ePower Metals Starts Summer 2018 Exploration Program on Panther Creek Cobalt Project

ePower Metals Inc (TSXV:EPWR) (the “Company” or “ePower”) has started the summer 2018 Panther Creek exploration program. Geological teams are expanding the 2017 soil sample survey, conducting geological and structural mapping and rock sampling to identify discrete targets for trenching and drilling.

Exploration will focus on evaluating historic workings on the Long Dike and Little Deer Creek prospects, following up highly anomalous rock and soil samples from the 2017 fall program (including 0.37% Co, 3.10 g/T Au and 1.75% Cu over 1.5m), and prospecting for previously unrecognized Au-Co-Cu mineralization. For further details of the 2017 fall sampling results please see the Company’s news release dated January 22, 2018.

According to historic reports*, the Long Dike prospect includes a shaft, one long and six short adits with underground working totalling at least 500 feet (152 metres) and the Little Deer Creek prospect includes at least five adits. A 3m chip sample collected by the USGS* from mineralized zone at the Little Deer Creek prospect returned 1.04% Co and 4.14% Cu. Geologists will determine if it is viable to safely enter and evaluate the historic workings.

President Michael Collins comments, “We are pleased with the progress of the Panther Creek project since signing the option agreement in fall of 2017 and impressed with both the cobalt grades as well as the high-grade gold we have identified in secondary vein/breccia outcrops. We look forward to the results from this summer’s programs with the aim of drilling for cobalt in the fall of 2018. It will be a busy year at Panther Creek.”

Permitting of road reactivation with a stream crossing and drilling sites is underway.

The Panther Creek Cobalt Property

The Panther Creek Cobalt Property comprises 153 unpatented lode mining claims (~3,060 acres, ~1238 hectares) and two patented mining claims (41.3 acres, 16.7 hectares) located in the heart of the Idaho Cobalt Belt. ePower has earned a 50% interest in the property and has the right to earn up to a 100% interest.  The Panther Creek Cobalt Project adjoins eCobalt Solutions Inc.’s Idaho Cobalt Project (Ram deposit), the only advanced stage, near-term, environmentally permitted, primary cobalt project in the United States, and the historic Blackbird Cobalt-Copper Mine in Lemhi County, Idaho.

There are several historic mine workings on the property. Channel sampling by US Geological Survey at the Little Deer Creek Prospect returned 1.04% cobalt and 4.14% copper across 10 feet or 3.0 metres, and a dump grab sample from the historic workings at the Sweet Repose Adit assayed 0.46% cobalt and 0.27% copper (US Geol. Survey, Open File Report 98-478). The Long Dike Prospect, which are on the patented claims, has not been sampled but reportedly has several adits and at least 500 feet (152 metres) of underground workings. The cobalt-copper mineralization is hosted in the micaceous quartzites of the Apple Creek Formation which is a similar geological setting as the historic Blackbird Mine as well as eCobalt’s Ram deposit.

Aside from some limited surface rock and soil sampling on the property by Utah Mineral Resources LLC and most recently by ePower in late 2017, no significant work has been done on the property since the 1950s. Utah Mineral Resources LLC sampled surface rocks with up to 0.91% cobalt and 3.63% copper in grab samples.

*The grades and descriptions stated in the USGS reports and by Utah Mineral Resources LLC have not been verified by the Company, and readers are cautioned not to place undue weight on such results. The historical grades are considered relevant; however, the reliability, assumptions, parameters and methods used in preparing the reports are unknown.

Bruce Kienlen, P.Geo., VP Exploration, is the Qualified Person for the Panther Creek Project.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Michael Collins
President and CEO

For further information, please contact:
ePower Metals Inc.
1507 – 1030 West Georgia Street,
Vancouver BC, V6E 2Y3
Telephone: (604) 428-6128
Facsimile: (604) 428-6430
Website: www.epowermetals.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

We seek safe harbor.

Click here to connect with ePower Metals Inc (TSXV:EPWR) for an Investor Presentation. 

Source: www.newsfilecorp.com