Northisle regains 100% control of Pemberton Hills copper property

Northisle Copper & Gold Inc. has regained full control of the Pemberton Hills copper property within its North Island copper-gold project in British Columbia, after Freeport-McMoRan Mineral terminated its option agreement with the company on the property.

Northisle CEO Sam Lee said the early-stage work completed as part of the deal helped identify a very prospective target for a buried copper-gold porphyry system, which the company is keen to start drilling in the coming weeks.

Exploration work completed with Freeport's funding, including $2 million of induced polarization, detailed clay and structural studies, according to Jack McClintock, Northisle's vice president for exploration. Scout drilling defined a 1.5 kilometer-by-1.0 kilometer target within a larger 3.5 kilometer-by-1.5 kilometer lithocap for what is anticipated to be the buried copper-gold porphyry system, he said.

"The target is indicated by coincident anomalous IP chargeability, trace element, clay, geological and structural vectors present in surface outcrops and in surrounding drill holes as well as a shallow, 200m long drill hole within the target that ended in mineralization grading 0.14% copper," McClintock said.

A $1 million drill program will begin by March 15 to test the target, he added. The program will consist of three steeply inclined drill holes with a planned minimum length of 600 meter each and will continue to the depth capacity of the drill should they intercept significant mineralization, McClintock said.

Northisle said it is sufficiently funded for the proposed program and the ongoing preliminary economic assessment on the Red Dog and Hushamu deposits.

In a separate release, Northisle said a preliminary economic assessment for the North Island project outlined a posttax net present value of $1.1 billion, discounted at 8%, with an internal rate of return of 19% and a payback period of 3.9 years.