TerraX commences fieldwork on its Atikokan gold properties, Northwestern Ontario

Thursday, Sep 09, 2010

TerraX Minerals Inc. (TSX.V: TXR; Frankfurt: TX0) has commenced fieldwork on its three wholly-owned properties near Atikokan, Ontario. All three properties, Blackly, Sunbeam-Pettigrew and Central Canada, occur within and on the margins of the Marmion Batholith, in a similar geological environment to the nearby Hammond Reef gold deposit, which was initially explored by Brett Resources and recently acquired by Osisko Mining Corporation. The objective of the fieldwork is to conduct detailed surface mapping to identify the areal extent of the distinctive rock units encountered during our recent drilling that contained gold mineralization. Channel sampling and possible trenching will provide a better understanding of the structural controls and orientation of these zones. This surface work will then be used to more accurately locate the second phase of drilling, to be conducted on these gold zones during the late fall of 2010.

On the Blackfly property, detailed mapping and sampling will be focused on the Blackfly Target, where a four hole shallow drill program earlier this year returned intersections of 1.07 m @ 15.1 g/t Au in the Blackfly Vein, which is open down dip and along strike, and 8.26 m @ 0.94 g/t Au in nearby silicified tonalite with minor pyrite and chalcopyrite.

Mapping and sampling will also be conducted on the Blackfly Northeast Target, where only two holes were drilled and an intersection of 1.47 m @ 2.70 g/t Au was obtained near the end of one hole in an altered quartz diorite that had not previously been noted on the property. The current TerraX field program will focus on identifying this intrusion on surface.

TerraX has so far tested only the upper parts of a gold-bearing hydrothermal system, and it is encouraged by the extent of the alteration zones and the associated gold mineralization. It is considered significant that the small drill program on the Blackfly Target encountered both high grade gold associated with major quartz veins and several intersections of low grade material (the average grade of the nearby Hammond Reef deposit is 0.8 g/t Au) associated with alteration and narrow veins. The Blackfly Vein has been tested only in the upper ten vertical meters; it is open down-dip and along strike. Brett Resources' experience in similar alteration systems is that the width and continuity of the ore improve with depth. In the Hammond Reef A Deposit, many of the shallow drill holes encountered grades of 0.30-0.50 g/t Au overlying much wider and higher grade mineralization. It is also significant that TerraX has only tested a 100 m strike length of the Blackfly Target and a 150 m strike length of the Blackfly Northeast Target, both of which occur on the 4.4 kilometer Blackfly lineament. The remainder of the strike length of this lineament has never been drill tested.

On the Sunbeam-Pettigrew property in the central part of the Marmion Batholith, mapping and sampling will be performed over four target areas: i) the AL198 Zone, which is exposed for 215 m, and where TerraX's 2009 sampling produced a high value of 16.2 g/t Au; ii) the Road Zone, where a 1981 drill hole intersected 8.5 m @ 4.8 g/t Au and where TerraX's samples returned up to 2.6 g/t Au; iii) the Roy occurrence, which has four historical shafts, and where TerraX obtained up to 3.83 g/t Au from waste piles, and iv) the Burger Zone, which TerraX delineated over a 400 m strike length and obtained grab sample results up to 15.6 g/t Au in 2009. All four of these areas represent strong potential drill targets for drilling later this fall.

Source: PR Newswire