Mr. Peter Cashin of Quest Rare reports
QUEST AND PARTNER SEARCH MINERALS DRILLS NEW REE ZONE SOUTH OF THE B-ZONE, RETURNS 1.78% TREO OVER 24.0 M, STRANGE LAKE AREA, LABRADOR
Quest Rare Minerals Ltd. and its exploration partner Search Minerals Inc. have released the first results from a diamond drilling program completed on the Alterra (Search) Strange Lake option project. Final lab results for holes ALT-11-001 to ALT-11-004 have returned high-grade total rare earth oxide (TREO) intersections of between 1.10 per cent and 4.37 per cent over thicknesses of between 1.15 metres to 46.0 metres. Heavy rare earth oxide (HREO) represents between 38.5 per cent and 70.4 per cent of the TREO content intersected in the new drilling. Best intersection grades returned 1.13 per cent TREO over 48.0 metres (ALT11002), including 1.78 per cent TREO over 24.0 metres and 2.37 per cent TREO over 14.7 metres; 1.10 per cent TREO over 6.7 metres (ALT11003) and including 1.15 per cent TREO over 5.1 metres. Important enrichment in zirconium (ZrO2), niobium (Nb2O5) and hafnium (HfO2) characterizes the mineralization. The detailed drill sample analysis table is available on Quest's website.
"Our Alterra option property drilling has now confirmed Quest's belief that significant new areas of rare earth mineralization remain to be discovered within the host Strange Lake granite," said Peter Cashin, Quest's president and chief executive officer. "Our exploration efforts will now focus on firming up this important new mineralized area, which remains open to the northeast and towards the southeast. Three additional new mineralized areas remain to be drill tested and will be the focus of our future efforts to identify additional high-grade deposits."
Jim Clucas, president and chief executive officer of Search Minerals, adds: "These are excellent results, which bear further investigation. We are encouraged to note that the A-zone may be connected to other zones in the area."
Alterra (Search) option property winter drill program
Assays have been received from four diamond drill holes of the winter program representing 310.3 metres. The drilling program tested an area of surface mineralization know as the A-zone, located approximately three kilometres south-southeast of Quest's B-zone REE (rare earth elenement) deposit. The drill results have confirmed the presence of strong, near-surface pegmatite- and aplite-style REE mineralization and justify further drill investigation of the area. Drilling indicates the occurrence to be a set of relatively flat-dipping horizontal sheets. The mineralization has been defined over vertical thicknesses of almost 46.0 metres.
The results from diamond drilling on the program are shown in the associated table.
DRILL RESULTS Bore hole From To Length TREO LREO HREO HREO/TREO (m) (m) (m) (%) (%) (%) (%)ALT11001 2.00 84.00 82.00 0.49 0.30 0.19 38.75ALT11001 2.00 34.00 32.00 0.31 0.20 0.12 37.04ALT11001 29.35 39.50 10.15 0.72 0.41 0.31 42.72ALT11001 34.00 84.00 50.00 0.60 0.37 0.24 39.32ALT11001 34.12 38.67 4.55 1.03 0.58 0.45 43.99ALT11002 4.92 77.23 72.31 0.84 0.34 0.49 58.97ALT11002 11.48 57.45 45.97 1.13 0.42 0.71 62.65ALT11002 19.03 43.00 23.97 1.78 0.60 1.18 66.46ALT11002 22.00 36.74 14.74 2.37 0.70 1.67 70.38ALT11002 22.00 24.00 2.00 2.59 0.92 1.67 64.41ALT11002 28.26 32.77 4.51 4.37 0.96 3.41 77.99ALT11002 38.58 42.00 3.42 1.10 0.64 0.46 41.95ALT11002 56.30 57.45 1.15 2.01 0.73 1.28 63.68ALT11003 1.03 81.58 80.55 0.58 0.36 0.23 38.71ALT11003 1.03 26.28 25.25 0.69 0.45 0.24 34.16ALT11003 33.53 40.25 6.72 1.11 0.58 0.53 47.74ALT11003 33.53 61.55 28.02 0.72 0.40 0.32 44.44ALT11003 48.52 53.62 5.10 1.15 0.71 0.44 38.50ALT11003 58.61 58.96 0.35 1.61 0.60 1.02 63.04ALT11003 61.30 61.55 0.25 2.07 0.70 1.37 66.14ALT11004 3.60 67.50 63.90 0.57 0.35 0.22 38.05NotesTREO equals total rare earth oxides, includes:Y2O3 equals yttrium oxide (i), La2O3 equals lanthanum oxide (i), Ce2O3 equals cerium oxide (i), Pr2O3 equals praseodymium oxide(i), Nd2O3 equals neodymium oxide (i), Sm2O3 equals samarium oxide, Eu2O3 equals europium oxide, Gd2O3 equals gadolinium oxide, Tb2O3 equals terbium oxide (i), Dy2O3 equals dysprosium oxide (i),Ho2O3 equals holmium oxide, Er2O3 equals erbium oxide, Tm2O3 equals thulium oxide (i), Yb2O3 equals ytterbium oxide, Lu2O3 equals lutetium oxide (i). LREO equals light rare earth oxides, includes:La2O3 euqals lanthanum oxide, Ce2O3 equals cerium oxide,Pr2O3 equals praseodymium oxide, Nd2O3 equals neodymium oxide, Sm2O3 equals samarium oxide.HREO equals heavy rare earth oxides, includes:Y2O3 equals yttrium oxide, Eu2O3 equals europium oxide, Gd2O3 equalsgadolinium oxide, Tb2O3 equals terbium oxide, Dy2O3 equals dysprosium oxide, Ho2O3 equals holmium oxide, Er2O3 equals erbium oxide, Tm2O3 equalsthulium oxide, Yb2O3 equals ytterbium oxide, Lu2O3 equals lutetium oxide. (i) The principal rare earth oxides on the Alterra property.
The better grades observed in drilling are similar to the pegmatite style of mineralization observed on Quest's Strange Lake B-zone rare earth deposit. Mineralization is composed of a high proportion of pegmatite sheets that are intercalated with weakly to moderately altered Strange Lake peralkaline granite. Hematite alteration, which characterizes the better grades of mineralization extensively developed at the B-zone, appears to be restricted to the mineralized pegmatites and within a narrow envelop in the adjacent host granite.
Summer 2011 exploration program
Plans for upcoming summer work on the property are well advanced and will include additional exploration drilling, prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling. Exploration on the Alterra (Search) option property will be operated from Quest's Strange Lake facilities. Construction work is under way to enlarge Quest's exploration camp to accommodate 100 employees, up from the current 55.
Alterra Strange Lake property option agreement terms
As previously announced, pursuant to the exploration and option agreement with Search Minerals Inc. and Alterra Resources Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Search, executed on June 16, 2010, Quest may earn a 50-per-cent undivided working interest in the 30 mining claims by issuing an aggregate of 90,000 common shares of Quest to Alterra over a period of three years and by incurring mining exploration expenditures of $500,000 in the aggregate over a period of three years. Upon completing all of the payments mentioned above, Quest will have an option to acquire an additional 15-per-cent undivided working interest in the mining claims by making a payment of $75,000 before the fourth anniversary date of the exploration and option agreement, by issuing an additional 150,000 common shares of Quest to Alterra on or before the fifth anniversary date of the exploration and option agreement, and by incurring mining exploration expenditures of $1.25-million in the aggregate on or before the fifth anniversary date of the exploration and option agreement.
Pursuant to the exploration and option agreement, Quest will enter into an assignment agreement with Search and Alterra pursuant to which Quest will transfer and assign to Search nine claims located in western Labrador in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in consideration for 10,000 common shares in the capital of Search. Immediately following the transfer by Quest to Search, Search will transfer these nine claims to Alterra. These nine claims, together with 21 claims already owned by Alterra, comprise the 30 claims that are the subject of the exploration and option agreement. The 30 mining claims are subject to a 1.5-per-cent net smelter return royalty in favour of Alterra. Quest may, at any time, purchase two-thirds of the 1.5-per-cent net smelter return royalty for $1-million.
Quality control
Mr. Cashin, PGeo, is the qualified person for the Alterra Strange Lake project under National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for this news release. Material for analysis has been obtained from drill core which was cut in half using a diamond saw. Half of the core was sent to the lab for analysis with the remaining half left on-site for future reference. A strict quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program is followed which includes the use of elemental standards, duplicates and blanks. Analyses were performed by Activation Laboratory Ltd. of Ancaster, Ont.
We seek Safe Harbor.