EXPLORATION 1997 — Spectrum confirms nickel resource at Ban Phuc property in Vietnam

Drilling on the Ban Phuc nickel project in Vietnam has yielded encouraging results for New Zealand-listed Spectrum Resources.

The 1,220-metre program was designed to establish the continuity of a massive sulphide resource of 1 million tonnes grading 3.5% nickel, 1.3% copper and 0.1% cobalt, as well as evaluate mineralization in a nearby ultramafic intrusive.

Individual samples from the shear-hosted massive sulphide assayed up to 7.49% nickel, 2.36% copper and 0.16% cobalt over 1.3 metres, confirming results of drilling conducted by the Vietnamese from 1959 to 1963, and providing valuable geological information for future work.

The olivine-rich intrusive returned disseminated mineralization of up to 1.4% nickel and 0.16% copper over 22 metres, including 8 metres grading 2.27% nickel and 0.23% copper at a depth of 80 metres. Spectrum, which is seeking a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, believes that intersection may represent a zone that returned 62.8 metres of 1.38% nickel in 1962.

The Ban Phuc deposit is one of 30 targets identified by the Vietnamese on the 600-sq.-km Ta Khoa concession. The exclusive rights to explore and develop deposits on the concession, which lies along the Da River, west of Hanoi, belong to Asian Mineral Resources, a subsidiary of Spectrum, and its Vietnamese partners. Asian minerals holds a 70% interest there, while its partners hold the remainder.

Drilling is under way at the Na Ka target, 25 km west of Ban Phuc, where previous work returned up to 4.7% copper over 14 metres.