SONORAN DESERT COPPER CORPORATION Prime Meridian Resources Corp. announced that it has received confirmation from the United States Bureau of Land Management ('BLM') that the company has been granted a prospecting permit for certain mineral rights in its Water Hen Project area in Minnesota, located in the northeastern part of the state, approximately 20 kilometers southwest of the town of Hoyt Lakes. The company applied for the mineral rights in April 2006 and the prospecting permit application had been pending for six years while the BLM undertook an Environmental Impact Statement for the Superior National Forest in Minnesota.
The company now controls mineral interests that cover what it believes are virtually all of the geologically favorable parts of the Water Hen Project. Having acquired these key land parcels, it is now possible to undertake an effective exploration program on the Water Hen Project to identify potential copper-nickel-PGE mineralization. A historical copper and nickel resource as well as a separate titanium resource is contained within the land package controlled by Prime Meridian.
A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources and the issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources. The copper-nickel Water Hen Project consists of a combination of federal, state and private mineral rights in the Duluth Complex in Minnesota. From 1957 through 1975, in addition to airborne and ground geophysical surveys, 37 holes were drilled in and near the Water Hen Project by various companies and joint ventures.
The Water Hen Project contains very late orthopyroxenite dikes with anomalous sulphide mineralization. These dikes appear to cross-cut all other lithologies comprising the Water Hen Intrusive Complex. Historical drilling of the basal contact intersected these magmatic sulphide bearing orthopyroxenite dikes that graded up to 4.44% copper, 0.69% nickel, 1.10 grams/tonne of platinum, 1.75 grams/tonne of palladium and 0.38 grams/tonne gold over 0.9 metre.
