Canadian Platinum Acquires Porphyry Copper Project
posted on
Jun 04, 2015 12:30PM
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(via Thenewswire.ca)
June 4th, 2015 / TheNewswire / Saskatoon, SK - Canadian Platinum Corp. ("CPC" or the "Company"-TSXV:CPC) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a 100% working interest in the Copper Hill porphyry copper project in Nevada, USA.
Under the terms of the agreement with a private US corporation, the Company can purchase a 100% working interest in the property, subject to a 3% Net Smelter Return, by making deferred payments over a three year period totaling $100,000.
The project area is located 65 km south of Las Vegas, NV near the historic mining town of Searchlight. The property comprises 221 contiguous unpatented lode claims covering 1,821 hectares. The area has excellent infrastructure with year-round access from a paved highway. Power lines cross the property, and rail lines are in close proximity.
Technical descriptions, historic information, comments and conclusions in this news release are taken from the report "Independent Technical Report on the Copper Hill Property, Clark County, Nevada, USA" prepared by Pioneer Exploration Consultants Ltd. and dated September 10, 2014 (the "Pioneer report"). This report is compliant with National Instrument 43-101, Companion Policy 43-101CP, and Form 43-101F1.
Gold and base metal mining in the Searchlight area date back to at least 1897. On the Copper Hill property, there are at least 58 historic mine shafts, adits, winzes and trenches. Most of these historic workings have now been closed off and there is no longer any information available on production from the workings.
More recent activity in the project area commenced in 1978 with a predecessor company to Homestake Mining Company. Their reconnaissance work, while focused on gold, revealed significant alteration associated with both gold and copper mineralization. A number of short (averaging 100m), vertical holes were completed on the property using a rotary/air hammer drill. One of the holes, drilled exclusively in a quartz-alunite breccia, bottomed in 32m of 0.13% copper, with copper values increasing at depth. The bottom 10m of the hole averaged 0.17% copper. Copper is associated with increased potassic alteration. Other drill holes, with drill logs but no assays available, encountered strong to intense quartz-alunite mineralization throughout, along with patchy selenite alteration and increasing potassic alteration and pyrite mineralization downhole.
Surface rock chip samples taken in 1979 show a broad enrichment for gold and copper in the northern project area, likely due to variable degrees of hydrothermal alteration.
Between 2005 and 2008, extensive surface exploration, including a ground magnetometer survey, a mobile metal ion ("MMI") survey and geological mapping was completed over the property. The MMI survey identified two target areas. The first an extensive (6km X 1.5km) area of highly anomalous gold concentrations associated with significant silver, cobalt, lead and zinc. This target area is defined by gold response ratios up to 6,165 times greater than background. The zone is spatially associated with historic mine workings and a current gold producer and is interpreted to be the geochemical signature of a major structural zone mineralized with gold and base metals. The second MMI target area is a well-defined, circular coincident copper, molybdenum, gold, silver, cobalt, rare earth element anomaly. The anomaly is geochemically and spatially distinct from the aforementioned gold anomaly. The elements comprising the circular anomaly and the correlation between copper and rare earth elements could be interpreted as having been derived from a magmatic hydrothermal regime such as a high-sulfidation epithermal and/or porphyry system.
Surface mapping on the property has identified intense alteration of rocks to silica and alunite-quartz +/- iron oxides. This alteration assemblage is interpreted as representing an advanced argillic alteration facies commonly found in epithermal and porphyry mineralization settings. The Pioneer report notes, "The large surface area and high intensity of alteration indicate that a robust and long lived hydrothermal system operated on the Copper Hill Property".
Corroborating the surface mapping, advanced satellite thermal emission and reflection radiometer imagery analyzed by the United States Geological Survey ("USGS") in 2006 confirms the widespread alteration on the property. Results of sulfur isotope work on the argillic alteration assemblages, also carried out by the USGS on the property, are consistent with a magmatic, hydrothermal origin and indicate the alteration has a hypogene origin. As is the case with the MMI results, this is suggestive of a high-sulfidation epithermal/porphyry mineralization setting for the property area.
The Pioneer report concludes "The Copper Hill Property has significant potential to host epithermal and/or porphyry style mineralization. Past exploration work has succeeded in identifying a major hydrothermal system and has highlighted a number of specific target areas for follow up. Significant additional exploration effort is clearly warranted."
Recommendations are for a two-phase exploration program. The first phase consisting of more prospecting plus an induced polarization ground geophysical survey to identify potential subsurface resistivity/chargeability anomalies corresponding to mineralization, and the second phase consisting of reverse circulation drilling to test targets identified in phase one. The ability of the Company to carry out the recommended exploration work is dependent on the availability of funding.
President Gary Billingsley comments, "This project is an exciting addition to the Company's project portfolio. It's located in an historic mining area with excellent infrastructure, and while the Mojave has its challenges, there is active mining and very large energy project development ongoing in the immediate area. The project falls within our broader strategy of looking for North American sources of metals important to green technologies, and copper is certainly one of those metals. Something that isn't well-known is that some porphyry systems can also contain significant amounts of platinum and palladium and we look forward to including that possibility in future work on the property."
About Canadian Platinum Corp.
Canadian Platinum Corp. is a Canadian-based resource exploration and development company with its head office in Saskatoon, SK. Now under new management, CPC is focused on the acquisition and development of a diversified portfolio of resource properties with an emphasis on platinum group elements, but including precious, base and strategic metals.
Gary L. Billingsley, CPA, CA, P.Eng., P.Geo., an officer and director of the Company and a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release.
CANADIAN PLATINUM TRADES ON THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE UNDER THE SYMBOL "CPC".
For more information, including news releases and technical reports providing more detail on the contents of this news release, please visit our website at www.canplats.ca.
For further information:
Canadian Platinum Corp.
Gary Billingsley, President
Phone: 306-242-7363
Facsimile: 306-992-0729
www.canplats.ca
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