ABR
Ashburton to option Ultra PGM property in Yukon
2013-11-14 14:16 ET - News Release
Mr. Kyler Hardy reports
ASHBURTON SIGNS AGREEMENT FOR ULTRA PGM PROPERTY LOCATED SOUTHEAST OF THE WELLGREEN PROJECT, YUKON
Ashburton Ventures Inc. has entered into an option agreement to acquire the Ultra platinum group metal (PGM) claim group, located in the Yukon, 250 kilometres west of Whitehorse. The Ultra project lies in the Kluane ultramafic belt, with lithologies similar to the Wellgreen polymetallic deposit, located 85 kilometres to the northwest. The Wellgreen deposit is under advanced assessment by Prophecy Platinum with an indicated resource of 14.4 million tonnes at 2.23 grams per tonne platinum plus palladium plus gold, 0.68 per cent nickel and 0.62 per cent copper, and an inferred resource of 446.6 Mt at 0.87 gram per tonne platinum plus palladium plus gold, 0.31 per cent nickel and 0.25 per cent copper at a 0.22-per-cent-nickel-equivalent cut-off (see Prophecy Platinum news release dated June 18, 2012).
Ashburton president Kyler Hardy stated: "The Ultra claims are the company's latest acquisition in an emerging PGM district. As with the Catalyst project that was acquired only three weeks ago, Ultra lies within a belt of ultramafic rocks that have a high potential for PGM mineralization. Additionally, the company now has the in-house expertise in both Yukon exploration and PGM mineralization to move both projects toward significant discovery."
To acquire a 100-per-cent stake in the project, Ashburton will make cash payments totalling $85,000 over five years, issue 450,000 common shares over two years and incur $500,000 in exploration expenditures over four years.
About the Ultra project
The Ultra project is a polymetallic-platinum-group-metal occurrence with contiguous claims covering 8,650 hectares, located 42 kilometres northwest of Haines Junction. The project is in the Kluane ultramafic belt, a 600-kilometre-long belt of rocks characterized by mafic to ultramafic Triassic-aged sills intruded into Carboniferous to Triassic sedimentary and volcanic rocks. The Kluane ultramafic suite hosts a number of magmatic platinum-group-metal-nickel-copper occurrences from Northern British Columbia, through Yukon and into Alaska. At Ultra, a portion of the Frohberg platinum-group-metal-nickel-copper showing was trenched in 2002 and returned 5.54 grams per tonne platinum, 13.46 grams per tonne palladium, 4.07 per cent copper and 1.73 per cent nickel over 0.5 metre. Numerous ultramafic occurrences elsewhere on the property are yet to be assessed for platinum-group-metal-nickel-copper potential. The Ultra project also includes the Telluride volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) showing, which is visible from the air and can be traced on the property for six kilometres along strike to the southeast. The showing itself contains values of 3.23 per cent copper, 6.75 per cent zinc, 17.8 grams per tonne silver and 0.15 gram per tonne gold over four metres. Since 1956, exploration on the Ultra project has involved approximately 440 metres of drilling in eight holes on a VMS showing (1955 to 1956: three core holes totalling 108 metres that failed to reach target depths; 1961 to 1962: two churn drill holes totalling 116 metres that intersected minor native copper; and 1970: three core drill holes totalling 216 metres that intersected coal and marcasite). The ground has also been explored through hand trenching, rock, soil and silt geochemistry, a 1977 airborne electromagnetic survey, a 2004 airborne magnetics and electromagnetic survey, a ground magnetic and electromagnetic survey, and mapping (J. Pautler, 2012, geological and geochemical assessment report on the Ultra project, Whitehorse mining district, Yukon, page 47).
The technical contents of this release were approved by Dr. Tom E. McCandless, PGeo, a director of Ashburton and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The property has not been the subject of an NI 43-101 report, and Dr. McCandless has not verified the technical data disclosed in this release.
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