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Arrowstar Resources Ltd
Symbol AWS
Shares Issued 66,901,369
Close 2012-05-14 C$ 0.045
Market Cap C$ 3,010,562
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Arrowstar to start Port Snettisham exploration soon

2012-05-15 15:16 ET - News Release

Mr. Robert Card reports

ARROWSTAR PROPOSED PROGRAM ON ALASKA IRON ORE PROPERTY

Arrowstar Resources Ltd. is providing details on the company's proposed exploration program for the Port Snettisham property in Alaska. The fieldwork will be begin as soon as the snow melts on the property, expected in late May or early June.

The Arrowstar exploration team has planned a program of measuring the magnetic susceptibility of surface and trenched samples with some geochemistry analysis to correlate the magnetic and total iron values with the magnetic susceptibility values. The petrographic data is very basic and will also be enhanced through analysis and thin section work.

The company also plans a ground-based IP and gravity anomaly survey once this initial work is completed. After this work is completed Arrowstar expects to have sufficient data for a diamond drill program to determine an inferred or indicated NI 43-101 resource estimate.

This project is a titaniferous magnetite deposit on the Snettisham Peninsula. Ore has been subjected to several programs of beneficiation testwork and reports indicate that the ore is amenable to magnetic separation. It is possible to produce an iron ore concentrate containing in excess of 60 per cent iron with good iron recoveries. The concentrate can then be smelted to produce pig iron and a slag containing high TiO2 values. On average, the Snettisham deposit is believed to contain 18 to 20 per cent magnetite, 2 to 6 per cent titanium, about 0.05 per cent vanadium and about 0.0114 per cent platinum (source: Scoping study proposal for the metallurgical development of Snettisham titano-magnetite deposit, Tata Steel Consulting, January, 2011).

The first major effort to explore the iron potential of the deposit was in the 1950s by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, which drilled 11 holes, conducted a geophysical survey over the body and had beneficiation tests done on the ore. The magnetite-bearing pyroxenite intrusive occupies a land area of approximately 390 acres along the northeast shore of the Snettisham Peninsula. The work outlined a magnetite-rich area of pyroxenite about 2,400 feet by 9,600 feet in area with a vertical extent of 1,500 feet at an average specific gravity of 5.1, representing an estimated historical resource deposit of four billion metric tonnes. Altitudes ranged from sea level to 1,000 feet. The pyroxenite extends northwestward under the waters of Snettisham Inlet for an unknown distance. A section of 1,900 feet of the deposit was explored to a depth of 1,000 feet, totalling 6,546 linear feet of drill holes. The work done by the Bureau of Mines indicated a favourably situated potentially large deposit containing titaniferous magnetite that can be recovered as a high-grade magnetite using standard comparatively low-cost methods of beneficiation. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources and the company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources.

In 1969, Marcona Corp. optioned the iron deposit and carried out extensive exploration, including diamond drilling and metallurgical tests. It was reported in 1969 that Marcona and the Marubeni Company of Japan had developed plans to pelletize two to four million tons of iron ore annually. By 1970, Marcona completed a feasibility study on the deposit and announced plans to put the deposit into production at a rate of five million tons of concentrate per year over a 50-year mine life (State of Alaska, mines bulletin, February, 1970.) However, iron ore prices declined and the project did not proceed.

Port Snettisham, Alaska, exploration program

The Snettisham iron ore (magnetite) deposit is located on the Snettisham Peninsula on the south side of Port Snettisham and west of Gilbert Bay, about 30 miles southeast of Juneau, Ala. The latest exploration work was done in 1970 using less sophisticated equipment than is currently available now. No gravity survey work was done, but some magnetic surveys, sampling and benefication testwork have been done.

Access to the tenement is by boat, float plane or helicopter from Juneau. There are more than 13 hours of sunlight from April to September.

Work program timeline -- two-phase program

Arrowstar has prepared an exploration plan which will include the following.

Early summer, 2012

Arrowstar plans to complete reconnaissance of the historical data, and grid soil and rock chip sampling with an XRF gun and magnetic susceptibility meter. This will allow it to correlate total and magnetic iron values with magnetic susceptibility. An outcrop and trenching sampling study using a magnometer to correlate iron with magnetic susceptibility will also be completed. Mineralogy and petrology studies will also be conducted to analyze the presence of the titanium and vanadium mineralization in the magnetite and the extent of silica, sulphur, phosphorous and alkalis. Arrowstar also plans a ground-based IP magnetic and gravity study to identify key changes in mineralogy and the extent of mineralization. No gravity surveys have been completed to date and this will be completed prior to a drilling phase.

Late summer, 2012

In phase 2 Arrowstar will complete a diamond drilling program directed by the results of the above studies that will allow suitable targets to be identified so that a resource estimate can be produced, followed by a feasibility study. It will perform a benefication study using samples to ensure the results are statistically significant and the proposed benefication process design is proven at pilot plant size. This stage is particularly important to the success of the project given the high cost of crushing to 100 mesh. The field season in the Snettisham region extends from April through to September. While it is possible to drill during the winter, it becomes very inefficient when drilling shorter holes. A two-phase exploration program is proposed to complete the drilling necessary to confirm a CIM- and NI 43-101-compliant inferred (and possibly indicated) mineral resource in the Snettisham area. If chemical analysis results are favourable, then further drilling at closer spacing will be required to identify a measured or indicated resource.

Phillip Thomas, BSc, MBus, MAIG, a qualified person under NI 43-101, has reviewed the content of this release.

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