Post by Franko10 ™ on Sept 20, 2004 15:50:16 GMT -5
NEWS RELEASE
WORK COMMENCING AT HOIDAS LAKE
Gary Billingsley, President, is pleased to announce that permitting and crew mobilization is underway to commence the 2004 summer program on the Company's 100%-owned Hoidas Lake Rare Earth project in northern Saskatchewan .
Initial work will consist of a mini-bulk sample from the JAK Zone, for ongoing metallurgical work, and detailed prospecting and trenching of rare earth showings located in the southern part of the property. Eighteen of the 31 known rare earth showings are located in the southern part of the property, 3 to 6 miles down strike from the JAK Zone, and appear to be associated with 2 parallel fault systems, including the system hosting the JAK Zone.
The mini-bulk sample from the JAK Zone, located in the northern part of the property, will be used to complete the metallurgical assessment of the Hoidas mineralization leading to final pilot plant design. The work is being carried out at the Center for Advanced Mineral & Metallurgical Processing (“CAMP”) in Butte , Montana . Three potentially economic processes have been identified at CAMP for extracting and refining the rare earth elements present in the Hoidas mineralization, and these will be evaluated to determine the optimum milling method.
Environmental baseline studies will also commence at Hoidas Lake under the direction of Golder Associates.
The JAK Zone has been drill tested on 50 metre drill hole spacing over a 500 metre strike length to a depth of 75 metres. All holes intersected continuous rare earth mineralization over widths of 3 to 12 metres with average grades from 1.34% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) over 12 metres to 4.4% TREO over 6.9 metres. An independent mining engineer has been engaged to evaluate the deposit and an infill drill program is being designed to upgrade reserves for the feasibility study.
The rare earth elements are critical to major alternate energy applications such as fuel cells, rechargeable batteries, hydrogen storage and permanent magnet motors and Hoidas Lake is one of the world's very few primary high-grade rare earth deposits.
The Company has recently raised $1.7 million through private placement financings, is debt-free, and anticipates significantly advancing the Hoidas Lake Rare Earth project over the next few months.
Gary L. Billingsley, C.A., P.Eng., P.Geo.
President
For further information contact the Company at (306) 668-0701. All email inquiries should be made to info@gwmg.ca (website: http://www.gwmg.ca) Direct mail: Great Western Minerals Group Ltd., 119A Cardinal Crescent, Saskatoon, SK S7L 6H5
(The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the foregoing contents)
© 2004 Great Western Minerals Group Ltd.