NewsMaple Minerals prepares for drilling at Mt. Kakoulima
2005-04-05 08:14 ET - News Release
Shares issued 25,719,596
MPM Close 2005-04-04 C$ 1.24
Mr. L.M. Falzone reports
MT. KAKOULIMA NICKEL PROJECT - PHASE 3 DRILLING COMMENCES
Maple Minerals Corp. has been advised by FNX Mining Company Inc. that a geological team was mobilized on March 20, 2005, to the Mt. Kakoulima project in Guinea, West Africa, in preparation for a planned 5,000-metre drill program to explore favourable Ni-Cu-PGE (nickel-copper-platinum group element) targets along the basal contact of the Kaloum igneous complex (KIC). The focus will be to follow up on the disseminated sulphides intersected during the autumn 2004, phase 2 drill program, further define the geometry of the KIC basal contact and locate possible massive Ni-Cu-PGE sulphide traps. Drilling is expected to commence on April 7, 2005, and will be conducted again by Boart-Longyear. A geophysicist from Crone Geophysics will be on site for the duration of the drill program to conduct downhole geophysical surveys as each borehole is completed. Maple's partner, FNX Mining Company, plans, co-ordinates and supervises the exploration program. Reference is made to Maple's news issued in Stockwatch on Feb. 10, 2004, for a description of Maple's option to earn a 50-per-cent interest in the Mt. Kakoulima project.
The KIC is approximately 60 kilometres long, of which the property licence covers 30 kilometres of the contact on the north and south margins. Phases 1 and 2 of the exploration program were successful in defining and confirming the initial concept that the basal contact of the KIC dips into the centre of the intrusion with variable steepness. This is interpreted as a feature favourable for the concentration of sulphides. Other features consistent with productive Ni-Cu-PGE sulphide-bearing mafic-ultramafic intrusions are the local occurrence of disseminated sulphides hosted within a basal breccia that contain evidence of wallrock contamination of the intrusion.
Drilling in phase 3 will begin on the south side of the KIC contact (south grid) to further define in three dimensions a large, five-kilometre-wide mapped embayment-like feature. Depending on results, the second half of the phase 3 program is planned for the north side of the KIC contact (north grid) to explore favourable geometric targets along the basal contact and to follow up on disseminated sulphides intersected during the phase 2 drill campaign. North Grid diamond drill holes AF0007 to AF0012 intersected disseminated sulphide mineralization at the base of the intrusion over a 1.6-kilometre strike length. Reference is made to Maple's news issued in Stockwatch on Feb. 14, 2005, for assay results for the first 11 drill holes.
Catharine Farrow, PhD, PGeo (chief geologist, FNX), is acting as the qualified person for the Mt. Kakoulima project.
Update to acquisition of Uranium Mineral Ventures Inc.
As originally announced in Maple's news issued in Stockwatch on Jan. 25, 2005, Maple plans to acquire 100 per cent of the common shares of Uranium Mineral Ventures Inc. (UMVI), pursuant to a share exchange with existing shareholders of UMVI on the basis of one common share of Maple for each outstanding common share of UMVI. The transaction will result in the issuance by Maple of 3,000,001 common shares. Closing of the acquisition is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval. It is now expected that the transaction will close in early May, 2005. Closing of the acquisition has been delayed pending receipt of regulatory approval of the Ben Lomond deposit from Afmeco Mining and Exploration Pty. Ltd. to UMVI.
UMVI's principal asset is an option to acquire from Afmeco a 100-per-cent interest in the Ben Lomond uranium deposit located in North Queensland, Australia, for $1-million (Australia) (of which $150,000 (Australia) has been advanced by UMVI), subject to a royalty payment of 50 Australian cents per pound of U(3)O(8) recovered up to the date that is 30 days after the mill operates at 90-per-cent planned capacity, and a 1-per-cent net smelter return royalty thereafter. For further details of the proposed transaction and the Ben Lomond uranium deposit, see Maple's news issued in Stockwatch on Jan. 25, 2005, and Feb. 14, 2005.
Shebandowan update
Maple is also presently exploring the Hamlin-Powell-Clay-Deaty and Burchell properties in the Shebandowan greenstone belt 110 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ont., for both gold and copper-zinc VMS (volcanic massive sulphide)-style deposits. Airborne helicopter time domain EM surveys have outlined numerous EM massive sulphide-type conductors. One drill has been testing conductors on Burchell and is being transferred to the Hamlin property to test some high-priority anomalies north of the Freewest Sungold property, where a discovery of copper-zinc massive sulphide was announced in Stockwatch on March 16, 2005.
R.S. Middleton, PEng, is the qualified person in regard to the supervision and planning of the drill holes and quality control on Maple's Shebandowan properties.
We seek Safe Harbor.