Re: New Areas of Interest
in response to
by
posted on
Mar 05, 2009 08:38AM
The Company has three main projects: a PGE project in Montana's Stillwater District; a copper project in California's historic Moonlight Copper Mining District; and a nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE project in Ferguson Lake, Nunavut.
Dear shareholder,
Thank you for your inquiry. The following response was provided by Starfield Resources management:
Starfield has spent a tremendous amount of money on the Ferguson Lake discovery. Last year’s program was designed to fill in holes in the resource model in an effort to upgrade additional resources from inferred to indicated. Resources are listed in 3 basic catagories: measured, indicated, and inferred, with measured having the highest confidence and inferred having the lowest confidence. Starfield was able to complete its scoping study using both indicated and inferred resources, which at that time consisted of approximately 15 million tonnes of indicated resources and 29 million tonnes of inferred resources for a total of approximately 44 million tonnes of indicated and inferred resource. The scoping study showed that a little over 30 million tonnes of potential reserves were needed to make the project viable based on the estimates in the study. The next step in the development process is to conduct and complete a feasibility study. Feasibility studies are, as one might imagine, held to a much higher standard, wherein only measured and indicated resources can be used. Currently, we are building a model with the results from the additional drilling done on the Ferguson Lake massive sulphides during 2008. If we are successful in upgrading another 15 million tonnes from inferred to indicated with this model, then we will have sufficient indicated resources, 30 million tonnes, to move forward with our feasibility study.
We also drilled some very deep holes to the west of the west zone that showed excellent grades across large widths, which gives us encouragement that there is excellent potential for the resource to continue to the west along the intrusion. However, continuing to drill in that direction from the surface becomes very expensive. Not only do those 900 metre holes take much longer to drill, they get more expensive as you drill deeper.
In conclusion, the thought process is as follows:
1. If we have enough indicated resources, more than 30 million tonnes, to do a good feasibility on the Ferguson Lake discovery, then we don’t need to do any more drilling at Ferguson Lake right now.
2. The deeper holes are very expensive to drill from the surface; therefore, if they are not needed for the feasibility, why not complete them at a later date when we’re operating and they can be done from underground at a fraction of the surface cost.
3. We have some very large, high potential anomalies in other areas of our land position, so why not add to our knowledge base.
Last year’s exploration did have some very exciting results: we found a diamond in a till sample, which is very rare, and we found native gold in a till sample, which is also rare. Plus, both discoveries were down ice and near known geophysical targets, and absolutely warrant follow up. Y Lake was partially drilled to the south west; however, the main large geophysical target was not drilled because of the need to obtain drill permits. Those drill permits are now in hand. The excitement surrounding the main geophysical target at Y Lake is because it contains the confluence of east west structures and northeast south west structures just like Ferguson Lake. This gives us optimism that there is excellent potential to discover another Ferguson Lake massive sulphide deposit.
André J. Douchane, President & CEO
Starfield Resources Inc.