Project:
Sping
Appleton Exploration Inc. has entered into an option agreement to acquire the Sping Copper-Silver property, located 160 kilometres north of Smithers, British Columbia. The Sping property is comprised of the optioned Sping mineral claim and 11 additional contiguous claims staked by Appleton. The property package now totals 4,603 hectares.
Appleton may earn a 100% interest in the Sping claim, subject to a 2.5% net smelter return (“NSR”) royalty, by making cash payments totalling $170,000, issuing 200,000 common shares and completing $1,000,000 in exploration expenditures on or before May 30, 2010. Appleton has the option to purchase up to 1.5% (3/5) of the NSR, in increments of 0.5% for a total cost of $1,750,000.
The Sping property lies within Hazelton Group volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks interbedded with Bowser Lake Group sedimentary rocks, on the eastern boundary of the Bowser Basin. Previous exploration has focussed on a dolomitic limestone that carries finely disseminated silver rich chalcopyrite. Drilling by Canadian Superior Exploration Limited in the early to mid 1970’s outlined a historical resource of 5,000,000 tons grading 0.5% copper and 11.9 grams per ton silver. Appleton has not prepared nor confirmed this resource estimation and as it pre-dates National Instrument 43-101, it does not comply with NI 43-101 requirements for mineral resource estimation. No qualified person has done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current resource. The Company does not treat these numbers as a current resource on the property and the resource should not be relied upon, but remains an historic figure.
The Sping property has some similarities to the geological setting at the Eskay Creek Mine. The Sping property is located on the eastern edge of the Bowser Basin, whereas Eskay Creek lies on the western edge of the basin. Sping and Eskay Creek share comparable rock types, stratigraphy and styles of copper mineralization.
|
Project DetailsThe regional geology map shows the Sping property is underlain by Hazelton Group calc-alkaline volcanics and Bowser Lake Group sediments. The detailed inset map shows the geology is considerably more complex: with limestones, andesites, tuffs and sediments. Appleton management believes the entire claim block is prospective for repeats of the known copper-silver mineralization where Bowser Lake Group sediments have been mapped. Appleton management also believes the entire claim block may be prospective for Eskay Creek style auriferous massive sulfides both in the Hazelton Group volcanics and the Bowser Lake Group sediments, due to its stratigraphic location and geology. 2007 exploration will focus on the prospecting for repeats of the known copper-silver mineralization and on regional silt and contour soil sampling over the entire claim block for indicator elements (Ag, Au, Cu, Pb, Zn) for Eskay Creek style mineralization. Canadian Superior Exploration Ltd. completed programs of soil sampling and magnetometer and induced polarization (IP) surveying as well as two phases of drilling during the early to mid 1970’s. There is no record of detailed mapping from that period. Drilling concentrated on the mineralized dolomitic limestone. The IP survey located several additional unexplored anomalies in the area. Later prospecting during a 1993 property examination by Inco located a second occurrence of the mineralized dolomitic limestone 200 metres to the south of the limestone drilled in 1973. This second occurrence returned copper and silver values from surface grab sampling that are similar to the surface values in the previously drilled limestone. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mineralized drill intercepts from the Canadian Superior 1973 drilling include:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Appleton
personnel examined the Sping property in late June of 2007. The
key showing area is a limestone bluff near the top of
a small knob on the west side of a saddle. Mineralization on surface
consists
of malachite staining throughout the limestone. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The persistency and consistency of copper grades between drill holes and its apparent coincidence with a dolomite unit suggests copper-silver mineralization on the Sping property represents sediment-hosted stratabound copper mineralization. This could suggest good potential for large tonnage. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
