MONTREAL, Jan. 19 /CNW Telbec/ - Amex Exploration Inc. (AMX: TSX-V) is pleased to announce the results of a first phase of drilling on the Great Plains high grade base metal massive sulfide showing located in the eastern portion of its 100% owned Normetal property, in the Abitibi region of Quebec, Canada. This program was executed in December 2006 and consisted of three diamond drill holes totaling 1,091 meters.
The Great Plains showing was discovered from surface prospecting and follow-up drilling during the 1974-75 campaign by Great Plains Exploration inc. This showing is located just north of the stratigraphic horizon hosting the Normetal mine, more precisely in the lower member of the Normetal Formation consisting of a sequence of intermediate lavas. The intercepts of massive sulfides cut by drilling are situated at the interface between a mafic volcanic unit and a felsic tuffaceous unit. From this 1974-75 campaign, many mineralized intersections with significant values were reported including the following best results:
DDH No. Length Cu Zn Ag
(m) % % gpt
GP-01 2.13 7.96 2.66 89
GP-03 1.52 2.64 0.81 32.6
GP-04 1.65 5.83 0.07 4.5
In the mid 90's, Falconbridge optioned the property and executed some
additional holes at depth to test potential extensions, but without too much
success. However, down hole geophysical surveys, also carried out by
Falconbridge, have detected off hole anomalies indicating the presence of a
conductor at depth and at about 150 meters to the east. More recently, an
airborne MegaTem survey also detected and confirmed the same conductor.
The objective of the company's first drilling program recently completed
was to verify the untested off hole conductor, located at a depth of
250 meters, with three drill holes spaced at a 70 meter interval. Although
this limited phase of drilling did not intersect important massive sulfide
mineralization, it returned significant geological, geochemical and
geophysical information that seem to indicate the presence of significant
polymetallic massive sulfide mineralization.
Indeed, the additional down hole InfiniTEM geophysical survey done in
conjunction with the three executed drill holes seem to indicate that they
passed above and just missed the source of a strong off hole conductor by a
distance of 60 to just 10 meters. Moreover, the off hole anomalies in two of
the three drill holes coincide with the presence at the same depth of an
exhalative mineralized chert that contained significant amount of pyrite,
chalcopyrite sphalerite and galena. In addition, directly under this chert
unit, which indicates a hiatus period during the volcanic episode that may
have allowed sulfide deposition and accumulation, lays a mostly copper rich
sulfide stockwork that may be related to a massive sulfide volcanogenic
mineralizing event. Here are the best values obtained from this first phase of
drilling:
DDH No. Length Cu Zn Pb Ag
(m) % % % gpt
GP2006-01 0.43(x) 0.196 lv lv lv
GP2006-02 0.82(^) 0.362 1.79 0.231 11.0
0.48(^) 0.052 0.235 0.076 2.6
0.62(x) 0.439 lv lv lv
GP2006-03 0.30(x) 0.891 0.324 0.065 5.1
1.01(x) 0.523 lv lv lv
0.40(^) 0.300 lv lv 1.8
0.37(x) 0.614 lv lv 4.7
N.B.: (x): stockwork in volcanic unit
(^): mineralized chert
lv : low value
Amex management is very pleased with these first sets of results. They provide a strong indication of the existence of a volcanogenic mineralizing event that may have formed a massive sulfide body still to be drilled as indicated by the strong off hole InfiniTem anomalies. The latter could be located just deeper and in lateral extension with the newly discovered mineralized chert exhalative unit. Even though no massive mineralization has yet been intercepted, the information collected during this first phase will greatly help the preparation of the next coming follow-up drilling program to be announced shortly.
This press release has been prepared by Jacques Trottier, President of Amex Exploration inc. Pierre O'Dowd has supervised the drill campaign as Qualified Person in accordance with 43-101 regulation. Diamond drill core samples were split with a diamond saw at the company's core shack located in Normetal and half of the samples were sent to the Laboratory. Geochemical analyses were performed by Expert Laboratory of Rouyn-Noranda. AAT was used for the base metal and silver content and FA for the gold content. InfiniTEM down hole survey was executed and interpreted by Abitibi Geophysics of Val d'Or. Standard QAQC were performed to ensure quality of the collected data.
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