Commander Resources Provides Corporate Update
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/03/10 -- Commander Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: CMD) ('Commander') provides this update to review the status of exploration and corporate activities carried out over the past season. Commander holds a broad portfolio of properties in Canada with exposure to multiple commodities including gold, copper, zinc, nickel and lead and is continuing its strategy of leveraging in order to advance the properties while minimizing costs to shareholders.
-- In 2010, an aggressive exploration program, funded by AngloGold Ashanti,
was successfully completed on the company's wholly owned Baffin Island
gold project in Nunavut.
-- Work has commenced on the Orion gold project (in Newfoundland) by
partner Maritime Resources Corp. This program is being funded by
Maritime Resources and will include 4,000 metres of diamond drilling.
-- After a recently completed deal on the Company's Nepisiguit base metals
project (in New Brunswick), Stratabound Minerals Corp. is set to
commence a drilling program this fall. (see Stratabound's news release
dated Nov. 2, 2010)
-- Strategic planning is underway to advance the company's copper
properties in Nunavut and the Yukon and in preparation for a potential
resurgence in the uranium market, its uranium holdings in southern
Newfoundland.
-- Commander will be reporting on the progress and drill results from both
the Orion project and the Nepisiquit property as they become available.
-- Commander is in good financial shape with approximately $1 million in
cash and a total of $1.6 million in working capital, not including the
investment in Maritime Resources Corp.
A brief summary is provided below of the Company's project portfolio.
Baffin Island Gold Project, Nunavut:
The 2010 exploration program at the Baffin Gold project was funded by AngloGold Ashanti under the terms of the $20 million option agreement signed with Commander in 2009. The Baffin Gold project consists of claims and licenses covering a 140 km strike length of Lower Proterozoic volcanics and sediments that are host to numerous prospective gold showings. Two major orogenic gold deposit settings are exhibited, iron formations, such as the giant Homestake mine, and arsenical sediments with rich quartz veins.
A drilling program consisting of 5,557 m of drilling in 32 holes was completed in 2010 at the Baffin Gold project at two prospects - Malrok and Kanosak. At Malrok, drilling targeted the extension of high grade gold mineralization hosted in sulphidized silicate iron formation initially defined in drill holes completed in 2004. The most significant drill results from this year's work were from holes 45, 47 and 58 drilled in the South Malrok area which returned 7.65 g/t Au over 3.24 m, 5.9 g/t Au over 2.87 m and 2.92 g/t Au over 7.69 m respectively. This mineralized zone is open down-plunge to the east.
The Kanosak prospect is a large area about 4 km X 300 m in size characterized by abundant, strongly mineralized, quartz veins that intrude locally sulphidized and altered metasedimentary rocks. The 2010 drilling campaign, consisting of 13 widely spaced shallow holes over a 2.5 km strike length, represented the first drill hole testing of this prospect. Two parallel bedded units of arsenopyrite/gold enrichment were defined, some of the better assays were 2.26 g/t over 9.39 m and 2.16 g/t over 4.21 m from holes 7 and 4 respectively. An IP survey was completed over the northern extension of the Kanosak trend, and a strong chargeability anomaly was defined along the eastern margin of the area surveyed. This area is untested by drilling, and is a priority for future work. This year's drilling has confirmed that a large gold bearing system is present over the entire strike length exceeding 2.5 km. Future work will be aimed at locating the areas of enrichment and defining targets in this area.
Other prospective gold zones ready for further evaluation are the Ridge Lake and Durette prospects. Drilling at Ridge Lake in 2005 and 2006 encountered significant gold intervals including 21.4 g/t Au over 4.24 m and 10.2 g/t Au over 4.5 metres. At Durette, narrower zones of high grade gold were encountered in a very thick, altered iron formation which continues into a shallow lake. Detailed geophysics is planned in both areas prior to further drill testing.
Regional prospecting continued to discover new occurrences of gold mineralization in the Kanosak area and beyond. A total of 27 rock samples from mostly outcrop yielded greater than 1 g/t Au, and 6 samples reported greater than 5 g/t Au. The best sample was taken from the Kanosak area, and returned 226.3 g/t Au.
Commander is currently compiling data from the 2010 program, and will be proposing a 2011 exploration program and budget to AngloGold for approval before year-end.
Orion Gold Project (Green Bay Property), Newfoundland:
In October, 2010 Commander sold 50% of its Green Bay property near Springdale, Newfoundland, to BMB Capital Corp. to be used as the qualifying transaction for a new TSX-Venture Exchange listing. In exchange, Commander received 12 million shares of the new company. A flow-through financing completed by BMB in September raised $750,000 and the new company began trading on October 7 as Maritime Resources (TSX VENTURE: MAE). MAE has 22 million shares outstanding of which Commander owns about 52%. Work has started on the property, including IP, EM and Magnetic Surveys. A 4,000 metre drill program will start in November, 2010. Orion currently contains an Inferred Resource of 119,000 ounces of gold contained within 710,285 tonnes grading 5.227 g/t Au as defined in a 43-101 Technical Report published in July, 2010, available on Sedar. The mineralized zone is open in all directions and the intent of the initial drill program is to expand this resource. The deposit is located in an area of good infrastructure, adjacent to the recently mined Hammerdown deposit and can be worked year round.
Storm Copper Property, Nunavut:
This 100% owned high-grade copper property is situated close to the Northwest Passage shipping lanes in Nunavut. Previous drilling in the 1990's by Teck Resources Ltd. encountered up to 53 metre core intervals grading 5.05% copper in widespread breccia zones. Four separate copper prospects were discovered over a 7 km x 2 km area, the largest of which is 400 metres by 1,000 metres, open in all directions. As copper is held within favourable mineralogy, a very high grade concentrate can be prepared here. The copper mineralization is located on a 20 km regional structure that at its western end hosts a small zinc deposit that is also covered by Commander's holdings. The majority of the regional structure is un-explored.
Olympic-Rob Copper-Uranium-Gold Property, Yukon:
Extensive hematite rich breccia zones host copper and copper-uranium mineralization on this 100% owned property. Located 90 km NW of Dawson City, Yukon, it is easily accessible from the Dempster Highway over extensive gravel outwash. Recent project work at Olympic has outlined two large blind magnetic bodies lying 200 to 400 metres below surface which have not been tested. Large copper gossans lie above one of these targets. Pre-mineral dioritic intrusives are associated within and outside the large breccia body.
On the Rob claims, uranium values up to one percent U3O8 accompany the copper breccia zones on surface prospecting samples. Recent drilling intersected wide zones of copper mineralization including 4.6 metres grading 1.3% Cu with anomalous cobalt, uranium and gold values. Olympic and Rob prospects represent excellent Cu-U targets similar to Olympic Dam in Australia.
Labrador Nickel Properties:
Commander holds the Sarah, Sally and Sandy properties in the South Voisey's Bay area of Labrador. The Sarah property is held jointly with Donner Metals (48.5% CMD) and the other properties are owned 100% by Commander. A recent review of geophysical data in the area has indicated that an extremely strong UTEM-EM anomaly exists on the boundary of the company's Sandy property, trending off onto adjacent land. Commander staked new claims in September, 2010 in order to encompass the entire anomaly. A short EM survey is planned to determine the full magnitude of the conductor, and to bring the property to drill-ready status for potential partners.
Hermitage Uranium Property, Newfoundland:
The company acquired a large land position in southern Newfoundland in 2005. Seven known uranium prospects in the Blue Hills area were optioned from local prospectors and a large land package was staked to cover potential host rocks over a 100 kilometre strike extent. Airborne radiometric surveying followed by prospecting resulted in the discovery of two more clusters of uranium showings 40 km east and 35 km west of Blue Hills. A total of 27 uranium prospects are now held by the Company in the Blue Hills, White Bear River and Strickland areas. Uranium mineralization is hosted in five different geological settings, including sandstone and unconformity hosts. Exploration work was completed in 2006 and 2007 with encouraging results, but with the collapse of uranium prices in recent years no further work has been done. With the current revival of uranium prices outside interest in our properties is returning as well. The properties are now being reviewed to determine the best options available.
B.C. Porphyry Cu-Au Properties:
Commander Resources owns 100% of five claim groups in the Central Omineca porphyry copper-gold belt of BC. These properties are located 100 km south of the producing Kemess Cu-Au mine and 10-15 km west of the all weather Omineca mining road. High voltage power lines run parallel to this road. Logging roads provide access through parts of the area. Various J.V. partners have worked these properties on behalf of Commander in the past.
Three of the properties have a limited number of drill holes with lengthy intervals of low grade copper-gold encountered in Takla volcanics intruded by small alkalic stocks of granodiorite to syenite composition. Strong potassic, carbonate and silica alteration accompany copper-gold-pyrite mineralization on these properties. At the Abe property, this mineralization is coincident with a large alteration colour anomaly. On the Aten property, very high grade copper grab samples (2-12% Cu) in altered syenites have not yet been tested by drilling. Steep cliffs and talus slopes at Aten make geophysical surveying difficult. Co-incident geochemical-geophysical targets at the Pal property have not been drill tested. With strongly increasing copper and gold prices, these porphyry projects represent a strategic series of targets ready for partnership with junior or senior exploration companies. Teck Corp. has been exploring various claim groups 20 km to the south while Xstrata has been working in this belt to the north.
Nepisiguit Base Metals Project, New Brunswick:
In August 2010, Commander optioned the Nepisiguit property to Stratabound Minerals for shares of Stratabound and work commitments. Stratabound can earn an initial 60% interest in the property as detailed in the News Release dated July 29, 2010. Stratabound holds properties adjacent to the Nepisiguit property and has recently commenced drilling on Commander's property. The first drill target being tested is the Stewart Copper zone where drilling by CMD encountered wide intervals of strong copper mineralization. Intersections up to 25 metres grading 1.1% Cu and 4.5 metres grading 2.5% Cu; with significant cobalt values, were encountered in the previous drilling. The Stewart Zone is located about 1.5 km north of Stratabound's CNE Copper zone. The Nepisiquit Property also hosts widespread zinc-lead-silver mineralization just north of Stratabound's recently announced high grade base metal drill intersections on their CNE property.
Sabin VMS, Northern Ontario:
This is a classic VMS-Base-Precious metals property located near the northern end of the prolific Sturgeon Lake Greenstone Belt in Northern Ontario, which hosts the high grade, precious metals enriched Mattabi and Lyon Lake VMS deposits. The claims cover a small copper resource in a highly altered and mineralized sequence of felsic volcanics as well as a number of other prospects. Two of these are large copper-zinc-silver geochemical/geophysical targets which have never been tested and are near drill ready. The last drill program intersected a blind gold bearing vein, indicating potential for gold which has not previously been an exploration target in this highly deformed greenstone belt. A modest geochemical and IP program would advance this property to drill ready status.
The property has an excellent location at the intersection of two major highways and is situated only eight kilometres from the CN mainline railroad station of Savant Lake. This property can be worked year round.
Financial Position:
The company remains well funded with approximately $1 million in the treasury. The company intends to continue its strategy of seeking partners to jointly work on and progress development of the property portfolio. An efficient work program on the Baffin property in 2011 will be facilitated by the camp already established and adequate fuel and supplies placed in this year's sea-lift.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors,
Eric Norton, President & CEO
Shares Issued: 90,942,516
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this document.
Contacts:
Commander Resources Ltd.
Cathy DiVito
Investor Relations
(604) 484-7111 or Toll-free: 1-800-667-7866
info@commanderresources.com
www.commanderresources.com
