HOUSTON LAKE MINING INC.
PRESS RELEASE
Houston Lake Options New Rare Metals Discovery
March 29, 1999: Calgary, Alberta - Houston Lake Mining Inc. ("Houston Lake") is pleased to announce that the Company has signed a 100 percent option agreement with an arms length private individual on the 256 hectare (632 acre) Pakeagama Lake Rare Metals Property. Houston Lake is required to issue 200,000 common shares, make cash payments totaling $150,000, and expend $63,000 over 3 years to earn a 100 percent interest in the Pakeagama Lake Property. The Option Agreement is subject to a 2.5 percent N.S.R. and Alberta Stock Exchange approval.
The Pakeagama Lake Property is located approximately 150 kilometres north of Red Lake, Ontario. The property covers the Pakeagama Rare Metals Pegmatite which is traceable at surface for 250 metres and is open along strike in both directions. The width of the pegmatite varies from 10 to 70 metres and appears to be widening along strike in both directions.
The economic potential of the area was first identified by Dr. Denver Stone of the Ontario Geological Survey ("OGS") in a regional reconnaissance mapping program in the early 1990s. However, the significance of the pegmatite in terms of size, classification type and its evolved mineralogy and chemistry was not realized until the 1998 field work of Dr. Fred Breaks of the OGS. The field work has now established that the Pakeagama Rare Metals Pegmatite is potentially a world-class pegmatite, which is extremely fractionated and displays strong internal zonation, suggesting the presence of a Tanco/Bikita type system.
In Summary of Field Work 1998, OGS MP 169, released by the OGS in January, 1999, it is stated that "Several economically important tantalum-rich minerals have been documented in 70 electron microprobe analyses undertaken to date at the Department of Earth Sciences at Open University" (United Kingdom). The Report also states: "This pegmatitic system also contains pollucite, as several recessively-weathered crystals up to 2 by 4 cm were identified by the OGS and verified by x-ray diffraction." Pollucite is the main ore mineral for cesium, and its presence indicates "a high exploration potential for zones rich in cesium." One of the conclusions reached in the Report is that: "In the Pakeagama Lake Pegmatite, the presence of tantalum-rich minerals such as manganotantalite, ferrotantalite, microlite and ferrotapiolite coupled with pollucite and rubidium concentrations that exceed 1 percent in potassium feldspar, indicate a high potential for zones rich in tantalum, cesium and rubidium-rich potassium feldspar." Significant lithium oxide values ranging from 3.77 to 4.74 percent have been returned from channel sampling of the spodumene-quartz core of the pegmatite.
Tantalum is used in electrical capacitors, tantalum-carbide tools, chemical alloys and for prosthetic devices and surgical implants in the medical industry. Cesium is used in calibrated drill muds, power generation, motors, opto-electronics and chemical catalyst DNA separation. Rubidium is used primarily by the ceramics industry. Lithium is used in ceramics, glassware, alloys, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, vitamins and in the smelting of aluminum ores.
Company President Grayme Anthony stated that "We are extremely pleased to have secured the rights to this new discovery. Although the work is at an early stage, it has been carried out by some of the foremost experts in the field and the results to date are quite spectacular. Houston Lake intends to advance the development of this property as quickly as is practical, as it certainly has the earmarks of being a company maker." A program of detailed mapping, surface stripping, trenching and sampling is proposed to complement Dr. Fred Breaks initial work on the Pakeagama Rare Metals Pegmatite.
Houston Lake has a total of 10,471,600 common shares issued and outstanding and trades through the facilities of the Alberta Stock Exchange under the symbol HLM.
For more information, please contact:
E. Grayme Anthony
Tel: (705) 897-7622
Fax: (705) 897-7618
e-mail: houston@vianet.on.ca
The Alberta Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the information contained herein.