Commander’s Baffin Island drilling cuts high-grade gold

Vancouver – Drilling on Commander Resources’ (CMD-V) Baffin Island gold project has delivered further intersections of high-grade gold from iron formation targets.

This year’s drilling, the first ever in the area, has been focused on the Malrok prospect, confirming the continuity of gold-bearing iron formations over several hundred metres.

To date, 39 holes have been drilled on Malrok. Results from the latest round include:

• Hole MND-04-22 An intercept of 2.8 metres (from 16.5 metres) returned 6.76 grams gold per tonne in iron formation, including 0.6 metres of 16.8 grams gold;
• Hole MND-04-23 A 1.5 metre (from 7 metres) section of mineralized iron formation assayed 11.5 grams gold, including 0.5 metres of 30.8 grams;
• Hole MSD-04-29 This hole, in the southern portion of Malrok, cut 3.3 metres (from 21.9 metres) averaging 12.1 grams gold, including higher-grade sections of 0.3 metres of 38.3 grams and 0.5 metres of 18.8 grams; further down hole, a second mineralized intercept of 3.5 metres graded 1.6 grams, including 1.5 metres of 2.9 grams was encountered.

The intersection of two separate gold-bearing iron formations in some of the drill holes indicates the possibility of a “stacked” system.

This season’s drilling, and previous surface channel sampling, on Malrok has outlined a continuous gold mineralized zone extending down dip to at least 130 metres and remaining open. Commander’s drilling has focused on expanding identified high-grade sections within the iron formation unit, which also remains open along strike.

Gold mineralization in the iron formation occurs as free gold within coarse grained garnets and amphiboles, and in quartz veins. Some mineralization is also associated with the sulphides, primarily pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite with minor pyrite and chalcopyrite.

Surface channel sampling on the Ridge Lake prospect has extended the strike length of the mineralized iron formation to over 3.5 km. The Ridge Lake iron formation, located about 30 km. east of Malrok, has relatively poor surface exposure but is estimated at up to 5 metres in thickness. Numerous sections of high-grade gold mineralization have been identified in the unit which is being tested by a preliminary drill program.

The company is earning a 100 percent interest from BHP Billiton (BHP-N) and from Falconbridge (FL-T) on separate, adjoining portions of the Baffin Island gold project.

Commander’s land package, about 400,000 hectares, covers over 140 km. of the east-west trending Bravo Iron Formation within the regional scale Lower Proterozoic Foxe-Rinkian Fold Belt that extends from the Melville Peninsula of northeastern mainland Nunavut, through Baffin Island and into western Greenland. Following the initial 2003 exploration program, the company views the area as a Homestake-style gold province, having similar geology to the 40-million ounce Homestake gold mining district in South Dakota.

Commander Resources was created in 2002 when Major General Resources split out its diamond interests into Diamonds North Resources (DDN-V) and underwent a 3:1 share consolidation.

The company reports 26.8 million shares outstanding and has recently traded in the 40-45 per share range.