Abitex JV Partner begins diamond drilling program on St. Stephen
nickel-copper property in New Brunswick
VAL-D'OR, QC, June 9 /CNW Telbec/ - Abitex Resources Inc. (TSX-V: ABE) (the "Company" or "Abitex") is pleased to announce that Continental Nickel Limited (TSX-V: CNI) ("Continental") of Toronto, Ontario has commenced a diamond drilling program on the St. Stephen nickel-copper sulphide project in New Brunswick. The property is 100% owned by Abitex Resources. Under an option agreement signed in 2008, Continental Nickel can acquire an initial 50% interest and up to a 75% interest in the project.
According to Continental, the drilling program will consist of up to eight diamond drill holes, totalling approximately 1,500 metres. The drill holes will test the following targets:
1. extensions to mineralization beyond the limits of previous drilling at the historic sulphide zones at Rogers Farm and E zone, 2. newly discovered and untested, high conductance, electromagnetic ("EM") anomalies detected in a ground, Time Domain Electromagnetic ("TDEM") geophysical survey completed in 2009 (refer to Abitex Press Release December 9, 2009).
Continental anticipates that the drilling program will be completed by early July and that the first assay results will be received in late July.
Yves Rougerie, President & CEO of Abitex Resources, reported "We are very pleased with the progress made by Continental Nickel on the St. Stephen property, as evidenced by the success of the 2009 TDEM geophysical survey, which discovered new, high conductance EM anomalies near and adjacent to known nickel-copper sulphide zones. The current program is focussed on drill testing these new EM targets as well as drilling for possible extensions of nickel-copper sulphide mineralization at the Rogers Farm and E Zones."
At the Rogers Farm zone, two drill holes are planned. The first drill hole will test an EM anomaly that may represent a possible extension of the zone to the north along strike, and the second drill hole will test for a possible extension of mineralization at a depth of approximately 250 metres, largely below the level of previous drilling. Two holes are also planned at the E Zone to test a moderate strength EM anomaly where the results of EM plate modelling indicate that conductance increases with depth. Historic drilling at the E Zone has intersected mineralization grading up to 0.95% nickel and 0.45 % copper over 9.15 metres at shallow depths (less than 100 metres).
Two new EM anomalies, Billy's Brook and Triple J, that were discovered in the 2009 TDEM survey, will be drill tested in this drill program. The Billy's Brook anomaly is located approximately 700 metres west of the historic Rogers Farm Deposit and has been modelled as a high conductance anomaly with a 175 metre strike length. The Triple J Anomaly is located approximately 1.5 kilometres southwest of the Rogers Farm Deposit and is also modelled as a high conductance anomaly with a strike length greater than 400 metres. Drilling is also planned at the G anomaly where EM plate modelling has suggested that this anomaly was not adequately tested by previous drilling.
Background
The project consists of 129 contiguous claims totalling 2,064 hectares near the town of St. Stephen in south western New Brunswick. The project is exceptionally well-positioned with respect to infrastructure such as power and transportation with road links to bulk-shipping port facilities, all within 120 kilometres at Saint John.
The property hosts some seventeen historic, sub-cropping, nickel-copper, magmatic, sulphide occurrences within Devonian mafic to ultramafic intrusive rocks of the St. Stephen igneous complex. Resources have been previously estimated for three deposits at Rogers Farm, Hall-Carroll and C Zones, but pre-date and are not compliant with the reporting standards of NI 43-101. Based on the historic resource estimates, the Rogers Farm deposit, which is the largest deposit found to date, has an exploration target potential of approximately 500,000 tonnes grading 1% nickel and 0.45% copper to a depth of 150 metres. The Company considers this as a conceptual exploration target and is not treating the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. The historical resources should not be relied upon and should only be considered to be mineral occurrences that have the potential to be upgraded to resources by the application of exploration and evaluation to NI 43-101 standards.
Yves Rougerie, P.Geo., President and CEO for Abitex Resources Inc. is the Qualified Person for Abitex as per NI 43-101. He has reviewed the information and approved this release.
About ABITEX ------------
Abitex Resources is an exploration and development company based in Val d'Or, Quebec, which is currently focused on acquiring and advancing uranium properties in Quebec, including the Lavoie and Epsilon properties in the Otish Mountains. A recently released initial resource estimate for the Lavoie project reported Indicated resources of 3.9M lbs U3O8 grading 0.45% and Inferred resources of 9.3M lbs U3O8 grading 0.56%. Two significant U-Au discoveries were also made on the Epsilon property by the Company in the last year. The Company also has other exploration assets with historical resources including the Jolin gold property near Val d'Or, Quebec, and the St. Stephen Ni-Cu project in New Brunswick.
The Company's public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com
For further information on the Company, visit our website at www.abitex.ca or email us at [email protected]
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Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
%SEDAR: 00003760EF
For further information: For further information: Yves J. Rougerie, President and CEO, (819) 874-6200
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