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Mountain Lake
Resources Inc. (TSX-V: MOA) (“Mountain Lake” or the
“Company”) is
pleased to announce that line cutting and soil sampling is underway on the
Little River Property to identify further antimony and gold drill targets for
the 2011 drill campaign.
Antimony bearing veins (stibnite) have
now been identified intermittently over a 20 kilometre (km) strike length on
the Property, with several high grade, drill ready antimony targets located
in the Southern Zone (SW) and LePouvoir Vein Zone (NE) areas of the
Property. The Company had expected to have started drilling these
targets last month, but winter weather conditions and drill crew availability
has postponed the start of drilling until the later part of this month.
The Little River Property was optioned
from local prospectors in 2008 and Mountain Lake is on plan to earn a 100%
interest in the Property next year. While Little River is still a
discovery stage project, there is precedent in Newfoundland of a high grade
antimony vein discovery evolving into one of the largest antimony deposits in
the world—Beaver Brook, which is currently the only primary antimony
mine in North America. Mountain Lake President Gary Woods stated previously
in a news release of December 21, 2010, “The intervals of high grade antimony [at Little River] are
significant and are typical of the material being mined at the Beaver Brook
Antimony Mine situated 80 km to the north of the Le Pouvoir Vein Zone.”
In October of 2009, Hunan Nonferrous
Metals Corporation (HNC), the largest antimony company in the world, acquired
100% of the Beaver Brook Antimony Mine. Subsequently at the end of
2009, China Minmetals Corp., China’s biggest metal trader, acquired a
51% equity stake of Hunan Holdings Group (HNG), the state-owned parent of
HNC. The state-owned Assets and Supervision Administration Commission
of Hunan Province own the remaining 49% of HNG.
About
Antimony
Antimony can occur in its native form,
but is usually found in other minerals and most commonly in the mineral
stibnite. A silvery-white crystalline metal, antimony is used to increase
hardness and strength of metal alloys; and antimony and its compounds are
widely used in the production of flame-retardants, batteries, ammunition,
cable sheathing, glass, ceramics, paints and in the semiconductor
industry.
Like many of the rare earth elements
(REEs), antimony has been deemed as one of the “critical metals”
essential for economic development and national security by the United States
and the European Union. As with the REEs, China produces over 90% of
the world’s antimony supply and pricing continues to reach new highs in
2011 on growing supply concerns that are compounded by new environmental
standards being put in place that have affected all producers in China and
resulted in the closure of dozens of illegal antimony smelters in Hunan province.
MetalBulletin.com quoted the price for antimony yesterday at bid US$15,250 / ask
$15,750 per tonne, amid reports that Chinese sellers will not offer below
$15,500 per tonne. This is up over 50% since August 2010 and 250% since
April of 2009.
Gary Woods, P.Geo., is the Qualified
Person on the Little River Property, and has reviewed and verified the
contents of this news release.
About
Mountain Lake Resources Inc.
Mountain Lake Resources Inc. (TSX-V:
MOA) is a diversified junior exploration company, whose corporate strategy is
to build shareholder value through the exploration and development of
economically viable mineral properties. Mountain Lake’s current projects include: a 50% interest in the Valentine Lake gold property
(Newfoundland) under the joint venture with Marathon Gold Corp.; a 100% interest
in the Glover Island gold exploration property
(Newfoundland); an option to earn a 100% interest in the Little River
gold-antimony exploration property
(Newfoundland); a 100% interest in the Bobby’s Pond base metals property (Newfoundland); and a minority
(~6.4%) stake in Etruscan
Diamonds Ltd., an alluvial diamond
project (South Africa).
For more information visit: www.mountain-lake.com
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