The Port Hope Simpson REE district forms a belt that stretches north-westerly from Fox Harbour (St. Lewis) on the Labrador coast, inland for 120 km and ranging in width from 4 to 10 km. SEARCH, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Alterra Resources Inc., now controls 58 licenses in this area, which consists of 11 licenses, which were acquired pursuant to an agreement with B and A Minerals Inc and 47 additional map staked licenses for a total of 3,456 claims, which covers 86,400 square kilometers. All portions of this belt are within 10 km of a local transportation network that includes all-season highways, seasonal logging roads, three ports and three airstrips.
Aeroquest Surveys of Mississauga, Ontario was contracted to carry out an airborne radiometric and magnetometer survey over the whole district, comprising 5,086 line km. The system platform used a fixed wing single engine aircraft and the horizontal gradient magnetometer used two wing tip mounted sensors and one tail stinger sensor. Radioactivity was measured using the Aeroquest Gamma Ray Spectrometer system with four downward looking Nal crystals as the main sensors and one upward looking crystal to monitor non-geologic sources. Lines were flown at 250m spacing with 60 m ground clearance. As a result of significant additional staking, SEARCH's land package has grown to the point where it believes it has identified and controls the largest new district for REE potential in North America. The superb logistics will enable SEARCH to advance its exploration programs quickly and more cost effectively than competitors located in more remote locations.
Very preliminary prospecting and sampling of a few of the REE targets in the PHS District indicate that this district is highly prospective for Zr, Y, Nb and U as well as REEs. Geochemical results from grab samples (note that grab samples are selective by nature and do not represent average grades on the property) indicate there are at least three types of REE mineralization in the district:
TYPE 1: high grade, low tonnage, heavy rare earth element ("HREE")-enriched, Nb-Y-U pegmatite-hosted deposits;
TYPE 2: medium to high grade, potentially large tonnage, Strange Lake-type pegmatitic granite- / pegmatite-hosted REE-Zr-Y-Nb-U mineralization; and,
TYPE 3: light rare earth element ("LREE")-enriched-Zr-Nb-Y mineralization.
SEARCH is currently working in the area with a team of 18, consisting of prospectors and geologists, on follow-up mapping, sampling and prospecting of the higher priority targets this spring/summer, leading to drill targets by late summer. Preliminary metallurgical testing of representative samples of the three types of mineralization is also planned.
Port Hope Simpson Geological Information
Option Agreement with B & A Minerals Inc.
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