Encouraging Preliminary Results At The Crawford Property

PUSLINCH, ON - Spruce Ridge Resources Ltd. reported results of mineralogical studies on drill core samples from the Company's Crawford project near Timmins, Ontario. The recent 1,818-meter, 4-hole drill program resulted in wide intersections of up to 558 meters of serpentinized peridotite and dunite with consistent concentrations of nickel, cobalt, palladium and platinum.

Twelve samples of drill core were selected from 1.5-meter analyzed intervals, to cover a range of nickel, cobalt and palladium contents as well as differing degrees of serpentinization and a range of sulphur contents. Polished thin sections were made from the core samples and were examined under reflected-light microscope and a scanning electron microscope (SEM), which provided chemical analyses of individual mineral grains to aid in their identification.

The following minerals were identified as carrying most of the nickel and cobalt (in order of decreasing abundance): pentlandite (nickel-iron sulphide), heazlewoodite (nickel sulphide), awaruite (nickel-iron alloy) and minor godlevskite (nickel sulphide with minor iron). The pentlandite, which dominates the sulphide mineral assemblage, typically contains between 3% and 4% of cobalt by weight. Grain size varies from 5 to 100 microns, with most of the cobaltiferous pentlandite being in the coarsest fraction.

Also noted in small quantities, were an unknown cobalt-nickel-iron sulphide mineral and an unknown copper-iron-palladium-platinum oxide mineral with the approximate composition 40% Cu, 15% Pd and 1% Pt.

In addition to the mineralogical identification, additional analysis was performed on pulps of the 12 core intervals from which the mineralogy samples were taken. The original multi-element analysis was performed by ICP-OES on samples prepared by sodium peroxide fusion, which digests the entire rock to give total concentrations of the analyzed elements. The new analysis was also done by ICP-OES on samples digested in aqua regia, which will dissolve sulphides, oxides and metallic minerals but will not have an effect on silicate minerals like the olivine which originally contained most of the nickel and associated metals, or the serpentine that formed during low-temperature alteration of the rock. The aqua regia analyses give an estimate of the percentages of nickel and cobalt that were "liberated" during serpentinization. The following table gives the original peroxide fusion-ICP and the aqua regia-ICP analyses of nickel and cobalt, and the percent of "liberation".

The company’s address is 7735 Leslie Rd W, Puslinch, ON N0B 2J0, (519) 822-5904, www.spruceridgeresources.com.