Howard’s Pass keeps growing for Selwyn (January 04, 2008)

Vancouver – Selywn Resources (SWN-V) pumped $25 million into the huge Howard’s Pass project in the summer of 2007, completing 37,686 metres of diamond drilling in 103 holes. And while the project claims cover lead-zinc discoveries along a lengthy 38-km strike, Selwyn’s decision to narrow its focus to an 8-km segment is paying off.

A steady stream of drill cores results over the fall from Howard’s Pass, an isolated project in the east-central Yukon, consistently demonstrated the potential for a large-scale deposit complete with both lower-grade open pit targets and higher-grade underground zones. Selwyn is close to showing that what started as four separate discoveries kilometres distant from one another, called the Don, Don East, HC West, and HC targets, is actually one continuous body of mineralization.

Don Valley is the 14-km segment of the Howard’s Pass project that includes the current area of interest. At the northwest end of Don Valley sits a deposit called Anniv; at the southeast end lies a deposit known as XY. Until Selwyn arrived in 2005, there had been no drilling in the Don Valley because all previous operators had concentrated on Anniv and XY.

A 2005 drill program in the Don Valley was designed to test for shallow mineralization amenable to open pit mining, but after hitting high-grade mineralization in several deeper holes Selwyn’s geologists rethought their model. They now believe the valley holds a laterally extensive, high-grade core extending from Anniv to XY, with lower-grade mineralization at shallower depths.

Exploration over the last three years has traced the zinc-lead-mineralized unit, called the Active Member, over the entire 14.6 km length of the valley, discovering five new deposits along the way. An estimate in April 2007 pegged total indicated mineral resources in the Don Valley at 15.43 million tonnes grading 4.29% zinc and 1.09% lead, plus inferred resources of 98.45 million tonnes grading 4.62% zinc and 1.22% lead.

Results from the summer’s exploration program indicate those numbers will all grow with the new resource estimate, due out in the spring.

The Don deposit, which is closest to Anniv, hosts a high-grade underground target. Recent deeper drilling yielded the single highest assay of combined zinc-lead mineralization for the entire project in hole 74, which included a1.3-metre section from 271.8 metres depth grading 46.78% zinc and 17.94% lead. Along strike and at the same elevation, hole 109 returned 20.3 metres true thickness grading 6.6% zinc and 2.69% lead, from 260 metres downhole.

Along the southeastern margin, towards Don East, hole 120 confirmed expansion potential with 15.8 metres grading 4.53% zinc and 1.62% lead from 276 metres depth, as did hole 124 with 19.7 metres grading 4.11% zinc and 1.45% lead.

Hole 113 returned 2.3 metres grading 8.34% zinc and 2.81% lead from 638 metres downhole, the deepest intersection in the deposit area. Selwyn thinks the deep intercept indicates the Don deposit remains open for expansion at depth.

Drilling at Don is targeting an area 900 metres by 700 metres that is modeled to contain some 12 million tonnes of Active Member material, ranging in grade from 7% to 20% combined zinc-lead. The tonnage and grade are derived from a geological model developed from drill results but do not represent a proven resource.

Moving southeast, Selwyn this summer discovered high-grade mineralization at Don East for the first time, defining a new underground target. Hole 106 hit 22.5 metres true thickness grading 8.09% zinc and 1.76% lead from 510 metres depth. The hole was a 1.2-km step-out from high-grade underground Don target, thus the intercept suggested the continuity of high-grade mineralization from Don to Don East. Following up on that lead, Selwyn collared hole 114 230 metres northeast of hole 106 and hit 45 metres grading 4.55% zinc and 1.26% lead, from 611 metres downhole.

Within the open pit target at Don East, drills intercepted higher-grade mineralization than previously encountered. Hole 103 returned 15.8 metres true width grading 10.41% zinc and 3.96% lead from 133 metres depth. Slightly deeper, hole 79 intersected two layers of mineralization: 14.8 metres grading 5.35% zinc and 1.87% lead from 167 metres depth, followed by 6.6 metres grading 6.35% zinc and 2.41% lead from 214 metres downhole. The intercepts added confidence that mineralization is continuous between the shallower, open-pit target and the deep underground zone, as well as adding potential tonnage by suggesting another horizon of mineralization.

The summer’s drilling moved the edge of known mineralization at Don East 900 metres closer to the Don deposit. A further 850 metres remains to be drill tested. Selwyn’s models suggest that the Don East deposit could be as large as 55 million tonnes

Continuing southeast, at the HC West open pit target hole 111 returned 16.5 metres of 6.92% zinc and 2.08% lead from 116 metres depth, demonstrating that there is potential for continuity of higher-grade mineralization into open-pittable depths and across larger extents. And hole 112 stepped east 150 metres and hit 8.6 metres grading 8.12% zinc and 2.28% lead from 64 metres depth.

The final step in proving continuous mineralization along the length of the Don Valley is to drill the 1.08-km gap that remains between HC West and HC, to the southeast. For now, exploration is halted for the winter.

Selwyn is also making progress on the permitting side of things. The company spent $3.1 million on engineering and environmental studies over the summer, in preparation for a prefeasibility study slated to get underway in early 2008.

Metallurgical studies confirmed what was expected: the lack of pyrite in the ore aids recovery of fine-grained zinc and lead sulphide minerals. Zinc grades of 55% to 57% and lead grades of 65% to 70% were readily achieved, with recoveries of 80% for zinc and 75% for lead. Of particular interest was the success of the prefloat of carbon to aid recoveries in the range of 2 to 4%.

In addition, the combination of low pyrite and carbonate means the rocks are non-acid generating, minimizing the potential for significant environmental impact.