Foran Resources has been working the McIlvenna Bay property for sixteen years and continues to advance the property. They appear to be reasonably well funded and deliberate in their approach to working the property.
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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – June 30, 2014) – Foran Mining Corporation (TSX VENTURE:FOM) (“Foran” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce a summer exploration program (the “Program”) on the Company’s McIlvenna Bay, Balsam and Hanson properties (the “Properties”) surrounding its 100% owned McIlvenna Bay deposit (“McIlvenna Bay” or the “Deposit”) is underway. The Program will include geological mapping and sampling of outcrop and drill core for lithogeochemical analysis and interpretation.
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Northern Saskatchewan receives a lot of attention for its high grade uranium deposits in the Athabasca basin, but that’s not all it has to offer. The region hosts one operating gold mine (the Seabee Mine by Claude Resources) and several exploration projects including Foran’s McIlvenna Bay VMS base metal deposit. Foran Mining acquired the McIlvenna Bay project in 1998 and this release describes part of their ongoing efforts to advance the project.
The company compares the McIlvenna deposit to two of Hudbay’s prolific VMS camps located to the east in Manitoba, Canada. The Flin Flon (5.7 Million tonnes of 1.34% copper, 4.24% zinc, 1.79 g/t gold, 24.69 g/t silver ) and Snow Lake (11.34 million tonnes 0.68% copper, 7.81% zinc, 1.56 g/t gold, 23.77 g/t silver) camps are the largest VMS deposits within the Flin Flon greenstone belt. The McIlvenna deposit has an indicated resource of 13.9 million tonnes of 1.28% copper, 2.67% zinc, 0.49 g/t gold and 17 g/t silver. Based on Foran’s resource assessment this comparison appears reasonable.[/box]
The primary objectives of the Program are to better define the stratigraphy most prospective for volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) mineralization north and south of the Deposit and to identify local hydrothermal alteration zones associated with VMS mineralization. Ongoing exploration on the Properties is focused on the discovery and delineation of satellite VMS deposits around McIlvenna Bay, similar to the VMS camps in nearby Flin Flon and Snow Lake.
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]The company is looking to better understand the “stratigraphy” of areas north and south of the deposit. Statigraphy is the study of rock layers and understanding how they relate to one another. VMS deposits are not structurally hosted but rather the ore minerals are deposited in layers as metal bearing fluids erupt from active volcanoes at the bottom of the seafloor. Over time this process creates large “beds” of metal-rich sulfide minerals, volcanic ash and other material blown out of the volcano. Geologic studies help identify which rocks on a property relate to each other and if they have the potential to host economic mineralization.[/box]
Key targets in the Program include the Thunder Zone, Target A and the Hanson Lake area. At the Thunder Zone, located seven kilometres southeast of the Deposit on the Balsam property, drilling in 2013 encountered high-grade copper VMS mineralization of 4.1% Cu and 0.43 g/t Au, and 27 g/t Ag over 3.66m (see the Foran news release dated April 8, 2013). Work in the Program at the Thunder Zone will focus on follow-up of lithogeochemical studies conducted in 2013. At Target A, located two kilometres southeast of McIlvenna Bay, borehole electromagnetic surveys conducted in early 2014 confirmed the presence of a strong conductor at depth. Detailed sampling of 2014 drill core from this area is aimed at better defining the lithogeochemistry, chemostratigraphy and alteration character of Target A. North of the Deposit, the Hanson Lake area hosts several VMS occurrences and the past producing Hanson Lake Mine. Work in the Program will build on historic lithogeochemical exploration conducted by Cameco in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s aimed at the identification of prospective geological belts in the Hanson Lake area.
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]The company drilled two holes in 2014 on Target A and although the stratigraphy appears consistent with the rocks that host the McIlvenna deposit, no significant assay results were returned. The company is resampling drill core to get a better idea of the geology. [/box]
About Foran Mining
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Foran Mining has been working the McIlvenna Bay property for sixteen years and continues to advance the property. They appear to be reasonably well funded and deliberate in their approach to working the property.
Foran Resources is trading at $0.165 as of writing, close to it’s 52-week low of $0.14. The company has $4.4 million in the bank.[/box]
Foran is a diversified exploration and development company with projects in the Flin Flon Mining Belt. McIlvenna Bay, the Company’s flagship deposit, is located in east-central Saskatchewan, 65 kilometres west of Flin Flon, Manitoba, is one of the largest undeveloped VMS deposits in Canada.
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