News ReleaseTrue North commences $2.2-million Regal Ridge program
True North Gems Inc TGX
Shares issued 24,144,065 May 31 close $0.72
Tue 1 Jun 2004 News Release
Mr. Ken Shortt reports
TRUE NORTH GEMS INITIATES 2004 EXPLORATION PROGRAM AT REGAL RIDGE
True North Gems Inc.'s 2004 exploration program is under way at the
company's wholly owned Regal Ridge emerald property located in the
Finalyson Lake district of the Yukon territory, Canada.
True North crews have been on-site since May 10 performing maintenance and
upgrades to equipment and site infrastructure. As of last week the site and
support facilities are operational and exploration and gemstone processing
are slated to begin on schedule, as planned.
The objective of this year's $2.2-million exploration program will be to
further expand and evaluate areas of known emerald-bearing zones through
diamond drilling and trenching, complete the initial evaluation of three
areas with anomalous geochemistry indicating the potential for new emerald
occurrences and acquire all of the information required to initiate a
preliminary assessment study of the deposit once the field season has been
completed.
The exploration program will include 3,000 metres of diamond drilling
directed toward the systematic definition of the extensions and continuity
of emerald mineralized structures to depth. Diamond drilling is scheduled
to begin immediately.
Gemstone processing will commence by mid-June, immediately after
modifications to the existing pilot processing plant have been completed.
Processing will begin with existing 1,500 tonnes of stockpiled mineralized
material that remains unprocessed from the 2003 season. The processing
plant will also be employed to recover emeralds from samples extracted
through 2004 trenching and bulk sampling activity. Surface reaching will be
continuing during the summer field season and will focus on the evaluation
of known mineralized structures which have not yet been subject to
systematic sampling. In addition, trenching resources will also be directed
toward the continued to evaluation of the Mattscar and Southwest zone
structures.
Three areas of anomalous geochemistry will also be investigated as part of
the 2004 program. These anomalous areas were identified by soil sampling in
2002 and 2003 and are considered significant in that they possess
geochemical signatures similar to that of Regal Ridge and exist in
unexplored portions of the property that lie beyond the geographically
defined trends of strengthening mineralization.
The 2004 exploration budget includes a contingency for underground
excavation. No specific target for this work has been identified to date
and planning will await the early results from the 2004 program.
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