More gold at Raven

Vancouver — Drilling by Committee Bay Resources (CBR-V) has confirmed high-grade gold mineralization found at surface on its Raven discovery, northeast of Baker Lake, N.W.T.

Drill hole no. 1 at Raven returned a 17-metre intercept, at a depth of 91.5 metres, grading 4.6 grams gold per tonne, including a 3.4-metre section averaging 19.3 grams gold. The second hole cut a 2.4-metre high-grade section 39 metres below surface averaging 36.2 grams gold.

Both holes compare well with high-grade gold encountered during bedrock sampling in late 2004 along a 6-km east-trending high strain zone in the Committee Bay greenstone belt. Within the zone, a 500-metre section exhibited intense silicification and strong quartz tourmaline arsenopyrite veining with grab samples returning mineralization up to 213 grams gold.

Mineralized sections of the drill intercepts occur within multiple quartz veins with visible gold, euhedral arsenopyrite and minor pyrrhotite. The 2- to 10-metre wide mineralized zones are concentrated along the sheared contact of a gabbro and intermediate volcanics.

Edmonton-based Committee Bay allotted $8 million for its 2005 exploration program. Drilling on another five holes at Raven will test the new zone along strike and at depth. Other work in the area will include about 5,000 line-km of airborne geophysics (EM and magnetics) on at least 10 projects.

The company recently inked a deal (T.N.M., May 13/05) to re-acquire Gold Fields‘ (GFI-N) 55% interest in the Raven project by issuing 7 million shares. Gold Fields retains a one-time right to forego the share conversion, and maintain its interest once Committee Bay spends $10 million on exploration. To maintain its interest, the major must agree to finance exploration and development to the tune of 150% of whatever Committee Bay has spent.

The junior holds over 12,000 sq. km in northeastern Nunavut and controls about 85% of the Committee Bay greenstone belt, which stretches about 300 km.

Committee Bay has about 30 million shares outstanding and trades at roughly 85 per share.