VANCOUVER, March 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Callinan Mines (TSX.V-CAA) is pleased to announce that drilling has commenced on its Fox River property near Gillam, Manitoba.
A 4,000 meter diamond drilling program has been designed for this frontier nickel exploration area, where Callinan controls 203,750 hectares of ground on a structural extension of the Thompson Nickel Belt. The program will target structures identified by an airborne VTEM survey and confirmed by subsequent MMI (Mobile Metal Ion) geochemical surveys as potential nickel sulphide bodies.
The anomalies in Fox River have been the subject of exploration since as early as the 1970s. Work done in and around the Fox River Sill since 1999 has shown that the mafic complexes native to the area do contain nickel and platinum bearing sulphides. Work done in 2000 recovered grab samples from mafic rock in the Fox River Sill itself containing 2.1% copper, 0.9% nickel and 5.5 g/t combined palladium, platinum and gold (The KO-Zone: A New Occurrence of PGE-Cu-Ni Mineralization in Fox River Sill, Northern Manitoba Desharnais, Peck, Scoates, Halden). To read the report, please click on the following link: http://www.callinan.com/i/pdf/FRMaphic.pdf
Despite enormous potential in Fox River, the area remains under explored. Callinan's exhaustive airborne VTEM survey uncovered many structural anomalies, some several kilometers long, previously unobserved by inferior surveys. Most of these targets remain untested by drilling.
In order to effectively and efficiently prioritize the wealth of targets indicated by VTEM survey, Callinan has conducted a comprehensive geochemical survey using highly advanced mobile metal ion technology. This modern technique measures the metal ions in surface soils to determine where mineralized structures are located. The MMI program, conducted over two seasons, has given the company's exploration team a means of identifying targets that far surpasses all methods previously available to Fox River explorers.
The company's ongoing drilling in the Snow Lake camp has intersected a zone of fractured and altered granodiorite-diorite with disseminated and stringer style arsenopyrite mineralization. Sampling of 7 surface trenches in granodiorite returned values ranging from a low of 0.17 grams per ton gold, to a high of 11.44 grams per ton gold. Callinan's exploration team is encouraged by the results and are continuing with the drill program. Core from the Jean Lake project is currently being split and logged at a company facility in Snow Lake. Assays will be published when available.
Overall, the company will spend approximately $3 million on exploration in the 2010 winter season, including diamond drilling programs on its projects in Fox River, Snow Lake and Island Lake, Manitoba. The company maintains a strong cash balance of $14 million, and continues to receive quarterly income from its net profits interest and royalty in the 777 Mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Mike Muzylowski
Mike Muzylowski
All of Callinan's exploration programs are conducted under the direction of Pat Deveaux, P.Geo, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the contents of this release.
Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements include, but are not limited to future expenditures. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, among others, the ability to complete contemplated private placements and the timing and amount of expenditures. Callinan does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
SOURCE Callinan Mines Ltd.
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