Exploration adit proving its worth at Niblack

Vancouver – The first underground drilling program at Committee Bay’s (CBR-V) Niblack project on Prince on Wales Island in Alaska returned strong intercepts that are sure to expand the defined resource.

The main zone delineated at Niblack is Lookout 1, where a rhyolite layer hosting volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralization plunges steeply into the hillside. Until recently drilling had to be conducted from surface, which limited effort to explore the zone’s plunge.

A new adit into Lookout 1 at depth has now made underground drilling possible and the first program has already expanded the zone.

Hole 17 cut 7.7 metres grading 4.23 grams gold per tonne, 9 grams silver per tonne, 1.65% copper and 30.55% zinc in a zinc-rich intercept that extended the zone east from the underground station.

Hole 28 pushed west from the underground drilling station and extended the zone 130 metres beyond the defined resource, returning 78.7 metres grading 4.83 grams gold per tonne, 85.31 grams silver per tonne, 1.89% copper, and 4.93% zinc. Other, shorter intercepts followed, including 11.3 metres grading 5.47 grams gold 114.14 grams silver, 3.72% copper, and 12.99% zinc.

Hole 21 pushed down and intersected 7.3 metres averaging 0.52 gram gold, 7 grams silver, 3.25% copper and 0.47% zinc, indicating that copper grades are increasing with depth and adding 100 metres to the zone’s down-plunge extent.

Pushing upwards from the underground station hole 22 returned several short, high-grade intercepts: 15.6 metres of 3.34 grams gold, 29.46 grams silver, 1.88% copper, and 7.05% zinc, followed by 4.9 metres grading 3.48 grams gold, 48.98 grams silver, 1.42% copper, and 2.23% zinc and then 1.4 metres carrying 10 grams gold, 161.19 grams silver, 1.97% copper, and 5.87% zinc.

Niblack Mining worked the project for several years until being taken over by Committee Bay in a deal that closed in early October. That earlier work defined a resource contained in two zones, Lookout 1 and Trio. Measured and indicated resources currently sit at 1.42 million tonnes grading 2.86 grams gold per tonne, 41.73 grams silver per tonne, 1.04% copper, and 2.14% zinc; inferred resources add 1.89 million tonnes grading 2.07 grams gold, 29.21 grams silver, 1.65% copper, and 2.71% zinc.

Lookout 1 sits on top of a hill and Trio outcrops a few hundred metres east. If Committee Bay’s geological model is correct, Lookout 1 and Trio are part of the same twisted, VMS-mineralized rhyolite layer that weaves through the mountain. From Lookout 1 geologists think the layer plunges steeply into the mountain, then turns north at depth and rises to surface again at what’s know as the Mammoth zone.

Going south, Lookout 1 is thought to be one side of a synclinal fold in that rhyolite layer and Lookout 2, which outcrops a few hundred metres south, is the other side. The fold itself has weathered away.

The exploration adit enters near the base of the mountain, essentially at the Mammoth zone, and heads south towards the plunge of Lookout 1. Assays are pending from rock chips off the walls of the adit, which in the zone show multiple, 20 to 30-cm-wide bands and vein of sulphide.

Committee Bay plans to complete a new resource estimate for Niblack by mid-2009.

News of the latest drill results from Niblack left Committee Bay’s share price unchanged at 5.5¢. The company has a 52-week trading range of 4.5¢ to 43¢ and has 146 million shares issued.