Print article
Pacific Wildcat Resources Corp. is pleased to announce the results from PAW's inaugural 1,473 metre Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program completed in November 2009 targeting Tantalum and Lithium mineralisation at the Company's Muiane Project in northern Mozambique.
Significant high grade tantalum intersections were returned from RC holes at Muiane, including:
NH127: 16m at 1,047 g/t Ta205, including 8m at 1,865 g/t Ta205,
NH139: 11m at 708 g/t Ta205, including 5m at 1,158 g/t Ta205, and
NH132: 7m at 373 g/t Ta205, including 2m at 740 g/t Ta205.
Significant intersections of Lithium were also returned at Muiane with:
NH139: 12m at 1.411% Li20, including 2m at 2.605% Li20, and
NH138: 2m at 1.275% Li20.
In addition PAW is pleased to report intersections from Company's first drilling program at its Maridge Prospect, located 7km North West of Muiane with a best tantalum intersection of:
MA003: 2m at 265 g/t Ta205.
Detail on the assay methods and intersection calculations including a full list of results is given at the end of this News Release. Please note that intersection widths are down hole lengths.
This limited initial 1,473m RC drilling program has achieved its three aims of;
1) Testing for potential extensions to the historical tantalum mineralisation at the Muiane Mine,
2) Drilling two "twin" holes to get a better understanding of the historic Lithium drilling information at Muiane Mine, and
3) Drilling the first known drill holes at the Maridge Pit to confirm its potential for Tantalum mineralisation.
The first phase of the drilling focused on the Spirit Valley area located immediately east of the existing Indicated Mineral Resource of 1,375,000 tonnes @ 250 g/t Ta2O5 containing 750,000(i) pounds of Ta2O5 at Muiane. The Spirit Valley is the location of substantial historic mining. Nuggets bearing Ta2O5 (Tantalum) mineralisation were recovered from the walls of this historic mining area by the Pacific Wildcat Exploration team in 2007. The following plan shows the location of the RC drill collars in the Spirit Valley in relation to the existing Indicated Mineral Resource.
The following cross sections show the significant intersections (Ta2O5 greater than 100 g/t) in the Spirit Valley area.
The difference in results from the historic holes NH074, RC21 and new holes NH128 and NH127 show what may be a substantial nugget effect but further work will need to be conducted to gain a better understanding of the differences in Tantalum assays in this area over short distances.
The second phase of drilling focused on the drilling of two twin holes (NH138 and NH139) in the Litica zone of the resource(i) at Muiane.
As reported in the National Instrument 43-101 technical report titled "Technical Report on the Mineral Assets of Tantalum Mineracao and Prospeccao Limitada", dated 25th May 2009, ITM Mining Limited ("ITM") carried out an extensive mineral processing and geological sampling program at Muiane from May to June, 1999. A total of 24 RC drill holes were drilled to depths of between 26m and 70m for a total of 973m of which 909m was assayed. Although ITM did assay for Ta2O5 and Li2O, there is limited information on the quality control and assaying techniques used. What can be reported is that lithium mineralisation was encountered in over 80% of the total RC samples assayed in both the Litica Zone and quartz / spodumene zones.
The following indicative cross section gives the significant intersections of Lithium and Tantalum mineralisation in holes NH138 and NH139 within this area of the resource(i).
The third phase of the drilling was the drilling of three RC holes at the Maridge mine located seven kilometres North West of the Muiane Mine. The Maridge pit is the location of extensive historic mining for Tantalum. The pit is over 400m in length and approximately 20m deep. No mining has occurred at Maridge since 1974. These holes, the first drilled in modern times, intersected a zone of mineralisation at the north eastern end of the pit. The following plan shows the location of the three drill holes.
These tantalum intersections are particularly promising given only three holes were drilled and due to access problems the holes were not able to be drilled in an optimal location. These results are important as it proves the concept of Tantalum mineralisation at Maridge. As the mineralisation is open to the North East further drill holes will be planned in this area for the next drill program once drill access has been improved.
With licences totalling over 450 square kilometres, PAW is the largest single private licence holder on the Alto Ligonha pegmatite belt in northern Mozambique, a belt which contains a number of historic tantalum and lithium mine workings including the Muiane mine.
The PAW team has extensive experience in the mining, processing and marketing of tantalum and lithium. From 2001 to 2004, PAW director Mr David Paull was responsible for selling of over half the world's tantalum and two thirds of the world's hard rock lithium production in his role as Executive General Manager of Marketing and Business Development for Sons of Gwalia in Western Australia.
Mr David Bale, a geologist and metallurgist by background, consults to PAW. Mr Bale has over 30 years experience in the tantalum and lithium mining industry including a period as Managing Director of Lithium Australia Limited. From 1996 to 2007, Mr Bale was Executive General Manager of the Minerals Division for Sons of Gwalia. During this period he was responsible for managing the production of over half the world's tantalum and two thirds of the world's hard rock lithium.
Mr Darren Townsend, PAW's President/CEO, is a mining engineer with over 15 years mining industry experience. Mr Townsend was previously General Manager at the Wodgina tantalum mine in Western Australia where over a period of five years he was instrumental in overseeing the expansion of the operation into what was then the world's largest Tantalum operation.
Work has commenced on analysing the results from this limited initial RC drill program in the context of the existing resource(i) at Muiane and historic exploration work completed on the property. Whilst planning for the next drilling program is being undertaken the Company has begun an extensive trenching program on its exploration licences with the aim of identifying additional drill targets. The Company's strategy at Muiane is to aggressively explore delineated tantalum targets on the licences with the objective of adding to the existing tantalum resource base and gaining a better understanding of the lithium potential of the properties. The Company is currently considering a number of Tantalum processing options for Muiane and is advanced in identifying a suitable treatment plant to allow for metallurgical testwork/initial small scale production.
The Chairman Mr Terry Lyons said today, "These high grade results from PAW's first drill program since closing the transaction to acquire the properties is an excellent result for the exploration team. Given the success of this first program it is the aim of the company to step up its exploration effort with the aim of commencing Tantalum production at Muiane within the next 12 months."