.

Both Springer and Cove have been very active on the Vancouver Stock Exchange trading well over one million shares per day. Springer recently traded at the 75-cent level up from seven cents, while Cove traded at about 27 cents for a gain of about 20 cents since the start of the drilling program. Granges also benefited from the drilling, trading at the $1.55 level for a gain of about 20 cents.

Results from the first five holes of the program are as

follows:

Hole Interval Width Gold Silver Lead Zinc

(m) (m) (g/tonne) (g/tonne) (%) (%)

J-91-1 104.90-106.10 1.20 tr. 4.9 0.10 1.30

J-91-2 4.10-7.30 3.20 6.37 26.2 tr. 0.02

25.30-25.95 0.65 15.60 140.9 0.50 0.90

J-91-3 14.65-15.65 1.00 4.22 16.6 tr. 0.04

44.80-45.72 0.92 3.73 11.2 tr. 0.03

J-91-4 29.04-33.99 4.95 6.24 155.4 0.07 0.14

35.60-36.75 1.15 1.06 63.0 tr. 0.01

J-91-7 63.10-67.10 4.00 33.3 248.0 *

81.80-83.80 2.00 5.44 *

*silver, lead and zinc values were not available