Columbia Metals Work on the "New" Zone (1969-1972)
Columbia Metals prospected an area west of Taranis' 2007 summer exploration drilling in June 1969,and identified a gold-rich zone at surface called the "New" Zone ("NZ"). In a report dated 1972, Columbia Metals stated that the NZ was located 152 m south of the TFZ #1 portal, and mineralized grab samples from this area over a 34 m strike length yielded the following assays:
Columbia
Sample No. |
Gold (grams/ton) |
Silver (grams/tonne) |
Lead (%) |
Zinc (%) |
A |
6.22 |
2,575 |
28.3 |
2.5 |
B |
4.98 |
1,599 |
28.5 |
4.5 |
C |
3.42 |
1,313 |
15.0 |
0.8 |
Bulldozer excavations undertaken in December, 1970 exposed a strong fault zone striking NNW and dipping 60 degrees east, between 0.3 and 4.0 m thick, carrying variable amounts of pyrite, galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite. The zone was shown to have a strike length of 120 m, although the bulldozer was unable to expose the zone for any great distance due to thick cover. A single drill hole (DH-1) to a depth of 33 m in 1970 failed to test the showing since the hole was located too far to the east. Since none of the 2007 drill holes tested this area, it is difficult to say if this is a portion of the CMU, or a parallel body located further west of the CMU.
Switchback Zone
Another zone, 366 m south of the NZ was also discovered in 1970 in a road-cut on the Northern Light Crown Grant Claim. This area is 290 m south of the southernmost section of holes drilled in the GNZ in 2007 that intersected widespread mineralization (see News Release dated Nov 5, 2007), and 280 m north of the northernmost exposure of the BZ. Two chip samples taken by Columbia Metals in 1970 (the second one being a duplicate sample) taken across the zone assayed as follows:
Columbia
Sample No. |
Gold (grams/tonne) |
Silver (grams/tonne) |
Lead (%) |
Zinc (%) |
Width (m) |
Chip-1 |
38.48 |
508.89 |
1.55 |
0.70 |
1.50 |
Chip-2 (dup) |
37.32 |
918.49 |
Trace |
Nil |
1.50 |
Taranis conducted a widespread, limited surface prospecting and rock-sampling program in 2007, and re-sampled the zone. One grab sample was taken on the surface showing confirmed the presence of high-grade gold at the Switchback Zone ("SW").
Taranis Sample No. |
Gold (grams/tonne) |
Silver (grams/tonne) |
Copper (%) |
Lead (%) |
Zinc (%) |
308048 |
12.54 |
208.0 |
0.56 |
1.98 |
3.89 |
The SW is dominated by quartz-rich rock and corresponds to the gold-rich cherty exhalite portions of the CMU found at the TFZ.
John Gardiner, President and CEO of Taranis states "The ongoing assessment of Thor and part of the recent technical data acquired by Taranis, continues to reveal additional mineralized zones that apparently have never been tested by drilling. The SW is important since it lies in the CMU halfway between the Broadview and Great Northern Zone where Taranis has been able to document widespread precious and base metal mineralization suggesting that the CMU is mineralized in its entirety. Sampling by both Taranis and Columbia Metals in the SW has documented an extremely high gold content, and a high level of priority will be given to drilling this area in the summer of 2008."
Reliability of Data
While Taranis was not responsible for the collection of some of the data in this News Release, it does consider the data highly reliable and will be used to guide its exploration activities on the Thor project. Review of the data was completed by John Gardiner (P. Geol.) who is a Qualified Person under the meaning of Canadian National Instrument 43-101.
Analytical work completed by Taranis was completed by the AccurAssay Laboratories in Thunder Bay, Ontario, that is accredited to Standards Council of Canada, Scope of Accreditation 434 (conforms with requirements of CAN−P−4D (ISO/IEC 17025), and CAN−P−1579). Grab sampling undertaken in the surface exploration program was completed by taking representative samples from the surface, and accurately recording the location and hand specimen descriptions of the samples. Exploration activities on the Thor property were overseen by John Gardiner (P. Geol.) and Jim Helgeson (P. Geo.), both Qualified Persons under the meaning of Canadian National Instrument 43-101.