Commander Plans 2011 Exploration Program
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 04/07/11 -- Commander Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: CMD) ('Commander Resources' or 'Commander') announces its plans for the upcoming 2011 field season. The Company will have a very active year with work occurring on up to six of its properties. The focus of the activities will be on Commander's copper and gold holdings, with a program being planned on the Storm copper project in Nunavut. Three of the programs will be funded by Commander's partners: AngloGold Ashanti at Baffin Island gold, Maritime Resources at the Orion gold project in Newfoundland, and Stratabound Resources at the Nepisiguit base metals project in New Brunswick. The Company plans to fund exploration programs at their 100% owned Storm copper property in Nunavut, the Olympic copper-gold property in Yukon, and Sabin base metals property in Ontario.
Storm Copper Property: The Storm copper project is being activated for the first time since being acquired in 2008. The property consists of four permits covering 208,286 acres (84,291 ha) and is located on the northwest corner of Somerset Island adjacent to the Northwest Passage. The target is a large tonnage, high-grade sedimentary (carbonate) hosted copper deposit.
Significantly, the main copper prospects are only 20 km from tidewater, with access to shipping routes to European and Asian markets. Exploration carried out by Teck Resources (formerly Cominco Ltd.) in the 1990's, including 66 diamond drill holes, indicated the presence of extensive high grade copper mineralization hosted in several near surface zones over a 7 km x 2 km structure cutting favourable Paleozoic carbonate rocks. The main controlling structure is 15 kilometres long. Drill intercepts from the previously discovered zones yielded results of up to 5.09% copper over 53 metres and 0.96% copper over 98 metres. The largest zone so far measures 1000 m x 400 m and is open to expansion. With the current and forecast price of copper now several times higher than in the 1990's, the type of target has shifted from small tonnage, high grade deposits to a large tonnage, mid-grade deposit.
The program for 2011 is intended to consist of remapping and sampling of the main showing areas, prospecting and sampling the main 15 km structural corridor for new copper occurrences and refining the geological targets for drill-testing. Particular attention will focus on alteration zones and identifying the main controlling structures through targeted ground geophysical and geochemical surveys. Historical drill core that has been stored on the property will be re-logged and sampled with the new target type in mind. An airborne EM-Mag survey may be flown after the completion of ground-work, and a sealift will be shipped with materials being placed to support an aggressive and efficient drill program in 2012.
Olympic Property: The Olympic copper-gold property is located north of Dawson City in the Yukon and has claims covering 4,431 hectares. The property covers a very large ( 10 km) hematite breccia complex with numerous copper and copper-gold showings which are similar in style and age to the Olympic Dam deposit in Australia. Two deep seated magnetic blocks have recently been identified which underlie the western portion of the breccia complex based on airborne EM-Mag surveys. Although some drilling has been completed at Olympic, these new targets have not been evaluated or tested.
The planned 2011 program will consist of geological mapping, prospecting and sampling as well as a 15 km IP survey. This work will define the targets for possible drill testing in 2012.
Sabin Property: The Sabin copper-zinc property is a large (114 claims) holding located in northwest Ontario. It is situated at the north end of the Sturgeon Lake Greenstone Belt which hosted the precious metal rich Mattabi and Lynn Lake VMS deposits. As the property is crossed by major paved highways and is only 8 km from the CN Mainline at Savant Lake, it can be worked year round. Historic work on this property discovered significant base metal and precious metal showings.
Work on Sabin in 2011 will consist of detailing several large geochemical/geophysical targets on highly altered felsic volcanics. As Sabin has never been explored for gold, Commander's 2011 program plans to evaluate the Rainy River style of mineralization on the property for its gold potential.
PARTNER FUNDED PROGRAMS:
Baffin Island Gold Property: As previously announced, AngloGold Ashanti will be funding an aggressive geophysical program at the Kanosak and Ridge Lake prospects, with the intent of defining drill targets for 2012, and possibly late 2011. Prospecting will also be done on property acquired in 2009. This will be Commander's first look at this new area. Mobilization will commence in June and this year's budget will be approximately $3 million.
Orion Gold Property: Maritime Resources is currently drilling on the Orion gold deposit located near Springdale, Newfoundland. Approximately 2,000 metres have been drilled, of the 4,000 metre planned program. Results are awaited. The current drill program is expected to continue into June 2011.
Nepisiguit Base Metals Property: Stratabound Resources has recently released results from their drill program, which included 18 metres at 1.45% Cu and 4.0 metres at 3% Cu with strong cobalt credits. Stratabound has also initiated a Preliminary Economic Assessment based on their Captain copper deposit located immediately south of Commander's property.
More detailed information on the projects will be provided when final budgets and programs are in place. Information on the projects can be found on the Company's website at www.commanderresources.com.
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 news release.
Contacts:
Commander Resources Ltd.
Cathy DiVito
Investor Relations
(604) 484-7111 or Toll-free: 1-800-667-7866
info@commanderresources.com
www.commanderresources.com