Vanadium News!!! BuySparton Reports Positive Sampling Results From China Vanadium Project3/15/2011 10:09:12 AM - Market Wire
Values Up to 2% Vanadium Oxide Base Metal and Silver Values Found New Drilling Program Underway
TORONTO, ONTARIO, Mar 15, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX News Network) --
SpartonResources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SRI) ("Sparton" or the "Company"),announced today that it has received very positive results from theinitial surface sampling program completed on its Rentian VanadiumProject in Jiangxi Province, Peoples Republic of China . See Spartonnews release dated December 2, 2010.
The Company's vanadiumprojects are held by VanSpar Mining Inc. a newly incorporated BritishVirgin Island ("BVI") subsidiary company that holds Sparton's variousvanadium rights and assets in China, including Rentian and the nearbyGuojiaping project. VanSpar is 74.2% percent owned by Sparton. SeeSparton news release dated March 10, 2011.
As part of its ongoingdue diligence study of the Rentian Mining Licence and processing plantthe Company's technical staff have completed a comprehensive surfacesampling program as well as a review of the Rentian processing plantoperating systems and infrastructure. The sampling results are reportedhere.
RENTIAN SURFACE SAMPLING
Over 160 grab and chipsamples were taken covering most of the vanadium unit rock exposures inthe 1.6 square kilometre Rentian Mining Licence. There are no previousrecords of similar sampling and no previous drilling has been done toevaluate the vanadium rich stratigraphic unit which trends across theLicence. The sampling covered most of the 1.6 km strike length of thevanadium rich horizon on the Licence. Exposures are scattered and bestexposed in several quarries where material has been excavated for locallime production. The vanadium rich unit appears to be approximately 30metres thick, strikes northwest and dips gently 10-15 degrees to thenortheast. Not all samples were actually taken in the vanadium rich unitdue to lack of continuous exposure. Where continuous exposure waspresent continuous chip samples were taken, otherwise grab samples werecollected.
RESULTS HIGHLIGHTS
The best continuous chipsample (1 metre sample intervals) returned an average of 1.10% V205across a 24 metre wide sampled zone. Within this interval a 12 metrewide zone averaged 1.31% V2O5. The highest value in this zone was 2.00%V2O5 over a 1 metre interval. True thicknesses are estimated at 20 and10 metres respectively for these intervals. Other continuous chipsamples taken included 0.75% V2O5 over 12 metres (highest value 1.2%V2O5over 1 metre) and 0.73% over 7 metres (highest value 1.24% V2O5 over 2metres).
The average V2O5 content for the entire 162 sample groupincluding mineralized and non mineralized zones was 0.43% V2O5 andapproximately 20% of the samples assayed over 1% V2O5.
SIGNIFICANT BASE METAL AND SILVER VALUES FOUND
Ofsignificant interest for the project is that significant amounts ofcopper, zinc and silver are associated with the vanadium mineralization.These were detected in a number of multi element and individualanalyses done for the Quality Control program (see below). Values of0.92% copper (with 0.79% V2O5), 0.53% copper (with 0.98% V2O5), 0.42%copper (with 1.06% V2O5), and 0.05% copper (with 1.2% V2O5 and 0.53%Zinc) were reported in these results.
Significant silver valueswere also associated with the higher grade vanadium results. Theseinclude 1 metre chip samples grading 39.9 grams silver per tonne with1.66% V2O5, 23.1 grams per tonne silver with 1.21% V2O5, and 18.2 gramsper tonne silver with 1.20% V2O5.
Only about 25% of the 162samples have undergone multi element analyses and the overall base metaland silver distribution is considered incomplete with the current dataavailable.
DRILL PROGRAM UNDERWAY
An 1100 metre drillingprogram using three drill rigs is now underway to test the down dipextension of the surface zones sampled in the work reported here.Approximately 1.2 kilometres of the1.6 kilometre strike length will betested in 10-15 shallow holes to intersect the vanadium and base metalrich unit at depths of 25-75 metres. Holes will be approximately 150metres apart and fill in drilling is planned once the geometry of themineralized unit is better understood. This work is expected to take 6weeks to complete.
QUALITY CONTROL PROGRAM
The surfacesampling work followed industry standard methods for chain of custody,quality control and quality assurance. This included insertion of blanksamples into the sample group at random intervals. The initial V205assay results were reported by the Central Laboratory of MineralsExploration and Development of Jiangxi Province located in the city ofNanchang. Duplicates of a selected group of samples (35) representingapproximately 28% of the total, and variable V2O5 content were submittedto the SGS Tianjin Mineral Laboratory for multi element analyses andVanadium analyses using the ICP90A technique. The Vanadium analysesreported by SGS were converted into V2O5 results using a standardformula. In addition several of the samples were analyzed at the Companylaboratory in Lincang, Yunnan China.
Correlation of resultsbetween the laboratories was excellent with average positive or negativevariances on individual sample results between laboratories of under5.5%. This is considered acceptable.