Drilling Resumes at Long Canyon
VANCOUVER, BC - AuEx Ventures, Inc. reported that exploration funding partner Fronteer Development Group has commenced new access road and drill site construction at Long Canyon and that a reverse circulation drill rig has arrived on site. Fronteer has budgeted $3.2 million to include extensive infill drilling needed for an initial resource estimate and aggressive step out exploration as the Long Canyon mineralization is still open in all directions. Commenting on the news Ronald Parratt, President & CEO of AuEx, states, "We are very excited to see exploration resume at Long Canyon and are pleased with the aggressive program planned by Fronteer. We are confident that gold mineralization at Long Canyon will grow substantially as a result of these efforts."
The high quality, shallow gold mineralization discovered at Long Canyon continues to grow beyond the 1.4 kilometer long soil anomaly. In May an extensive geophysical and geochemical sampling program will attempt to further extend the known mineralization. Drilling has already extended mineralization beyond the soil survey and quality oxide mineralization is still being encountered at shallow depths. Soil surveys starting in mid May will connect with and extend the older soil survey to the NE and NW and will include 1000 new samples. An extensive geophysical survey will also begin, including 5.5 line kilometers of induced polarization data and 600 new gravity stations. This will complement the existing helicopter survey that includes magnetic, radiometric and electro-magnetic data.
Infill drilling will proceed such that sections of drill holes will be obtained every 50 meters along strike on the NE trending Main zone. Exploration drilling will not only continue to move along strike to the NE and SW but also extend to the NW. Only preliminary drilling has been done on the parallel trending West zone and a new drill road is planned to cut the NE extension of this zone. There are also many step-out exploration targets and this year should see the beginning of an aggressive program to discover new mineralization beyond the known surface soil anomaly.
Under the terms of the exploration earn-in agreement, Fronteer is the operator and will vest at a 51% joint venture interest once they spend $5 million within a 5 year period. Fronteer will likely exceed that number later this year. Fronteer may then elect to earn an additional 14% interest by advancing Long Canyon through feasibility.
The company's address is 940 Matley Lane, Suite 17, Reno, NV 89502, 775-337-1545, fax: 775-337-1542, email: [email protected].