Noranda Exploration options Sunrise project

Noranda Exploration (TSE), has taken an option to earn a 50% interest in a 16,000 acre portion of the Sunrise property jointly owned by Aber Resources (VSE) and Hemisphere Development (VSE). The Sunrise property contains a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit with probable and possible reserve of 2.06 million tons of 8.9% zinc, 4.2% lead, 11.8 oz silver and 0.03 oz gold per ton.

The agreement calls for Norex to contribute its 12,000 acres of adjacent mining claims where limited drilling last year is reported to have encountered “encouraging” silver, zinc and lead values, and spend a total of $10 million within the next six years to vest. On completion of the earn-in, a joint venture comprising Aber (25%), Hemisphere (25%) and Norex (50%) will be formed to develop the combined 28,000 acre property. Norex will be the operator.

“We’re viewing this as much more than a drilling program on the Sunrise deposit,” said Grenville Thomas, president of Aber. “We’re hoping we can develop it into a mining camp.”

The Sunrise mineralization is open to depth and the volcanic unit which hosts the Sunrise deposit is reported to project southerly on to the Norex-contributed claims where drilling last year encountered good values in silver, lead and zinc. And although still at the exploration stage, Ark La Tex Industries (VSE) and Silver Hart Mines (VSE) have discovered a similar deposit to the west which is believed to extend onto the Sunrise property.

Thomas is also basing his optimism on the results of the individual Aber/Hemisphere and Norex 1988 geophysical and geological surveys which he noted “indicated potential for new zones” elsewhere on the property. About six targets are scheduled for immediate drill testing, he added.

Thomas and Hemisphere President Charles O`Sullivan continue to stress the favorable logistics of the project which is located within 30 miles of an all-weather highway, with the right-of-way for a road extension cut to within five miles of the property. The combined land holding is located 70 miles northeast of Yellowknife and because the area receives relatively light snowfall, the property can be worked year round.

Thomas said a minimum threshold target for development — which in this case means construction of a central concentrator — is likely to be about four million tons “of similar grade” to Sunrise. “That’s not dramatically more than we have now,” he said, adding that the precious metal credits should impact favorably on future project economics.

While relatively few Vancouver juniors have ventured into the Northwest Territories because its geology is more similar to eastern camps in the Canadian Shield than to mineralized areas in the Cordillera, Aber and Hemisphere have concentrated almost exclusively in the Northwest Territories, each building large land positions from grass-roots exploration in a number of areas prospective for gold and/or base metals.

The Sunrise deposit was discovered and staked during a joint regional gold exploration program on the Beaulieu volcanic belt in 1986. To date Aber and Hemisphere have drilled 65 holes totalling 62,176 ft, and the companies say drilling is confirming the deposit’s similarity to orebodies hosted by volcanic rocks in the Noranda area of Quebec, and Buchans, Nfld. Thomas said the latest metallurgical testwork of Sunrise ore is indicating “positive” results.

The volcanic host rocks at Sunrise are a steeply-dipping, north- south trending succession of massive flows, tuffs, and coarse rhyolite pyroclastics with interbedded fine clastic sediments. The main massive sulphide lens is up to 40 ft thick, and has been intersected over a strike length of 500 ft and a vertical depth of 2,300 ft, with the deposit open to depth.

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