ASE requests fire assays of Focal drill samples

The Alberta Stock Exchange has requested that Focal Resources (ASE) retain a Canadian laboratory to fire-assay core from ongoing drilling on a metallic mineral lease in northeastern Alberta.

The company reported commercial values of gold and platinum group metals from several holes drilled on the property earlier this year (T.N.M., April 26/93). Assay work was carried out by three different labs in the western U.S., all of which used non-traditional techniques.

A spokesman from the surveillance department of the ASE told The Northern Miner that the exchange’s disclosure rules state that all assays reported by listed companies must be fire assays.

Richard Fischer, Focal’s vice-president of business development, said the three American labs all used wet analysis techniques rather than the more traditional fire assays.

“We know we are getting a better job (from the U.S. labs) because we are paying between $200 to $350 for each assay to have it done right, rather than the $50 each the Canadian firms might charge,” Fischer said. More drill results are expected shortly and drilling is continuing. “We will be doing fire assays on some core at the request of the ASE,” Fischer told The Northern Miner. “We are investigating labs now to make sure we find one that knows the eight steps of doing a fire assay right. Most labs are not aware of all the steps.”

Focal recently increased its interest in the Alberta lease to 51% and is now operator for cash and shares. The company also entered into agreements to acquire an additional 51% interest in about three sections of mineral leases and permits nearby.

Previous work on the land package was done by HMS Properties, a private company in Edmonton. The work focused on outlining a large deposit of “Devonian limestone with high silica and commercial values of gold and platinum group metals in salt form.”

Fischer concedes the company is not aware of any similar geological model. “We are moving forward and hope to verify an extractive process. We believe our group (Focal and the vendor, HMS Properties) now has one,” he said. Focal’s drill results have raised eyebrows because the reported values and ratios of platinum group elements appear to contradict known scientific relationships and because conventional assay techniques were not used. The geological setting in limestone is also unique.

The fire assay tests should provide investors with more information to assess the potential of the Alberta mineral leases.