North Arrow Minerals Inc. (NAR: TSXV) is pleased to announce that drilling is underway at its wholly owned Phoenix lithium project in Canada's Northwest Territories. The project is located approximately 60 km east of existing winter road infrastructure that services the Diavik and Ekati diamond mines. The 800 m drilling program is designed to test the large lithium-bearing Big Bird pegmatite that has an exposed strike length in excess of 1,200 m with observable widths of up to 80 m. Previous channel sampling of the Big Bird pegmatite returned weighted average grades ranging from 0.57% to 3.13% Li2O over channel widths ranging from 1.0 m to 5.51 m.
Earlier this summer, prospecting and mapping peripheral to the Big Bird pegmatite identified lithium bearing pegmatites at six new localities within a 15 km by 15 km area of the Phoenix project (please see North Arrow news release #09-11 dated July 14, 2009). Assay results from this prospecting program have been received and confirm significant lithium contents at each of the new localities. A total of seventeen prospecting samples considered representative of the new spodumene bearing pegmatites have returned from 0.41 to 3.62% Li2O, with eleven samples returning greater than 1.5% Li2O. Additional sampling and mapping of these new pegmatites will be undertaken in conjunction with the drilling program.
The Phoenix lithium project is part of the Company's ongoing efforts to identify and evaluate North American lithium deposits, including its wholly owned North Carolina and Torp (Nunavut) projects.
North Arrow's exploration programs are conducted under the supervision of Gordon Clarke, P.Geol. (NT&NU), Vice President, Exploration for North Arrow and a qualified person under NI 43-101. All samples from the field programs are submitted to Acme Analytical Laboratories in Vancouver for analysis. Samples are subjected to a 4 acid digestion and analysis for 40 elements using a combination of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) emission spectrometry and ICP mass spectrometry methods. Laboratory inserted duplicates and standards provided optimum precision and accuracy.
North Arrow Minerals Inc.
/s/ "D. Grenville Thomas"
D. Grenville Thomas
President and CEO
For further information, please contact:
D. Grenville Thomas
President and CEO
Tel: 604-668-8355
Gordon Clarke
Vice President, Exploration
Tel: 867-873-8483
Website: www.northarrowminerals.com
