Century Iron Mines provides update on drilling plans for Rainy Lake property

Century Iron Mines Corp. (TSE:FER) provided Friday an update on its current exploration plans for the Rainy Lake portion of its Sunny Lake iron ore project in Quebec.
At Rainy Lake in the Schefferville area of Quebec, the company kicked off a 2012 winter program in February, consisting of 10,337 metres drilled for 41 holes to date, and intercepting 7,268 metres of "moderate to strongly magnetic" mineralized zones.
Century Iron said it expects to release the results of these holes in the next two months.
The winter program, which followed a successful 2011 program that uncovered the new taconite Full Moon prospect, extended the strike length to roughly 9 kilometres.
The company is continuing its current exploration program, and said it expects to drill more than 5,000 metres in the next two months, the results of which will be used to provide an initial NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate.
In 2011, a 6,387 metre exploration drill program was carried out at the Rainy Lake area  comprising 31 holes.
The assay results from this drilling program were released in January, with the new discovery zone, now named the Full Moon prospect, tested by 31 diamond holes over a strike length of 6.5 kilometres, and a horizontal width of up to 2.8 kilometres.
Highlights from the Full Moon prospect included 318.2 metres of taconite iron mineralization from 5.4 metres depth grading 29.5% total iron in hole RL-11-0401.
The vertical thickness of the new zone increases to the east from 50 metres to 341 metres and remains open along strike, the company noted.
"I am pleased with the progress of the drilling to date," said president and CEO, Sandy Chim.
"So far, with over 16,000 metres of drilling, this has extended the strike length of the mineralized iron formation to approximately 9 kilometres.
"Due to its thickness, width and strike length, the Full Moon project has the potential of being one of the largest single taconite deposits in Canada."
Mining taconite is relatively new in Canada, but it has been the main staple of the US steel industry.
Roughly half of the blast furnaces in the US use pellets from the taconite like Mesabi Iron Range in Minnesota and Marquette Iron Range in Michigan.
"The Canadian Labrador Trough is a classic text book example of such taconite formation on a very large scale," Chim continued.
The Sunny Lake property, located in the Schefferville area in Quebec, has taken up a large amount of the company’s focus lately, with two promising targets at the site.
The "outstanding property", as described by Chim, was acquired in 2009 by staking, and hosts 530 mineral claims, covering around 25,692 hectares. The project, which is 100 percent owned by Century, consists of two separate claim areas - Lac Le Fer and Rainy Lake - with both areas being at an early stage of exploration and having no defined resources.
Taconite is a variety of iron formation, which is an iron-bearing sedimentary rock, while direct shipping ore (DSO) refers to iron ore that can be shipped directly to a steel furnace.
In February, assay results from the Lac Le Fer that tested the DSO target were unveiled. The company tested the target, named Prospect 3, with one short hole at the end of the exploration program.
Hole LLFP3-11-004 intersected 45 metres of 62.67% total iron, with the hole ending in mineralization at 54 metres, meaning it can be expanded further.
The Lac Le Fer and Rainy Lake properties are located 65 and 85 kilometres, respectively, northwest of the town of Schefferville and are accessible by air.
Under the terms of a definitive joint venture agreement signed with WISCO International Resources Development in Decemeber of last year, WISCO has a 40 per cent interest in Sunny Lake in exchange for a $40 million investment.
WISCO has a right of first refusal to purchase up to 40 per cent of the production attributable to the joint venture company at cost, and a right to purchase an additional 20 per cent of production at market.
Century Iron Mines is Canada's largest holder of iron ore land claims, with interests in several properties in the provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Aside from Sunny Lake, Century Iron holds a 51 percent interest in the Duncan Lake project with an option to increase to 65 percent under a joint venture with Augyva Mining Resources.
It also holds the Attikamagen project, for which Century has an option to acquire up to a 60 per cent interest under an agreement with Champion Minerals (TSE:CHM).
In addition to Century's main three projects, late last year, it acquired four iron ore properties in Newfoundland from Altius Minerals (TSE:ALS), where it is planning around $5 million worth of exploration this year.