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Full metal fills plate in Alaska: great land 'elephant country,' full of promise.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In addition to exploring on 14 different mineral properties in Alaska, Full Metal Minerals may be considered an unofficial "welcome wagon Noun 1. welcome wagon - a wheeled vehicle carrying information and gifts from local merchants for new residents in an area
wheeled vehicle - a vehicle that moves on wheels and usually has a container for transporting things or people; "the oldest known wheeled
" for the state's mineral industry.

"We're pretty proud of the fact that we've introduced seven new companies to Alaska," said Rob McLeod, vice president of exploration for the Vancouver, British Columbia-based junior exploration company. "Two of those companies, Metallica (Resources) and Andover (Ventures), have become quite aggressive in the state, acquiring new property on their own."

Currently, Full Metal has six of its 14 properties in Alaska optioned with other exploration companies. Those joint ventures can reduce the company's risk or create an opportunity to bring a partner into a property with specific technical expertise that can help advance the geological work, McLeod said.

Bringing new companies to Alaska "... creates a bit of competition for us, but it's a huge state with lots of mineral potential," he said.

Since going public in 2004 and acquiring its first mineral exploration properties in Alaska, Full Metal has spent about $20 million in Alaska, $7 million of that in 2007, he said. Full Metal's partners on the six optioned properties spent some $3.5 million more in 2007, McLeod said.

Companywide, work in 2007 included completing about 90,000 feet of drilling in Alaska, with as many as 80 people working for Full Metal or its contractors, he said. The company has acquired the largest land position of any public minerals exploration company in the state of Alaska, according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3.
 Full Metal's Web site.

Alaska offers mineral prospectors considerable under-explored terrain to work on, the primary attraction for Full Metal. "If you compare Alaska to British Columbia British Columbia, province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada. Geography
, there is about 10 percent of the exploration spending as B.C. in the same geological environment," McLeod said. "We just saw so many different opportunities up there for so many different commodities, and the ground has received minimal exploration."

The potential to find a large mineral deposit, such as the Red Dog zinc and lead mine, the Donlin Creek gold deposit or the Pebble Pebble - A polymorphic language.

["A Kernel Language for Abstract Data Types and Modules", R.M. Burstall & B. Lampson, in Semantics of Data Types, LNCS 173, Springer 1984].
 copper-gold project, is another attractive factor about Alaska, McLeod said. "Those are some of the world's largest deposits, so it is real elephant country."

40 MILE BECOMES FLAGSHIP PROJECT

He's hoping the company is onto another large-scale base metal deposit discovery on the 40 Mile property, optioned last year from Doyon Ltd., the for-profit Alaska Native corporation in Interior Alaska.

Full Metal's 40 Mile property consists of 800,000 acres located in eastern Alaska, northwest of the community of Chicken and west of the Taylor Highway The Taylor Highway (numbered Alaska Route 5) is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska that extends 160 miles (258 km) from Tetlin, about 11 miles (17 km) south of Tok on the Alaska Highway, to Eagle.  that connects the Yukon River Yukon River

River, northwestern North America. Formed by the confluence of the Lewes and Pelly rivers in southwestern Yukon Territory, Can., it is 1,980 mi (3,190 km) long.
 village of Eagle with the state's road system.

Major prospects include Lead Creek, the Fish discovery and LWM LWM
abbr.
low-water mark
 (little white man) discovery, with several other targets scattered across the property. Full Metal began exploring the 40 Mile property in 2006, drilling the Fish prospect, located about 25 miles west of the Taylor Highway, and LWM, located about 4 miles southwest of Fish.

Full Metal continued work on those prospects in 2007, spending about $2 million on the property, completing a total of 21 drill holes. Six of eight holes drilled in 2007 at LWM encountered "significant intervals of massive sulphide sulphide: see sulfide.  mineralization Mineralization
The process by which the body uses minerals to build bone structure.

Mentioned in: Rickets

mineralization,
n the bioprecipitation of an inorganic substance.
," the company stated in a late July press release.

Some of the best results from LWM include a 21-foot intersection with grades of 31.6 percent zinc, 11.3 percent lead, 1.41 percent copper and 14.9 ounces of silver per ton of rock. Another hole produced a 146-foot intersection with grades of 15.9 percent zinc, 5.3 percent lead, .19 percent copper and 2.46 ounces of silver per ton of rock. Still another hole produced an 8-foot intersection with grades of 21 percent zinc, 26.1 percent lead, .59 percent copper and 10.9 ounces of silver per ton of rock.

"I do believe this is one of the most significant zinc discoveries in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere.  in a long time," McLeod said. "The whole region out there has come along in leaps and bounds over the past season. Materially, we're drilling $1,000 per ton, very rich ore. It's certainly our most exciting project and is turning into our flagship project."

The company also completed 10 drill holes on the Fish silver-zinc prospect at the 40 Mile property, releasing results from three holes in late August. Some of the best intercepts include a 26-foot section with grades of 12.3 percent zinc and .22 ounces of silver per ton of rock, and a 6.7-foot intersection had contained .3 percent zinc and 6.5 ounces of silver per ton of rock.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

WORK ON GOLD PROSPECTS

Full Metal also has several gold targeted properties, including the Lucky Shot property, located about 55 miles north of Anchorage, near Willow. Historic gold production from the area is more than 620,000 ounces of gold, at an average grade of 1 ounce per ton, according to historic records.

Drilling started in 2005 at the property and continued through this summer. Some of the best intercepts include a hole completed in 2005 that produced a 13-foot intersection that graded 7.04 ounces of gold per ton of rock, and a 2006 hole that contained a 3.9-foot section with a 4.3 ounce gold per ton grade.

Drilling results from 2007 released early this summer include a 3.2-foot section that graded 1.75 ounces of gold per ton of rock, from the Murphy Zone, a northeastern extension of the past-producing War Baby/Lucky Shot mine.

Full Metal completed about 57 holes, drilling 49,000 feet, at Lucky Shot in 2007, according to McLeod.

Other gold prospects held by the company include the CJ property, located on the Prince of Wales Island Prince of Wales Island, Canada
Prince of Wales Island, c.12,800 sq mi (33,150 sq km), Nunavut Territory, Canada, between Victoria and Somerset islands.
 in Southeast Alaska, a property optioned to Altair Ventures in 2007; the Moore Creek property in the Kuskokwim Region, optioned to Highbury Projects; the Golddigger prospect located about 30 miles north of Lucky Shot in central Interior Alaska and the Inmachuk property on the Seward Peninsula Seward Peninsula, W Alaska, projecting c.200 mi (320 km) into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound and Kotzebue Sound, just below the Arctic Circle. The region is mostly bleak tundra, with long, cold winters. , optioned to Millrock Resources. Inmachuk offers both gold and silver-lead-zinc targets.

Full Metal also is exploring some copper-gold properties, including Mount Andrew, located in Southeast Alaska; the Pebble South property, located in the Iliamna Lake Iliamna Lake

Lake, Alaska, U.S. The largest lake in Alaska and the second largest freshwater lake entirely within the U.S., it is 80 mi (129 km) long and 25 mi (40 km) wide and covers an area of 1,000 sq mi (2,600 sq km).
 region and the Kamishak copper-gold property, located about 50 miles south of the Pebble deposit being explored by Northern Dynasty, and about 12 miles from tidewater tidewater, in U.S. history, that part of the Atlantic coastal plain between the shoreline and the farthest upstream points in rivers reached by oceanic tides. In many cases the fall line is given as the western boundary. .

Another large land package that Full Metal has put together is located on the Alaska Peninsula Alaska Peninsula

Peninsula, southwestern Alaska, U.S. It stretches about 500 mi (800 km) between the Pacific Ocean and Bristol Bay. The volcanic Aleutian Range runs along its entire length.
, covering 2,162 square miles A square mil is a unit of area, equal to the area of a square with sides of length one mil. A mil is one thousandth of an international inch. This unit of area is usually used in specifying the area of the cross section of a wire or cable.  of land. Full Metal signed exploration agreements with both the Bristol Bay Bristol Bay

An arm of the Bering Sea in southwest Alaska between the mainland and the Alaska Peninsula. It is a rich salmon-fishing area.
 Native Corp. and the Aleut Corp. to work on Native-owned land.

"This region hosts multiple base-and precious-metal prospects that have received only limited modern exploration," according to a company press release. Initial work is focused on targets near tidewater, according to the Full Metal press release.

"Our advantage is that the geologic understanding for these types of deposits has vastly increased since (the 1970s), and we are looking in areas that previous operators may have written off," McLeod said. "There are several targets on the Peninsula that have never been drill tested, which is rare to find in North America these days."

Finally, Full Metal and its partner Triex Mineral are exploring the Boulder Creek Boulder Creek may be:
  • A community:
  • Boulder Creek, California
  • One of several streams:
  • Boulder Creek (California)
 uranium project, located on the Seward Peninsula, about 100 miles northeast of Nome.
COPYRIGHT 2007 Alaska Business Publishing Company, Inc.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
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Title Annotation:SPECIAL SECTION: MINING ISSUE
Comment:Full metal fills plate in Alaska: great land 'elephant country,' full of promise.(SPECIAL SECTION: MINING ISSUE)
Author:Liles, Patricia
Publication:Alaska Business Monthly
Geographic Code:1U9AK
Date:Nov 1, 2007
Words:1225
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