New Pacific acquires Copper-Zinc Polymetallic Properties in Sichuan Province, China
Feb 16, 2007
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (February 16, 2007) -- New Pacific Metals Corp. (TSX-V:NUX) is pleased to announce that its 75% Chinese subsidiary company, Sichuan Huaxi Mining Co. Ltd., has acquired a 100% interest in an Exploration License covering 56.67 square kilometres (the Dahe License) through an auction held by the Sichuan Government Authorities and has acquired an 80% interest in three exploration licenses totaling 9.87 square kilometres, and three iron ore mining licenses totaling 1.34 square kilometres (the Bingdihong Licenses) from a private local Chinese mining company ("Cheng Zong Mining") in Yanyuan County, the Sichuan Province. The 9.87 square kilometres exploration license areas are in the process of being converted into iron ore mining licenses. The purchase of the Bingdihong Licenses is subject to obtaining approvals from Chinese Government. Cheng Zong Mining will retain a 20% interest in the Bingdihong Licences and the right to mine 100% of the iron ore at surface. The total cash consideration for the acquisition of the seven licenses (referred to as the "Bingdihong Project") is RMB6.13 million Yuan (Cdn$0.93 million). New Pacific will have access to the roads Cheng Zong Mining has built to facilitate the surface mining of the iron ore and their shipment to various steel mills nearby.
The seven licenses area are located approximately 15 kilometres northwest of the Jinhe Permit area of the Kang Dian Project. The licenses cover parts of two major northeast-southwestern extending, strata-bound structural zones (one of which can be traced over 10 kms) developed along the contacts between marl-limestone and sandstone-siltstone-shale units within the marl-limestone unit of the Triassic time. These sedimentary units have also been intruded by layered gabbros.
The apparent features of the strata-bound structural zones are the outcrops of red gossan (or limonite, an iron oxide material) with malachite (an oxidized copper-bearing mineral) staining, which have been mined for iron ore on surface by Cheng Zong Mining. The typical mining widths along the strike of the strata-bound structural gossan zones vary from less than one metre to approximately five metres and depths of no more than ten metres below which, sulfide materials dominantly pyrite, chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite, and sphalerite exist. Weathering has caused extensive oxidation of primary sulfides resulting in the formation of iron ore and malachite at surface.
 Bingdihong Project Geological Map |
Table 1 presents assay results for samples taken from the northern part of #1 strata-bound structural Gossan Zone over a strike length of approximately two kilometres within the Bingdihong Exploration License areas. For the gossan (or surface samples), copper and zinc grades are relatively low due to weathering, whereas samples taken from underground sulfide zones yielded much higher grades for copper and zinc. As an example, a sulfide sample D34 taken from an underground tunnel (D34 tunnel) yielded grades of 2.63% copper (Cu), 0.46% lead (Pb), 4.66% zinc (Zn), 49.2 gram per tonne (g/t) silver (Ag) and 1.29 g/t gold (Au), with 22.97% total iron (TFe) over a 3.0 metre section.
Table 1
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Table 2 summarizes assay results for samples taken from middle and southern part of the #1 strata-bound structural Gossan Zone. Samples D10 to D11 were taken approximately 1.8 kilometres southwest of the D34 tunnel and samples D12 to CK06 were taken approximately 2 and 4.5 kilometres southwest of the D34 tunnel.
Table2
| Sample No. | Sample length(m) | Lithology |
Assay Results | |||||
| Cu% | Pb% | Zn% | Ag(g/t) | Au(g/t) | TFe % | |||
| D10 | 0.80 | Gossan | 0.06 | 0.00 | 0.02 | <5 | <0.5 | 45.95 |
| D11 | 1.3 | Sulfides | 1.0 | 0.00 | 8.64 | 153.2 | <0.5 | NA |
| D12 | 1.70 | Gossan | 1.34 | 0.00 | 0.37 | 23.2 | <0.5 | 35.9 |
| D13-1 | 2.00 | Gossan | 0.93 | 0.00 | 0.06 | 23.5 | <0.5 | 54.32 |
| D14-1 | 2.90 | Gossan | 0.22 | 0.00 | 0.26 | <5 | <0.5 | 37.55 |
| CK01 | 1.16 | Gossan | 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 1.9 | NA | NA |
| YD10 | 1.37 | Gossan | 0.12 | 0.01 | 0.05 | 18.0 | NA | NA |
| YD9 | 0.61 | Gossan | 0.15 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 1.6 | NA | NA |
| CK02 | 1.84 | Gossan | 1.14 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 4.3 | NA | NA |
| CK03 | 2.36 | Gossan | 0.21 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.1 | NA | NA |
| CK04 | 5.16 | Gossan | 0.29 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 8.2 | NA | NA |
| CK05 | 2.42 | Gossan | 0.31 | 0.01 | 0.18 | 2.6 | NA | NA |
| LT01 | 1.98 | Gossan | 0.91 | 0.02 | 0.19 | 20.2 | NA | NA |
| LT02 | 1.19 | Gossan | 0.14 | 0.01 | 0.05 | 3.4 | NA | NA |
| CK06 | 3.08 | Gossan | 0.21 | 0.01 | 0.02 | 8.6 | NA | NA |
One gossan sample taken from the #2 Strata-bound structural Gossan Zone grades 0.13% Cu, 0.01% Pb, 0.01% Zn, and 45.6% TFe.
Numerous samples were taken from other historical mining sites along the zones. Further, outside the Bingdihong License areas, samples of various grades of copper, zinc and silver have been assayed. Exploration Permits are being applied to include these outside prospective areas.
The surface mining of iron ore and the preliminary sampling have outlined the #1 strata-bound structural Gossan Zone to be over six kilometres long and to be open along strike. The base-metal sulfide mineralization beneath the Gossan Zones, rich in copper, zinc and silver, will be the main focus of exploration by New Pacific. An underground tunneling program will be carried out along the #1 and #2 strata-bound structural Gossan Zones at different locations and will then be further tested by drilling at depth.
Quality Control
The company has implemented a quality control program to ensure best practice in sampling and analysis of the tunnel and drill hole samples. All samples are shipped directly in security sealed bags to the two certified Laboratories, the Laboratory of Sichuan Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources in Chengdu and the Testing Centre of Yunnan Province Bureau of Non-ferrous Metals Geology for cross checking. Both laboratories are certified by China Bureau of Quality Control and Quality Assurance. In the laboratories, samples are dried, crushed, split, pulverized to 200 mesh, and then assay according the standardized ICP program. The Exploration work is carried out by Huaxi Mining Co. Ltd., a 75% subsidiary company of NUX and is directly supervised by Mr. Jigui Sun (BA, Geology), the General Manager of Huaxi and by Dr. Rui Feng, President of New Pacific.
For Further Information:
New Pacific Metals Corp.
Lou Duarte, Director
Cathy Fong, Vice President
Phone: +1 (604) 633-1368
Fax: +1 (604) 669-9387
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.newpacificmetals.com
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