High-grade nickel hole launches Starfire (January 02, 2007)

Vancouver – A hot drill intercept from its Langmuir nickel project near Timmins has given Starfire Minerals (SFR-V, STFMF-O) a major market boost as investors leapt on the junior explorer.

A trio of holes at the project’s South zone returned up to 5.5-metres (from 424 metres downhole depth) averaging 4.48% nickel, 0.37% copper and 0.044% cobalt in EL-06-03. The intercept included a 1.27-metre high-grade portion grading 9.2% nickel, 0.68% copper and 0.137% cobalt.

Starfire estimates true widths are about 60-to-65% of core length.

The komatiitic-type mineralization consisted of massive, net-textured and disseminated pentlandite as well as the nickel-rich sulphide millerite (NiS) at the contact with a dacite unit.

The Langmuir South zone was first discovered in the late-1970s by an Inco-Noranda joint venture operating at the adjacent Langmuir No. 2 deposit, now held by Inspiration Mining (ISM-V, IRMGF-O). Past underground operations at Langmuir No. 2 mined about one million tonnes grading 1.45% nickel and reviewed additional remaining resources.

The South zone, hosting a historical inferred resource of about 181,000 tonnes at 1.55% nickel, extends down-plunge onto Starfire’s claims where about 100,000 tonnes of the resource is estimated to reside.

Further drilling is planned on the project including a down-hole geophysics program.

Shares of Starfire soared 87% on the drill results, closing up 17 to 36.5 apiece with volume of over 4.1 million. The stock posts a 52-week trading range of 14-to-40.