Highlights:
Titan survey identifies a large (2.5 km by 800 m), mostly untested, easterly plunging chargeability anomaly associated with a sulphide-bearing zone within an extensive hydrothermal alteration system;
Soil survey delineated an 800 m long and up to 750 m wide gold anomaly over the portion of the Titan anomaly that extends to surface;
Soil data and previous drilling indicate that the sulphide-bearing zone contains anomalous Au, Cu, Mo and Ag ;
Airborne magnetic survey identifies a strong structure coincident with the known strike extent of the alteration system;
Reconnaissance mapping and prospecting is planned for May to firm up drill targets;
Drill hole planning is ongoing for a summer start-up
VANCOUVER, May 9 /PRNewswire/ – TerraX Minerals Inc. (TSXV: TXR) (Frankfurt: TX0) has received results from Titan IP, soil geochemistry, and airborne magnetic surveys conducted earlier in 2011 on its wholly-owned Stewart gold-copper property in Newfoundland. The property features an east-northeast striking, 6 km long by up to 1.4 km wide epithermal to porphyry style alteration zone with extensive low-grade gold-copper mineralization of which less than 15% has been drill and trench tested. Quantec Geosciences completed Titan 24 ground geophysics (deep penetration IP) across 2.5 km of strike length on the 6 km long alteration zone. Three separate chargeability anomalies were identified, collectively defining a zone of anomalous chargeability which spans the entire length of the survey area (2.5 km).
One Titan 24 chargeability anomaly intersects the surface in the western portion of the surveyed area where the previous shallow drilling and trenching is coincident with the anomaly. Here the anomaly is shallow, restricted to 250 m of dip length (possibly has had a portion removed by erosion). A much larger buried zone of mineralization is potentially indicated by a significantly thicker and longer strike length anomaly of similar amplitude that is concealed by sulphide-poor altered rocks as it plunges to the northeast. The maximum width of the larger anomaly is 800 m and its vertical extent reaches more than 500 m, plunging deeper towards the northeast. The defined anomalous chargeability is open along strike to the southwest and northeast. Maps showing the results of the Titan 24 IP survey are available on our web site at www.terraxminerals.com.
As part of Terrax’s exploration strategy for defining potential drill targets, 609 soil samples were collected in January/February over an area similar to the area surveyed by Titan and over the Forty Creek area. Gold values from this survey ranged from below detection to 334 ppb, with 54 of the samples containing >20 ppb gold. Data was combined with results from the 39 orientation soil samples collected in 2010 and the combined data defines a gold anomaly (>20 ppb Au) 800 m long and up to 750 m wide, open to the southwest, where the alteration zone is covered by a lake. The gold anomaly is mostly coincident with a coherent but more areally restricted copper anomaly and a diffuse molybdenum anomaly as defined by the ninety percentile values of both latter elements. All three elemental anomalies, particularly copper, are strongly coincident with the near-surface chargeability anomaly. In addition, TerraX discovered the Forty Creek showing (grab sample of 59 g/t Au and 2290 g/t Ag – see news release of December 20, 2010) 1.4 km to the northeast of the mapped alteration zone in 2010, further expanding the exploration area. The Forty Creek showing has a strong, three-line (450 m wide) arsenic anomaly associated with it.
An airborne magnetic survey was flown over the entire property by Geo Data Solutions Inc. The major geological contact on the property between granite in the north and volcanics in the bulk of the property is reflected in the magnetic signature – the volcanics having a higher and more complex magnetic response. The data shows a series of northeast structures offset by east-southeast structures, and importantly, a structural connection between the mapped alteration zone and the Forty Creek showing. One of these northeast structures is coincident with the known alteration system.
The interpretation from the work conducted early in 2011 is that the large hydrothermal system defined by surface mapping contains significant sulphides over a strike length of at least 3 km, and that the sulphide-bearing portion of the system plunges to the east. This ties in well with the soil geochemistry, which shows anomalous gold-copper-molybdenum at surface in the western part of the alteration system, with the anomalies diminishing to the east. The implication is that metal anomalism plunges to the east, coincident with sulphide concentration. This theory is corroborated by the limited historical drilling, which tested the upper portions of a shallow chargeability zone and returned anomalous gold, copper and molybdenum. The majority of the hydrothermal system has not been tested by drilling. In the porphyry gold-copper scenario that is emerging at Stewart, the best grades need not correlate with the highest chargeability (likely abundant pyrite), but may be associated with low to moderate chargeability (lower sulphide content but dominated by chalcopyrite) adjacent to or underneath the strongest chargeability. Multiple drill targets are evident from this line of thinking. Joe Campbell, president of TerraX states, “Our initial target type for the Stewart property was for a mineralized system similar to Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, and the IP anomalies we’ve defined exceed, both in size and intensity, our most optimistic expectations. We are proceeding as quickly as possible to drill test these exciting targets.”
The high grade Forty Creek showing represents a second target on the property. Soil sampling has identified an arsenic anomaly proximal to the showing, and the airborne magnetic survey has shown a structural connection between Forty Creek and the main alteration zone.
Additional fieldwork will take place on the property in May. The objectives will be to conduct additional prospecting in the Forty Creek area and on structures deduced from the new magnetic data; conduct a thorough structural evaluation of the central part of the property; obtain additional geological information over the main alteration zone to understand its relationship to the Forty Creek area; and firm up drill targets apparent from the geophysical information. Following this work a campaign of deep drilling on the property is scheduled for mid-year.
For more information on TerraX’s properties, please visit our website at www.terraxminerals.com.
The technical information contained in this news release has been verified by Dr. Tom Setterfield, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person as defined in “National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties.”
About TerraX Minerals
TerraX Minerals Inc. is one of the major landholders of prospective ground in the burgeoning Marmion Batholith gold district near Atikokan, Ontario, host to Osisko Mining Corporation’s (TSX:OSK) Hammond Reef gold deposit which contains a National Instrument 43-101-compliant inferred resource of 259.4 million tonnes at 0.8 grams per tonne Au (approximately 6.7 million ounces of gold). The Brett Resources Technical Report on this deposit is available on SEDAR. TerraX is actively exploring three wholly-owned gold exploration projects, the Sunbeam-Pettigrew, Blackfly and Central Canada properties, all of which are located within 20 km of the town of Atikokan, 180 km west of Thunder Bay, and are within 19 km of the Hammond Reef gold deposit.
The Stewart property is comprised of 242 claims totaling 60.5 sq. km, located 30 km north-northeast of the town of Marystown on the Burin Peninsula. The property is part of the Avalon terrane, a geologic structure which can be traced from eastern Newfoundland through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into New England, the Carolinas and northern Georgia. The Avalon terrane hosts several epithermal/porphyry gold-copper deposits, including the past-producing Hope Brook deposit, presently being explored by Castillian Resources Corp.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Joseph Campbell, P.Geo
President
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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