Highlights:
Field crew mobilized to PFN's 100% owned River Valley PGM property
Summer surface exploration followed by fall drill program
Surface exploration to guide planning of Fall Drill Program, on T2 discovery and exploration for more T2-like discoveries, along the strike to the east and to the south
River Valley, a primary PGM deposit with 2.5 Moz PGM in near-surface, Measured and Indicated resources, within 100 km of Sudbury – one of Canada's largest, undeveloped, Primary PGM Reserves.
Strong infrastructure support, with year-round road access and nearby rail, power and communities
4 New, 100% owned Lithium Projects, with Pegmatite deposits, in Manitoba and one Brine Exploration Project, Clayton Valley, Nevada
PFN's key objective for 2016 is to follow-up drilling at the high-grade T2 discovery, in order to confirm that it has the potential to warrant resource delineation drilling.
To that end, the 2016 Exploration Program consists of two components: 1) a Surface Exploration Program for the summer field season; and 2) a follow-up Diamond Drill Program for the fall. Each of the components will be carried out under Exploration Permit PR-13-10095R and with financial support from the Junior Exploration Assistance Program.
The Surface Exploration Program consists of geological mapping, mineral prospecting, sampling, assaying, litho-structural studies, drill core review and 3D modelling. The program focus is on areas with indications of higher-grade mineralization that remain under-explored.
One such priority area is the surface above the T2 discovery. Two holes drilled at T2 in early 2015 intersected higher-grade, near-surface PGM mineralization, under cover and in the footwall, to the east of the main mineralized trend at Dana North Zone.
Highlights include 2.1 g/t PGM/16m from 184m downhole in Hole 1 and 2.8 g/t PGM/18m from 137m downhole in Hole 2. The T2 Discovery Mineralization remains open, up-dip to surface, at depth and east along the strike for 2 km, to the Pardo Zone. Furthermore, the Pardo Zone itself is mineralized, but also remains under explored.
Elsewhere at River Valley, the Surface Exploration Program will cover areas from which previous grab samples, grading up to 60 g/t PGM were taken, and that remain under explored. Previous and new assay data will be integrated with litho-structural data, in order to define the extents of potentially high-grade mineralization, within the main mineralized trend on the basal contact (i.e., Contact Style Mineralization) and internally within the River Valley Intrusion.
In addition, the previous discovery of the Spade Zone is to be examined for controls on the apparent thickening of the mineralization at that location. Overall, the Surface Exploration Program, as currently planned, requires 3-4 weeks of field time, from about mid-July to mid-September. The results of the Surface Exploration Program will be used to further guide and refine planning of the fall Diamond Drill Program.
The fall 2016 Diamond Drill Program, as currently planned, consists of four drill holes for a total of 1000m, at the T2 Discovery. The holes are designed to expand the near-surface, high-grade PGM mineralization up-dip, down-dip and eastward along the strike.
Pending successful drill results, six additional holes are planned for drilling at T2, in early 2017. That program would then be followed by a Delineation Drill Program, for resource modelling. In addition, drill testing would be carried out on other priority T2-like targets (currently 9 in total) developed along the 12 km strike length of the River Valley PGM deposit, on PFN's property.
