Altair Mobilizes Crew for Gravity Survey Prior to Drilling the Kosovo Zinc-Lead-Silver Project
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Feb 14, 2017) - Altair Resources Inc. ("Altair" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:AVX) (FRANKFURT:90A) (ISIN: CA02137W1014) (WKN: WKN A2ALMP) Mr. Harold (Roy) Shipes, President and CEO, announces that Altair has retained SJ Geophysics of Vancouver, BC, Canada to immediately begin a gravity survey to precede drilling under the 2017 exploration program scheduled to begin in March on its Invictus project, Mitrovica district, Kosovo.
The Canadian technical team, under the direction of Jordan Perk, will be assisted and supported in the field by Altair's current Kosovo technical team including Prof. Dr. Alaudin Kodra - Eng. Geologist and Selim Berisha, Geologist, Masters Technical Sciences (Geology) with additional support staff including Mustafa Havolli and Munir Havolli.
SJ Geophysics is now mobilizing its field crew to initiate this gravity survey. Drilling will commence immediately upon completion and interpretation of the gravity survey.
As discussed in an earlier release, numerous high-grade zinc and lead occurrences lie within a target zone measuring 500 metres by 300 m. In this area several surface trenches exhibit high grade zinc-lead mineralization zones running between 17 to 35 per cent zinc plus lead over 2 to 4 m widths within broader mineralized zones. These zones lie within a pronounced zinc and lead geochemical anomaly defined by earlier work. Also from earlier work, two zones of induced polarization response and one zone of self-potential response also lie within the target area generally coincident with the geochemical anomalies.
Gravity surveying is scheduled to test not only the above described target area in detail, but will also investigate, on a broader scale, the possibility of a large target within this belt of limestones and schists that hosts numerous rich surface showings and some historical underground workings. The overall target zone on the property extends over five kilometres in length and 200 to 300 m in width.
Gravity surveying using a gravity meter can measure variations in the gravitational attraction and thus define areas of greater mass within a target area. Dense metal-rich orebodies show up as positive gravity anomalies because of the high density of ore minerals sphalerite, smithsonite and galena in contrast with the surrounding host lithologies of carbonate and schist.
The gravity technique allows us to detect large masses of zinc ore such as smithsonite and sphalerite even though they are non-conductive in nature and not responsive to induced polarization or electromagnetic surveys.
One of the most notable successes of gravity surveying in mineral exploration is the Polaris discovery in the 1960s in carbonate rocks on Little Cornwallis Island in the Canadian Arctic as described by William C. Wonders (2003, pg. 233, in "Canada's Changing North"): "Cominco undertook a gravity survey over the surface showing and discovered one of the biggest gravity anomalies recorded in the history of Canadian mineral exploration. A several milligal anomaly was delineated, which upon drilling, turned out to be a massive body of high grade galena-sphalerite ore."
Altair's Invictus exploration project lies within the Crepulje property in the Mitrovica district of Kosovo, 17 kilometres due west of the city of Mitrovica. Altair holds a 9.82-square-kilometre exploration license within this historical zinc-, lead- and silver-producing region where metals have been produced since the Middle Ages.
It should be noted that there are no reserves or resources on the Altair property holding, nor can there be any assurance that any such resource or reserve will be established, and if established whether such resource or reserve will be economically recoverable.
The contents of this press release have been reviewed and approved by Dr. Stewart A Jackson, P.Geo, a technical adviser to the Company, a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.
To learn more about Altair, please visit http://altairresources.com.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,
Harold Shipes, President & CEO
Neither 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.