TSX Venture Exchange
Trading Symbol: CFI
TORONTO, March 1, 2012 /CNW/ - Canada Fluorspar Inc. (TSXV: CFI) ("CFI" or the "Company") is pleased to announce an update of its exploration activity on the Director Vein located on the Company's 100% owned development properties at St. Lawrence, Newfoundland.
CFI has undertaken surface trenching of the Director Vein over the past 45 days and to date has uncovered fluorspar mineralization at three locations. The trenches are currently located over an area that extends more than 400 m to the south of the old workings of the Director Vein, and indicate surface mineralization in width varying from 3.4 m to 16.5 m. Trenching operations will continue over the next month and a half, and the Company expects to commence a drilling program on the Director Vein by June, 2012. Assay work on the trench samples is currently underway, and results will be provided as they become available.
The Company has approved a budget of $200,000 for its exploration program, of which it has spent approximately $60,000, and anticipates a minimum of two more trenches to be completed on the Director Vein under its ongoing exploration program.
Lindsay Gorrill, President & CEO of Canada Fluorspar Inc. stated that, "this is a significant development for CFI and may indicate an extension to the Director Vein. We look forward to providing further updates on exploration results when assay results become available."
Background Information for the Director Vein.
Canada Fluorspar Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary, Canada Fluorspar (NL) Inc. (CFI-NL), holds 100% of the mineral rights to property in the St Lawrence area of Newfoundland on which the Director Vein is located. The Director Vein was previously mined by the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) from 1942 and 1977. The mine shut down in September 1977, after Alcan decided to curtail operations permanently. Prior to the shutdown, Alcan estimated that significant mineralized material was left at the existing Director Mine. The Director Vein was reported by Alcan to be open along strike and at depth. Both the north and south extremities of the Director Vein are believed to contain significant fluorspar mineralization, with the south end of Director Vein, known as Director South Extension, considered to have the greatest potential, in part due to the fact that it is exposed at the surface, and is close to an existing mill, proposed tailings facility and deep harbour wharf.
Historically, the Director Vein widths exceeded the generally normal widths and the grades exceeded the grades for a north-south vein in the St. Lawrence area. CFI designed a program to trace the mineralized structure of Director Vein to the south along strike through a series of surface trenches which started in January 2012. Three trenches have been completed to-date with additional trenching planned over the following 4 to 6 weeks. See the map attached at Appendix "A" for the location of the existing area of the trenching program.
Results to-date from Trenches 1 to 3 inclusive are as follows:
Trench #1
The first trench was designed to identify the Director Vein structure at the southern limit of the past mining operation (on the south side of the Canal waterway). Trench #1 is located immediately to the south of the historic Director Mine operation. Mine records indicated that the vein had pinched (veins characteristically pinch and swell along strike and at depth) at this location but the identification of the structure, mineralized or barren, would provide information to plan subsequent trenches in a more favorable location. Trenching at this site was unsuccessful in identifying the structure, confirming the pinch zone reported by the previous operator in the 1970s, and the site was reclaimed.
Trench #2
The second trench was located 300 m to the south of Trench #1 and along the projected strike of the Director structure. The second trench successfully identified a fault/vein structure 3.4 m in width, containing brecciated fluorite, quartz, calcite and granite. This structure is on strike with the Director Vein to the north and is assumed to represent either the end of a pinch zone or the beginning of a zone of swelling. Samples of the vein and wallrock material were collected for assay and assay work is currently ongoing, but results are not yet available.
Trench #3
Following up on the encouraging results obtained from Trench #2, the third Trench was located 123 m to the south of Trench #2 and along the projected strike of the Director structure. This trench uncovered a much wider mineralized structure of 16.5 m containing thin veins of purple fluorite (up to 1.8 m wide) in granite on the western part of the zone and a vein of massive fluorite (9.4 m wide) on the eastern part of the zone. The structure lies along the projected strike of the Director Vein and dips steeply to the west. This site represents a swelling of the vein structure from Trench #2 site to the north and it is uncertain whether this represents a maximum width. Samples were collected across the zone for assay and assay work is currently ongoing, but results are not yet available.
The Company continues to do trenching to the south of Trench #3 and will provide updates as trenching is completed. The next trench is Trench #4 and is planned to be 100 m to the south of Trench #3 and along strike.
About the Company
The Company is a specialty mineral resource company engaged in the development of fluorspar deposits located in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, Canada, and is reactivating the existing Blue Beach and Terefare underground fluorspar mines, expanding the existing mill, constructing a new, environmentally-sound Tailings Management Facility through its 50/50 joint venture with Arkema Inc., called Newspar. The Company is also building a new deep-water marine terminal in the outer St. Lawrence Harbour for the export of fluorspar concentrate product.
Previous fluorspar operators, Alcan and Minworth, who operated on Blue Beach North and Tarefare veins, produced in excess of 4.6 million tonnes of fluorite (CaF2) in a 47 year history of production ending in 1991.
At a cut-off grade of 20% CaF2 and a minimum horizontal thickness of two metres, the Mineral Resources of Blue Beach North and Tarefare veins total approximately 9.1 million tonnes of Indicated Rineral resources at an average grade of 42.0% CaF2, and 950,000 tonnes of Inferred Mineral Resources at an average grade of 31.1% CaF2, in each case, estimated by the Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. 43-101 technical report dated April 29 2011 (the "43-101 Report"). At a cut-off grade of 30% CaF2 and a minimum horizontal thickness of two metres, the Probable Mineral Reserves of the Blue Beach North and Tarefare veins total approximately 5.4 million tonnes at an average grade of approximately 39.8% CaF2. The Mineral Reserves are part of the Mineral Resources. The key assumptions, parameters and methods used to estimate the Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, as well as other relevant information, including data verification, with respect to the Blue Beach North and Terefare veins can be found in the 43-101 Report which has been filed under the Company's profile on Sedar (www.sedar.com). The Blue Beach North and Tarefare veins have overall average widths of 5 m and 3.5 m respectively.
Jim Reeves, Senior Geologist with CFI, who is Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties, reviewed and approved the technical content of this release. The historic production information provided has not been verified by the Company and is provided for reference only.
Jim Reeves was on site during the trenching at the Director Vein and verified the data collected. The trenched area of the Director Vein was washed down to remove as much till material as possible to expose the bedrock and to permit geological mapping and sampling. Each of the trenches were mapped in detail, including the lithologic units and the structures. Continuous chip samples across each of the designated mineralized intervals were collected, bagged, labelled and sealed. Chip samples of the wall rock, one meter on each side of the mineralized zones, were also collected, bagged, labelled and sealed.
For more information please see: www.canadafluorspar.com
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.
PDF with caption: "Appendix A Schematic - Director Trench Locations". PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2012/03/01/20120301_C9102_DOC_EN_10682.pdf
Lindsay Gorrill
President and CEO
Canada Fluorspar Inc.
Tel: 1-800-823-8095
[email protected]
Share this article