Alberta Star upbeat on Contact Lake (February 11, 2008)

Grab samples from its Contact Lake property on the south side of Echo Bay in the Northwest Territories appear to lend heft to Alberta Star‘s (ASX-V, ASXSF-O) assertions that the company has significant poly-metallic mineralization on its hands.

Highlights of assay values from 29 samples included 2.35% copper, 0.33% zinc, and 134.2 grams silver per ton, as well as 1.01% copper, 1.24% lead, 1.31% zinc, and 72.1 grams silver per ton. Other samples included 0.99% copper, 0.52% lead, 0.58% zinc and 43.8 grams silver per ton.

Alberta Star discovered the high-grade polymetallic breccia on its Mile Lake prospect (located on the Contact Lake property) in 2006.

The breccia is open for drilling along a strike of more than 2 km within a 100- to 200-metre wide horizon.

Alberta Star is looking at the Echo Bay, Eldorado and Contact Lake areas for iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineralization.

“This is one of a number of large IOCG and uranium targets that are emerging at Contact Lake that are characterized by two to six metals within the target horizon,” the company says in a press release.

“The mineralization occurs within the same suite of volcano-plutonic rocks that host other poly-metallic zones in the Eldorado and Contact Lake mineral belt, including the former El Bonanza Silver Uranium mine and the Eldorado Uranium mine,” the company adds.

The Contact Lake area is situated in the Eldorado mineral belt and is host to two of Canada’s three known iron oxide-copper-gold deposits, the company says.

The Eldorado and Contact Lake projects are on the east side of Great Bear Lake, about 470 km north of Yellowknife.

The area consists of Contact Lake North and Contact Lake South. The Eldorado and Contact Lake IOCG plus uranium project areas include five past-producing, high-grade silver and uranium mines.

In Contact Lake North, the Echo Bay mine produced 23.7 million oz. silver and 6,900 lbs of uranium. The Eldorado mine produced 15 million lbs. uranium and 8 million oz. silver. The area also included the Cross Fault Lake uranium mine.

In Toronto at mid-day, Alberta Star’s shares were trading up 1 to 44 apiece on a volume of 453,007.