Man Alaska project shows potential: an entire spectrum of minerals are being found, but production is still years away.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: 2005 Mining Special Section

When the Nevada Star Corp. first started staking what is now known as the MAN Alaska project in 1995, they were looking for sources of platinum, based on stories told by placer miners who had successfully worked in the area. Since then, the exploration company has discovered that the site, 160 miles southeast of Fairbanks, might well be the source of a variety of sought-after metals, including nickel, copper, gold, cobalt and platinum group elements, or PGEs.

"At first, we were following up on information that we'd gathered from placer miners in the area," explained Robert Angrisano, president and director of Nevada Star Resource Corp. "One guy in Seattle told us that he put three kids through college by mining there during the summer. As exploration continued, and we began to analyze the assay packages, it became clear to us that we were finding a very rich spectrum of metals including quite a bit of silver. We hadn't been looking for that before."

The MAN Alaska project is the first foray' into Alaska for Nevada Star Corp., which is headquartered in Seattle, Wash., and has an office in Vancouver, British Columbia. A mineral exploration company, they use advanced technology to search for high-demand metals, based on a number of factors. "We get involved in grass-roots projects based on hearing good results about a certain area," explained Angrisano. "We look at state and federal geological maps and USGS studies, and we see if anyone else has done work in the area and will share their results. We then physically go out and collect samples and study the geology, and determine if a site has potential.

"We also base our decision to proceed on other factors, including the infrastructure of the area, and if a site could become a big enough project to attract major mining companies," he added. "While some other companies use small properties to pump up their stock, we aren't interested in any sites that aren't large enough, or don't have a significant quantity of metals, to be of interest to major companies."

The 271-square-mile MAN Alaska property, which borders the Richardson and Denali highways and the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, seems to be such a site. According to the Investors Introduction to the Company, provided by Nevada Star, rock samples from the property have been found to contain up to 1,5.4 percent nickel, 16 percent copper, 0.21 oz/ton gold, 2.6 oz/ton silver, 0.16 oz/ton platinum, and 0.45 oz/ton palladium, in addition to...