Wallbridge has $2.7-million for 2007 JV budget

2008-04-23 08:04 ET - News Release

Mr. Alar Soever reports

WALLBRIDGE ANNOUNCES $2.7 MILLION PROGRAM FOR XSTRATA NICKEL JV PROPERTIES

Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd. has approved a budget of $2.7-million for 2008 for work on three properties held in joint venture with the world's fourth largest refined nickel producer, Xstrata Nickel. The Wisner, Frost Lake and Graham joint-venture properties are located in Sudbury, Ont., part of the largest nickel-copper producing district in the world.

"We are pleased to continue joint-venture exploration on these strategically located properties and have a solid partnership with Xstrata Nickel. The monies allocated will allow us to continue copper-nickel-PGE exploration on three properties that have previous mineralization discoveries," stated Alar Soever, president of Wallbridge Mining. "The majority of the funds will be spent on 6,250 metres drilling targets on these properties."

Frost Lake property

A $1.8-million budget has been approved for the Frost Lake property. The property is strategically located in the footwall on the East Range of the Sudbury basin, adjacent to the Capre 3000 Cu-Ni-PGE zone discovery announced by the Vale Inco/Lonmin PLC joint venture on Jan. 23, 2007. The 2008 exploration program includes up to 2,800 metres of drilling to test the belt of Sudbury breccia that hosts an extensive zone of low-sulphide PGE mineralization discovered by Wallbridge in 2005 called the Amy Lake PGE zone (see the company's news release in Stockwatch dated Dec. 6, 2005). The Amy Lake zone is in the same belt of rocks, which hosts the Capre 3000 discovery zone located just 600 metres south of Wallbridge's property boundary.

The footwall to the Capre Lake embayment will be drill tested with a 1,200-metre borehole and surveyed with downhole (BHUTEM) and between hole (RIM) geophysical surveys. The Capre Lake embayment hosts Vale Inco's Capre Lake occurrence, a zone of contact-style Ni-Cu-sulphide mineralization, which lies immediately west of the Capre 3000 zone, a Cu-Ni-PGE discovery announced by the Vale Inco/Lonmin joint venture in January, 2007. Within the same area, Wallbridge recently announced a three-way joint venture (see the company news release in Stockwatch dated March 27, 2008) with Vale Inco and Xstrata Nickel that will explore prospective ground immediately adjacent to the Capre 3000 zone.

A 20-line-kilometre surface electromagnetic survey will be completed to guide drilling on the nickel-copper mineralization discovered in 2006 by Wallbridge (see the company's news release Stockwatch dated April 5, 2006) in an ultramafic body 800 metres north of the Amy Lake PGE zone.

The Frost Lake property is a joint venture between Wallbridge and Xstrata Nickel, with each company holding a 50-per-cent interest with Wallbridge as the operator.

Wisner property

A $700,000 program has been approved for up to 2,250 metres of drilling to test geophysical Titan 24 DCIP/MT and conventional IP as well as geological targets on the Wisner property. The Wisner property is located on the north range of the Sudbury basin and covers in excess of nine kilometres of highly prospective ground in the footwall to the Wisner embayment. Mineralization occurs as stringers and irregular pods of Cu-Ni-PGE-rich sulphides hosted in irregular, altered zones of Sudbury breccia at the south and southwest area showings (see the company's news release in Stockwatch dated May 30, 2006). The majority of drilling will test deep targets in the area of the Southwest zone, which is located approximately 2.3 kilometres west of Wallbridge's Broken Hammer deposit. Shallow drilling of targets 700 metres southeast and 1.7 kilometres east of the Broken Hammer deposit will test coincident geophysical and rock geochemical anomalies.

At present Wallbridge has a 73.4-per-cent interest in the Wisner joint-venture property, with Xstrata Nickel owning the remaining 26.6 per cent with Wallbridge continuing as operator.

Graham property

The Graham property is located in the south range of the Sudbury basin about 3.2 kilometres south of Vale Inco's Creighton mine, which has been in production for over 100 years. The approved $149,000 summer exploration program will be aimed at developing drill targets in hydrothermally altered zones of Sudbury breccia and melt pods similar to those that host large tonnage Ni-Cu-sulphide bodies at Vale Inco's Frood Stobie mine complex located 18 kilometres to the east. In addition, a number of airborne electromagnetic targets remain to be ground truthed on the property to the north of Nickel Hill. Previous recent exploration on the Graham property by Wallbridge discovered extensive zones of Sudbury breccia up to 70 metres wide and 1.2 kilometres in strike length and drill tested deep AMT geophysical targets.

Wallbridge has a 66.8-per-cent interest in the Graham joint-venture property, with Xstrata Nickel owning the remaining 33.2 per cent; Wallbridge is operator.

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