Starfield expands West zone

Vancouver — Undaunted by the recent fall of metal prices, junior Starfield Resources (SRU-V) has three rigs turning and is rapidly advancing the Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum-palladium property in Canada’s far north.

The results from the last 10 holes have expanded the mineralization at the West zone.

Hole 82 cut three zones ranging up to 1.58% copper, 0.4% nickel, 0.04% cobalt, 0.8 gram palladium and 0.16 gram platinum per tonne over 4.73 metres from 588 metres down-hole.

Hole 84 tested the downdip extension of this mineralization and cut 46 metres grading 1.34% copper, 0.76% nickel, 0.09% cobalt, 1.99 grams palladium and 0.32 gram platinum from 671 metres down-hole.

Moving to the west, hole 75 cut 16.9 metres grading 0.75% copper, 0.3% nickel, 0.03% cobalt, 0.68 gram palladium and 0.14 gram platinum from 608 metres down-hole.

Hole 77 hit 6.9 metres grading 0.96% copper, 0.8% nickel, 0.1% cobalt, 1.78 grams palladium, 0.19 gram platinum from 563 metres down-hole.

Hole 80 returned 7.1 metres averaging 1.14% copper, 0.76% nickel, 0.08% cobalt, 2.12 grams palladium and 0.21 gram platinum from 499 metres down-hole.

Five of the holes targeted the eastern portion of the West zone.

Hole 76 cut four zones, including 25 metres grading 1% copper, 0.44% nickel, 0.05% cobalt, 0.81 gram palladium and 0.17 gram platinum from 378 metres down-hole.

Hole 78 cut two zones ranging up to 11.7 metres grading 0.52% copper, 0.21% nickel, 0.03% cobalt, 0.61 gram palladium and 0.13 gram platinum from 459 metres down-hole.

Cutting three zones, hole 79 returned up to 0.44% copper, 0.09% nickel, 0.02% cobalt, 0.27 gram palladium and 0.05 gram platinum over 5 metres from 416 metres down-hole.

Hole 83 hit 10.1 metres grading 1.21% copper, 0.47% nickel, 0.09% cobalt, 2.3 grams palladium and 0.27 gram platinum from 353 metres down-hole.

Hole 81 cut two zones, including 9.6 metres grading 1.39% copper, 0.5% nickel, 1.3 grams palladium and 0.25 gram platinum from 382 metres down-hole.

These results confirm that the grades and widths of the massive-sulphide horizons are increasing with depth.

Having just revised its estimate for inferred resources at the West zone, Starfield expects to boost the resource again in the near future. Based on a 1% combined nickel-copper cutoff grade, the latest resource for the West, East 1 and East 2 zones stands at 46.1 million tonnes grading 0.88% copper, 0.58% nickel and 1.41 grams combined platinum-palladium.

With a cutoff grade of 2% combined nickel-copper, the resource shrinks to 6.1 million tonnes averaging 1.31% copper, 0.95% nickel and 2.02 grams combined platinum-palladium.

The project is located 160 km south of Baker Lake in Nunavut. The copper mineralization at the West zone was initially discovered in the 1950s by Inco (N-T). This find was followed up three decades later by a unit of Homestake Mining.

Inco pegged the West zone with a resource of 6.4 million tonnes grading 0.87% copper and 0.75% nickel. Homestake discovered showings of platinum, palladium and cobalt mineralization in sulphide-bearing outcrops.

Starfield has two rigs turning on the West zone. A third is testing the M zone.

The junior earned a 100% interest in the 20,000-ha property by paying $75,000 in cash, issuing 4.25 million shares and spending $1.7 million on exploration.