Century Iron Mines Corporation announced a large taconite iron discovery on its 100-percent owned Rainy Lake property, part of the Sunny Lake project 85 kilometres north of Schefferville, Quebec.
The Sunny Lake project consists of two properties, Rainy Lake and Lac Le Fer with the company reporting Tuesday the second group of assay results from the project in 2011.
The 2011 drilling program comprised 6,300 metres of diamond drilling at Rainy Lake. Highlights included 318.2 metres of taconite iron mineralization from 5.4 metres depth grading 29.5% total iron in hole RL-11-0401.
Drill hole RL-11-0004 also intersected 272.4 metres of taconite iron mineralization from 13.0 metres depth grading 30.4% total iron, while hole RL-11-0402 returned 264.8 metres of taconite iron mineralization from 10.4 metres depth grading 31.0% total iron.
The new discovery zone, now named the Full Moon Prospect, has been tested by 31 diamond drill holes over a strike length of 6.5 kilometres, and a horizontal width of up to 2.8 kilometres.
Century Iron said the vertical thickness of the new zone increases to the east from 50 metres to 340 metres, and remains open along strike. Preliminary metallurgical tests are in progress, and drilling at the Sunny Lake project will resume this spring.
Taconite has been mined in North America for a number of decades as its constancy of ore characteristics on a very large scale has been an important source of iron supply for the US steel market for many years.
The finer grain size of taconite requires less energy costs for grinding compared with other coarser grain iron ores, and is used for making iron ore pellets.
Ms Sandy Chim president and CEO said "We are excited about this new discovery of the Full Moon at the Sunny Lake Project, which has tremendous tonnage potential for a taconite iron deposit."
She said that "So far, from over 6,000 meters of drilling which gives us a good understanding of the initial 5 sections covering some 7 kilometers of strike. The grades and the geometry are looking very good.”
She added that "The usual Sokoman Iron Formation known in the Labrador Trough iron ore camp has a thickness of 80 to 120 meters. However, Full Moon demonstrates so far two to three times of this normal thickness making its potential value higher."
Indeed, the company said the discovery crystalizes its strategy of positioning itself toward becoming a large iron ore producer for the China market, with the commitment of capital from strategic partners, WISCO International Resources and Minmetals Exploration & Development.
Ms Chim said "With the proximity to Schefferville and the existing operating infrastructure, Full Moon Project has the potential to be one of the first taconite projects in operation."
The Sunny Lake project comprises roughly 530 mining claims covering 25,692 hectares in the Labrador Trough region of North Eastern Quebec. The objective of the 2011 drilling program was to test the potential of taconite mineralization on a target previously outlined by mapping and an airborne magnetic data.
In 2012, Century Iron will be following up the Full Moon discovery by starting a definition diamond drilling program, to be followed by a resources calculation.
(Sourced from www.proactiveinvestors.com)
