Alderon Resource Corp. (TSX VENTURE:ADV)(OTCQX:ALDFF) (“Alderon”) is pleased to announce that its summer/fall 2011 drill program has commenced at the 100% owned Kamistiatusset (“Kami”) Iron Ore Project in western Labrador. The CDN $11 million program will consist of 26,000 metres (m) of drilling and is designed to upgrade the current resource as well as expand the known zones of mineralization and target new areas.
The Kami Project has a currently defined National Instrument (NI) 43-101 indicated resource of 490 million tonnes at 30.0% iron and an additional inferred resource of 118 million tonnes at 30.3% iron (refer to News Release dated April 5, 2011 for further details). The current program aims at increasing the size of the resource to between 800 million and 1 billion tonnes at a grade between 28 to 32% iron. The potential tonnage and grade are conceptual in nature; there has been insufficient exploration to define an increased mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will increase the mineral resource. These updated resource figures are reported as exploration targets based on the presence of step-out mineralized drill holes, known mineralized zones open along strike and geophysical anomalous areas from data received by Alderon.
Program Details
The summer/fall 2011 program will consist of 26,000 m of drilling, ground geophysical surveys, metallurgical test work and environment studies. The drill program has started with 2 drills and will ramp up to 6 drills by the end of July and is expected to take 6 months to complete. Drilling will be directed at upgrading the resource from indicated and inferred to measured and indicated as well as expanding the known mineralization at the Rose Central, North Rose and Mills Zones and targeting new areas outlined by the 2010 exploration program.
Drilling will be carried out by Major Drilling Group International Inc. (“Major”) and Forages Cabo Inc. (“Cabo”), the Quebec branch of Cabo Drilling Corp. Major is one of the largest drilling service companies working in 22 countries and has a fleet of over 540 drills. Cabo is well recognized in the drilling industry with operations in seven countries and over 250 employees. Alderon is confident that both Major and Cabo will provide the level of professionalism, safety and environmental awareness that is required and that they will complete the 2011 program on time and on budget.
In conjunction with the program, further geotechnical studies and metallurgical test work will be carried out. Environmental studies will also be conducted, as will an updated resource estimate and scoping study. A prefeasibility study will commence later this year upon completion of the scoping study.
The proposed drill hole location map is posted on the Alderon website at: http://www.alderonmining.com/projects/kami/
About Alderon
Alderon is a leading iron ore exploration and development company in Canada. The 100% owned Kami Project is located within an existing iron ore district and is surrounded by producing iron ore mines. The Alderon team is comprised of skilled professionals with significant iron ore expertise to advance Kami towards production.
Edward Lyons, P.Geo., the Chief Geologist for Alderon and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and is responsible for the technical information contained in this news release.
Additional information about the Kami Project and the initial resource estimate can be found in the technical report filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com entitled “Technical report and Mineral resource estimate on the Kamistiatusset property, Newfoundland and Labrador for Alderon Resource Corp.” dated May 20, 2011. For more information on Alderon, please visit our website at www.alderonmining.com