VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2017 / Pistol Bay Mining Inc. (TSXV: PST) (FSE: OQS2) ("Pistol Bay" or the "Company') is pleased to update the Company's plans for exploration of its properties in the base metal-rich Confederation Lake greenstone belt southeast of Red Lake, Ontario. The Confederation Lake project now includes six separate claim blocks with a total area of approximately 17,400 acres, over a 42-kilometre length of the belt.
Pistol Bay's review and compilation of the large data package received from AurCrest Gold Inc. (formerly Tribute Minerals Inc.) is ongoing and close to completion. Pistol Bay acquired four of its claim groups from AurCrest/Tribute. The data package includes records received by Tribute from Noranda Inc., from which Tribute acquired most of the property in 2003, and from BP-Selco, from which Noranda acquired the property in 1987. It includes records of approximately 850 historical diamond drill holes dating from 1962 to 2007.
Pistol Bay is developing a multi-disciplinary exploration program to explore the property. Charles Desjardins, CEO of Pistol Bay, stated, "the Confederation Lake project has experienced 50 years of exploration by well-funded companies using the best technologies that were available at the time. Exploring deeper using the latest geophysics is one obvious advantage that we have, but we must also use every other tool at our disposal. It's obviously a very well mineralized belt, and if we are smart, and if we try harder, we'll maximize our chances of making Canada's next base metal VMS discovery."
Geophysics: Geophysical survey, specifically electromagnetic ("EM") surveying, will still be the primary exploration tool. The whole belt has been surveyed by at least two different airborne EM systems including Dighem and INPUT, and large parts were also surveyed with GeoTEM in 1997. Also, selected areas that were considered prospective were covered with large-loop time-domain ground EM surveys (EM-37, Crone PEM) or Quantec's Titan-24 IP/MT hybrid survey.
Pistol Bay is planning to survey all its claims with VTEM™Plus, the latest version of Geotech Ltd.'s very successful VTEM™ helicopter-borne time-domain EM system. VTEM™ Plus has more power and better signal/noise discrimination than its predecessor systems, and is capable of detecting conductive zones at significantly greater depths than was possible with airborne EM systems that were available 20 years ago.
Rock Geochemistry: The data inherited from AurCrest includes a remarkable database of whole-rock chemical analyses that was compiled by Noranda. Surface and drill core samples were collected and analysed as part of Noranda's ambitious area-wide exploration program between 1987 and 2003. It appears that Noranda did not make a great deal of use of the data, perhaps because of changing priorities and budgets. Augmented by AurCrest's whole-rock analysis of selected drill core samples, the database contains major and trace element data for a remarkable 6,890 samples that cover a 60 kilometre length of the Confederation Lake greenstone belt.
The main uses of the whole-rock chemical data base are (1) defining areas of hydrothermal alteration that may be related to the VMS mineralizing process, (2) lithological mapping to assist in unravelling volcanic stratigraphy and (3) defining areas of background enrichment in zinc and/or copper.
Very preliminary plots of whole-rock chemical data have outlined five areas that appear to exhibit intense hydrothermal alteration. The largest of these covers a length of 3.5 kilometres.
Geology: Although most of the project area has been geologically mapped, the work was done by different mappers at different times with different levels of detail. There is room for substantial improvement in mapping detail and the reconstruction of the submarine volcanic history and the tectonic framework of the belt.
A limited amount of mapping on the Fredart claim group in the fall of 2016 revealed what appears to be part of the bounding fault of a collapse caldera, or one side of a graben. Further mapping planned for the summer of 2017 may be able to refine the interpretation, but either possibility has implications for VMS potential. Calderas (circular collapse structures) and grabens (elongated, trough-like collapse structures) can focus hydrothermal discharge sites along their bounding faults, and the depressions that they create in the sea floor can help to retain the discharged fluids and localize VMS mineral deposition.
Acquisitions: The fourth ingredient in Pistol Bay's exploration arsenal will comprise strategic property acquisitions, either by staking or by acquiring existing claims. The Company is in preliminary negotiations on four claim blocks with significant mineral occurrences and/or exploration targets.
Technical material in this news release has been prepared and/or reviewed and approved by Colin Bowdidge, Ph.D., P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.
About Pistol Bay Mining Inc.
Pistol Bay Mining Inc. is a diversified Junior Canadian Mineral Exploration Company with a focus on precious and base metal properties in North America. For additional information please contact Charles Desjardins - pistolbaymining@gmail.com - at Pistol Bay Mining Inc.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
Pistol Bay Mining Inc.
"Charles Desjardins"
Charles Desjardins,
President and Director
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.
Cautionary note:
This report contains forward looking statements. Resource estimates, unless specifically noted, are considered speculative. Any and all other resource or reserve estimates are historical in nature, and should not be relied upon. By their nature, forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on factors that will or may occur in the future. Actual results may vary depending upon exploration activities, industry production, commodity demand and pricing, currency exchange rates, and, but not limited to, general economic factors. Cautionary Note to US investors: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission specifically prohibits the use of certain terms, such as "reserves" unless such figures are based upon actual production or formation tests and can be shown to be economically and legally producible under existing economic and operating conditions.
SOURCE: Pistol Bay Mining Inc.
