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MINING NEWS: Explorers return to Niblack in Southeast New junior launches 2006 exploration program to delineate historic gold-silver-copper-zinc deposit on Prince of Wales Island Rose Ragsdale For Mining News
Niblack Mining Corp. announced a 2006 exploration program May 10 on its copper- and gold-rich Niblack property on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. The volcano massive sulphide deposit sits on 2,000 acres on the southern landward side of the island, near tidewater. Volcano massive sulphide, or VMS, deposits are rich in gold, silver, copper and zinc metals.
The junior mining company believes Niblack is one of the higher-grade VMS systems in North America in a setting capable of hosting more than 40 million tons of ore.
Niblack Mining said it will begin a first phase of exploration with 6,500 meters of diamond drilling to be completed by two drill rigs. It aims to expand mineralization in Lookout zone, a series of moderately to steeply dipping massive sulphide lenses that have been intersected to depths of 1,600 feet. The mineralization remains open at depth and along strike.
2005 program a success Niblack Mining developed and successfully tested a new exploration model for the property in a diamond drill program last year. In that effort, the company intersected the longest mineralized interval it had found to date, three distinct massive sulphide lenses separated by stringer and disseminated massive sulphide mineralization that graded 2.39 grams per ton of gold, 47 g/t silver, 1.67 percent copper and 4.05 percent zinc over 225.3 feet for a gold equivalent of 9.91 g/t, or a copper equivalent of 5.42 percent. This included 46.3 feet grading 4.55 g/t gold, 71 g/t silver, 3.05 percent copper, and 7.79 percent zinc (18.43 g/t AuEQ or 10.08 percent CuEQ).
The company also plans to test several other major massive sulphide occurrences in the claims, including the historic Niblack Mine, Dama, Trio and Mammoth zones.
Phase 1 of the 2006 program is expected to continue until mid-July.
Darwin Green, Niblack’s exploration manager, will supervise the drill program and sampling this summer and samples will be analyzed by fire assay and ICP at ALS Chemex Labs in Vancouver, B.C.
Niblack Mining is also developing plans for an underground exploration program to access the deeper extent of potential mineralization at Lookout zone. Permitting is under way with appropriate state and federal agencies. Company officials expect to begin underground work in the third quarter and complete that exploration program in 18 months, Paddy Nicol, Niblack Mining’s president, told investors recently.
A historic property Niblack’s history dates back more than 100 years. Mined at the turn of the century, production ceased at the mine in 1908 due to litigation. Between 1974 and 1994, several majors explored the property, drilling a total of 59 holes and discovering massive sulphides at the Lookout and Dama zones, according to Niblack officials.
Between 1995 and 1997, Abacus Minerals, a junior mining company, spent $10 million to drill 101 holes. Abacus significantly expanded the Lookout zone, found massive sulphides elsewhere on the property and calculated an in-house estimated mineral resource.
In 2005, investors created Vancouver, B.C.-based Niblack Mining out of Abacus Minerals with a mission of advancing the Niblack property toward delineation of an economic ore deposit. The company began trading in November with 25.3 million shares outstanding and market capitalization of $21.5 million.
Niblack officials say the property is highly prospective with its rich mining history, Alaska’s pro-mining government and the deposit’s ready access to Asian smelting markets.
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