EDMONTON, ALBERTA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/14/13 -- Firestone Ventures Inc. ("Firestone" or the "Corporation") (TSX VENTURE: FV)(FRANKFURT: F5V) is pleased to announce that it has signed an option agreement to earn a 100% interest in the Whale Cove Project ("Project"). The Project hosts multiple gold showings including the Big Lake target where gold mineralization is related to altered diorite-gabbro intrusions similar to those at Northquest Ltd.'s Vickers gold occurrence located 35 km to the northeast of Big Lake. Recent drilling from the Vickers target has returned 156.48 m grading 8.23 g/t Au (Northquest news release Nov 26, 2012). This new opportunity provides the Company with increased exposure to precious metals while still remaining focused on the advancement of Firestone's zinc district in Guatemala through our business alliance with Minero.
"We are very excited about the opportunity to acquire this highly prospective land package in the same district where drilling by Northquest has returned significant gold intercepts," says Firestone President and CEO Pamela Strand. "Firestone's management is highly experienced as operators in Canada's North and this acquisition provides Firestone with flexibility in terms of planning seasonal exploration programs, exposure to a variety of potential commodity streams, and large well mineralized land positions."
Highlights of the historical work on the Project include:
-- Big Lake Gold Prospect -- Drill campaigns at Big Lake by INCO (1987) include several high- grade gold intersections within intensely altered and mineralized shear zones (12.4 g/t Au over 1.5 m and 9.79 g/t Au over 1 m) within a larger altered envelope (0.24 g/t Au over 79.5 m). -- Two channel samples from silicified volcanic breccia at Big Lake returned 44.5 g/t gold over 0.7 m and 52.7 g/t gold over 1.2 m.-- Fat Lake Property -- High grade gold values from surface channel and drilling have been reported in fault/vein structures in diorite sills at the Fat Lake Main deposit and North prospects (14.3 g/t Au over 1.8 m and 33.21 g/t Au over 1.5 m - both downhole). -- Historic work at the Fat deposit included an underground decline to 20 m depth and a 350 m long ramp to facilitate exploration on veins. -- Five trench samples from sampling of quartz-carbonate veins with visible gold at the White Whale prospect assayed between 175 g/t gold and 234 g/t gold.
The Whale Cove Project comprises 8,516 hectares of mineral rights on Inuit Owned Land, in three separate project areas located in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. The project is located 25 km west-southwest from the community of Whale Cove, located on tidewater of Hudson Bay and also 100 km south of Rankin Inlet, a full service community of 3,000 people. The rights to the Project are governed by two fully executed Exploration Agreements between Tiktaliik Gold Corp. ("Vendor") and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated.
Of particular interest to Firestone is the presence of a numerous gold showings in the Whale Cove area, as well as the recent recognition that the Central Hearne subdomain hosting the Firestone Whale Project, Northquest's Pistol Bay Project and Agnico Eagle's Meliadine gold deposits may have once been part of the Abitibi Subprovince. The Abitibi greenstone belt is one of the world's richest gold belts with over 100 historical and producing mines that have produced 170 million ounces of gold. The relatively unexplored Central Hearne offers the potential to leverage exploration expertise from the Abitibi to make major new gold discoveries in Nunavut.
