VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 20, 2013) - Strategic Metals Ltd. (News - Market indicators) ("Strategic" or "the Company") is pleased to announce 2013 exploration plans for its Midas Touch Project and other wholly-owned properties located in Yukon Territory and northern British Columbia. Field work will include:
- Surface prospecting and mapping programs at the Midas Touch Project, designed to advance Carlin-style targets to the drill stage and make new discoveries. A priority will be the Nad property, where significant gold and pathfinder geochemical anomalies are located 400 m east along strike of the Venus Zone Carlin-style gold discovery made in late 2012 by Anthill Resources Ltd., with initial drill results of 9.76 g/t gold over 38.7 m; and
- Geochemical sampling, prospecting and mapping programs on multiple other properties, designed to follow-up and expand known mineralization and/or geochemical anomalies and define drill targets. Detailed exploration will be completed at the GK gold-copper porphyry property located in the Red Chris - Galore Creek porphyry district of northwestern BC, the Hopper copper-gold skarn/porphyry project in southwestern Yukon, and the Hy silver-lead-zinc skarn project in southeastern Yukon.
MIDAS TOUCH PROJECT:
The 2013 exploration program will include prospecting, geological mapping and infill soil geochemical surveying throughout the 1,200 sq km Midas Touch Project, situated within the Rackla Gold Belt, an emerging Carlin-style gold district where ATAC Resources Ltd. and Anthill Resources Ltd. have made several significant drill discoveries. Targets include:
The Nad property, located 400 m along strike from Anthill's new Venus gold discovery. Preliminary surface work at the Nad property has identified sizeable gold and pathfinder geochemical anomalies together with orpiment-realgar mineralization. The Nad soil geochemical anomaly is 1500 m long by 300 to 600 m wide and is associated with a favourable carbonate/siliciclastic unit that hosts the gold discovery on the adjacent Anthill property. The Nad property is considered to be a priority target for first-time drill testing.
The Crag East property is situated in overburden covered terrain 7 km to the south of ATAC's new Anubis discovery and 12 km to the southwest of its Osiris area, where extensive Carlin-style mineralization has been outlined at the Conrad, Osiris, Isis East, Isis, and Sunrise Zones. The Crag East property has a strong pathfinder geochemical signature of similar intensity and magnitude to the geochemical response that marks ATAC's Anubis and Osiris areas. The largest soil anomalies occur in areas with low topographic relief and little bedrock exposure. Initial drilling at the Crag East property is broadly spaced and has intersected many features characteristic of Carlin-style gold deposits including abundant realgar and orpiment, favourable carbonate host rocks and alteration, and intense pathfinder signatures over thick intervals. Many geochemical anomalies at the Crag East property have not yet been followed up, including low-level gold anomalies which have proven to be important elsewhere in the Rackla Gold Belt.
At the Scarlet East property, where Strategic can earn a 60% interest from Rackla Metals Inc., preliminary surface work and drilling have identified favourable stratigraphy and structural zones coincident with gold and arsenic soil geochemical anomalies.
Strategic will also complete follow-up prospecting and detailed sampling at several other geochemical anomalies elsewhere within the Midas Touch Project. These targets include the Hag anomaly, situated 9 km to the southwest of its gold-bearing Trent Zone and the Staff anomaly, located 18 km to the west of ATAC's Tiger Zone.
OTHER WHOLLY-OWNED PROJECTS
Geochemical sampling, prospecting and mapping programs will be completed on multiple wholly-owned properties located throughout Yukon and northern British Columbia. These programs are designed to expand and evaluate known mineralization and/or geochemical anomalies and, where possible, define specific drill targets. Detailed exploration will be completed at:
The GK gold-copper porphyry property located in northwestern British Columbia within a belt of porphyry deposits that include the Red Chris, GJ and Galore Creek deposits and the new North Rok discovery of Colorado Resources Ltd. Exploration to date at the GK property has outlined four large and very strong gold-copper geochemical anomalies, the largest of which measures up to 1600 by 1000 m, with values of 200 to 6890 ppm copper and 50 to 6180 ppb gold. Only two drill holes have been completed on the property. They tested high-grade veins adjacent to a porphyry target and returned an intercept of 13.1 g/t gold and 6.05% copper over 0.74 m.
The Hopper copper-gold skarn and porphyry property located in southwestern Yukon. At the North Zone, highly anomalous copper geochemistry has been outlined over a 500 by 3800 m area along the western edge of the Hopper Pluton. Historical trenching of porphyry-style mineralization returned 0.52% copper over 45.72 m. Widely spaced shallow percussion drilling intersected up to 0.24% copper and 0.055 g/t gold over 39.62 m (entire length of hole) as well as 0.70% copper and 0.195 g/t gold over 10.66 m, with multiple holes bottoming in mineralization. Diamond drilling at the South Zone intersected a series of stacked skarn horizons and returned values to 1.94% copper and 0.87 g/t gold over 18.59 m as well as 0.22% copper and 1.76 g/t gold over 16.93 m. Large geochemically and geophysically anomalous areas remain to be drill tested on this road-accessible project.
The Hy silver-lead-zinc skarn property situated 85 km north of Teck Resources' Sa Dena Hes deposit in southeast Yukon. Exploration to date on this road-accessible project has outlined multiple mineralized showings. Select results from historical trenching include 370.3 g/t silver, 8.22% lead and 14.0% zinc over 3.20 m as well as 684.0 g/t silver, 11.0% lead and 9.30% zinc over 1.83 m.
About Strategic Metals Ltd.
Strategic is a pre-eminent explorer and claimholder in the Yukon, with an exceptional portfolio of more than 150 property and royalty interests. The 2013 exploration program is budgeted at $2,000,000, which includes a contingency for diamond drilling. The Company has a current cash position of more than $35 million and also owns marketable shares of other resource companies valued at $19 million. Major shareholdings include 9.1% of ATAC Resources Ltd., 19.9% of Silver Range Resources Ltd., 33.0% of Rockhaven Resources Ltd. and 7.7 % of Orefinders Resources Inc.
Technical information in this news release has been approved by Sarah Drechsler, P.Geo., a geological consultant to Strategic Metals and qualified person for the purposes of NI 43-101.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
W. Douglas Eaton, President and Chief Executive Officer
For further information concerning Strategic or its various exploration projects please visit our website at www.strategicmetalsltd.com.
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.
This news release may contain forward looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results that may prove to be inaccurate as a result of exploration and other risk factors beyond its control, and actual results may differ materially from the expected results.
