TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 24, 2012) - Thundermin Resources Inc. ("Thundermin") (TSX:THR) announces that it has commenced an initial 2,000 m diamond drilling program in 6 to 7 holes on its Stirling zinc-lead-copper-silver-gold property located in Richmond County, on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The Stirling Property consists of 404 claims (64.6 km²) covering approximately 15 kms of favourable volcanic stratigraphy that trends southwest from the past-producing Mindamar (Stirling) Mine. The Mindamar Mine, which produced in the 1930's and again in the 1950's, consisted of several massive sulphide lenses which contained over 1,000,000 tonnes of ore grading 6.3% Zn, 1.5% Pb, 0.8% Cu, 74.0 g/t Ag and 1.1 g/t Au (see Thundermin's news releases dated June 23, July 21 and December 5, 2011 for additional details on the Stirling Property).
An initial exploration program completed on the Stirling property in the fall of 2011 consisted of 175 km of line cutting over the majority of the property, prospecting, geological mapping, induced polarization ("IP") geophysical surveys and mobile metal ion ("MMI") geochemical sampling over selected key target areas. Four priority drill targets for base metal and/or gold mineralization were outlined during this initial work.
The two most significant targets outlined to date occur near the center of the Stirling property where lithogeochemical sampling undertaken by Xstrata Canada Inc. ("Xstrata") (formerly Falconbridge Limited) during 1989-1991 outlined a package of rocks with similar geochemical signatures to those that host the Mindamar Mine approximately 8 km to the northeast. At the Taylor's Brook base metal showing, Xstrata intersected wide intervals of sulphide mineralization containing anomalous values of copper and zinc in four shallow drill holes, with the best intersection assaying 5.2% copper over 1.0 m. A deep penetrating IP survey, completed over a portion of the Taylor's Brook area by Thundermin in 2011, outlined a significant IP conductor with a minimum strike length of 600 m that is interpreted to extend to depth well beyond the shallow drilling completed by Xstrata. Approximately two km southwest of the Taylor's Brook area, a strong IP conductor has been outlined over a strike length of at least one km. This conductor is characterized by an area of extremely high conductivity and low resistivity that occurs along the flank of a magnetic high. The IP conductor also correlates with a weak to moderate airborne conductor that has never been drilled. These two areas along with at least two other areas will be the focus of the 2012 drill program.
John B. Heslop, President & CEO of Thundermin said "We are pleased to have acquired this significant land package in the underexplored Stirling volcanic belt. We are extremely satisfied with the results that we have received to date. We feel that the results of our exploration effort to date confirm our belief that the Stirling area is prospective for the discovery of additional precious metal rich, zinc-lead-copper deposits and we look forward to a successful initial drill campaign".
Qualified Person
Mr. Douglas Hunter, MSc., P.Geo., President of Earthunt Resources Inc., Mr. Hunter's private consulting company, is the Q.P. responsible for the supervision of the exploration program conducted by Thundermin on the Stirling property for the purposes of NI 43-101. Mr. Hunter has reviewed the contents of this news release for accuracy and approved of its release.
Option Agreement
Under the terms of the Stirling agreement, Thundermin has the right to earn a 100% interest in the Stirling Property by spending $1,000,000 on exploration and by making cash payments of $70,000 and issuing 300,000 Thundermin shares to the Vendors over four years. The first year commitments were a minimum of $150,000 of exploration expenditures (completed) and the payment of $15,000 cash (made) and the issuance of 100,000 Thundermin shares to the Vendors (made) upon the signing of the Stirling Agreement. All remaining exploration expenditures, cash payments and share issuances beyond the first year are at Thundermin's option, subject to a minimum exploration expenditure of $100,000 per year if Thundermin elects to continue the option. If Thundermin acquires a 100% interest in the Stirling Property, the Vendors will be entitled to receive a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty, 50% of which may be purchased from the Vendors by Thundermin at any time for $1,000,000. If Thundermin acquires a 100% interest in the Stirling Property but fails to reach commercial production by May 17, 2019, then Thundermin will be required to pay the Vendors a recoupable advance royalty in the amount of $25,000 per year until commercial production is reached.
About Thundermin
Thundermin is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company focused on the exploration for and the discovery of economically viable base metal and gold deposits in Canada. Thundermin has an interest in, or the right to earn an interest in, 12 base metal and gold properties in Canada. The most significant of these is the Little Deer copper property in the Springdale area of Newfoundland where Thundermin and 50% joint venture partner Cornerstone Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone") have outlined Indicated Mineral Resources of 1,911,000 tonnes grading 2.37% copper and Inferred Mineral Resources of 3,748,000 tonnes grading 2.13% copper. A positive Preliminary Economic Assessment was announced for the Little Deer project on November 1, 2011. Thundermin and Cornerstone also own a 100% interest in the adjoining, past-producing, Whalesback Copper Mine where a National Instrument 43 -101 mineral resource estimate is currently being undertaken by P&E Mining Consultants Inc. Thundermin owns a 100% interest in the Lebel Township gold property, which is located on the Kirkland Lake Main Break in the prolific Kirkland Lake gold camp. Thundermin has royalty interests in 28 base metal and gold properties located in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Quebec, the most significant being a 2.5% net smelter return royalty in the Pelletier Lake gold deposit which is under option to Alexis Minerals Corporation. Thundermin also has various shareholdings in fourteen other junior resource companies that are actively exploring for base metal, gold, chrome, vanadium-titanium and diamond deposits in Canada.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain "Forward-Looking Statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Thundermin's plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words "potential," "anticipate," "forecast," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "may," "project," "plan," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify "Forward-Looking Statements". Although Thundermin believes that its expectations reflected in these "Forward-Looking Statements" are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings that can be viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behavior of financial and metals markets and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic, natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our "Forward-Looking Statements". Although Thundermin believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Thundermin does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views subsequent to the date of this news release.
For further information on Thundermin Resources Inc. please visit Thundermin's website at www.thundermin.com or the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.