New Drill Targets Identified at St. Stephen Nickel-Copper Project
VAL D'OR, QC,
The Company is very pleased with these developments on the St. Stephen project. The results of Continental's first year exploration program on the project are very encouraging. Continental's expertise in magmatic nickel-copper exploration has yielded a number of compelling targets for drill testing. The Company is looking forward to the 2010 program when a drill program is planned to test these quality targets.
Based on a compilation of historic data completed earlier this year, Continental selected two priority areas to be surveyed with a large loop, time domain electromagnetic (TDEM) survey. A total of twelve line kilometres of TDEM surveying from two fixed loops was completed. The aim of the survey was to explore for extensions of known mineralization in the area of the Rogers Farm Deposit and to confirm new, untested, anomalies identified from a review of the airborne VTEM survey flown by Abitex in 2004.
In the Rogers Farm area, the survey detected a new high conductance anomaly (referred as the Billy's Brook Anomaly), located approximately 700 metres west of the Rogers Farm Deposit. The anomaly is 175 metres long and is untested by previous drilling. Surveying over the Rogers Farm Deposit, as expected, detected an extremely high conductance anomaly, over a 250 metre strike length, coincident with the deposit. Although no new extensions to the deposit were detected by the survey, historic drilling indicates that the deposit is open at depth. The survey also confirmed that a down dip extension is likely to the E Zone, located 200 metres east of the Rogers Farm Deposit, where historic drilling intersected up to 0.95% nickel and 0.45% copper over 9.15 metres. The survey results indicate that this zone is open at depth below the level of historic drilling.
In the second survey area, a second new high conductance anomaly (referred to as the Triple J Anomaly) was detected, 1.5 kilometres southwest of the Rogers Farm Deposit. This anomaly has similar conductivity to the anomaly of the Rogers Farm Deposit and has been modeled over a strike length of greater than 400 metres. It is also untested by previous drilling.
Based on these favorable results, including the discovery of two new, untested, high conductance EM anomalies, as well as potential depth extensions at the Rogers Farm and E Zones, Continental intends to design a drill program to test these targets in 2010.
Background
The St. Stephen project consists of 129 contiguous claims totaling 2,064 hectares near the town of St. Stephen in southwestern
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.
Abitex entered into an Option and Joint Venture Agreement with Continental Nickel Limited (TSXV: CNI) of
Upon completion of a feasibility study within five years of earning a 60% interest, Continental's interest will increase to 65% and can further increase to 75% if the study recommends a positive development recommendation and Continental gives notice that it intends to implement the study recommendation within two years of tabling the study.
Qualified Persons
The quality control, technical information and all aspects of the exploration program were supervised by Patricia Tirschmann, P. Geo., Vice President, Exploration for CNI. The information in this release was prepared under the direction of Craig MacDougall, P. Geo., President and Chief Executive Officer for Continental Nickel Limited. Both
About ABITEX ------------
ABITEX is an exploration and development company based in Val d'Or,
About CONTINENTAL NICKEL ------------------------
Continental Nickel Limited is focused on the exploration and discovery of nickel sulphide deposits in geologically prospective, but under-explored regions globally. Current projects include its 70% controlling interest in the Nachingwea project in
The Company's public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com
For further information on the Company, please email us at info@ abitex.ca
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For further information: Yves J. Rougerie, President and CEO, (819) 874-6200, [email protected]
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