Lions Gate Metals Inc.: New Staking for Poplar Project
Lions Gate Metals Inc. announce that the Company has completed additional staking of 7,785 hectares around the Poplar Project and now has a total of 9,255 hectares surrounding both the Poplar and China Creek deposits. These claims were staked to cover the entire potential porphyry copper body in the region, as a classic copper porphyry ore body usually covers a large area with a fairly uniform distribution of sulphide mineralisation.
The advanced Poplar Copper-Moly Project is wholly-owned by Lions Gate Metals. Poplar is a large porphyry-style deposit, located 150 kilometres south of Smithers, British Columbia. Considerable exploration has been completed on Poplar, including 86 historical drill holes totalling 19,200 metres. The main Poplar zone has been historically estimated as 116 million tonnes, grading 0.32% copper, 0.1 grams per tonne gold and 0.0095% molybdenum.
The Poplar Project is in an area that has seen a great deal of successful mineral exploration. Imperial Metal’s Huckleberry mine, Placer Dome’s former Equity/Sam Goosly mine and Terrane Metals’ Berg property are all located in this region. It is also in an area with excellent infrastructure and is considered mining-friendly.
In 2005, 15 holes were drilled by Lions Gate Metals’ predecessor. These holes confirmed the historical data and uncovered high-grade zones within Poplar as well as the nearby China Creek prospect. Lions Gate Metals will be working towards corroborating and extending the work done by Placer Dome and Utah Mines with the knowledge that there is a resource in the ground. The earlier work by Utah Mines, Placer Dome and a number of project consultants is in the process of being digitized. This digital model will allow us to develop a valuable engineering and decision-making tool to confirm previous work, extend our knowledge of the Poplar mineralization and identify cost-effective drill targets. Further preparatory work in the near term at the Poplar Project will include archaeological and environmental baseline studies as well as geological mapping in preparation for the 2009 drill program.
Adjacent to the Poplar Zone, is another mineralized body called China Creek. Initial drilling on China Creek in 2005 returned encouraging results with the Induced Polarization footprint appearing to be larger than Poplar. The company is optimistic that China Creek will add substantially to the already-identified resources at Poplar.
President Mark Hewett states, “We expect copper consumption to continue to be strong over the next 5 to 10 years, and with the intensity of use of copper in China now three times that of the United States, and most mine locations in China being both low grade and hard to access, Poplar presents an opportunity for Lions Gate to be at the forefront of the global metals market.”
The Company also announces that it has entered into Management Services Agreements with Canadian Nexus Ventures Ltd. and Longview Capital Partners. The Management Services Agreements include direct costs covered by the agreements over a two year period, and are to be reviewed annually.
Lions Gate Metals Inc. is a Canadian based, junior resource company focused on the exploration, development, and acquisition of both advanced and early stage mineral projects throughout British Columbia.
