Black Fire Minerals plans exploration programs at newly acquired tungsten and rare earth projects

Black Fire Minerals (ASX: BFE) has updated progress being made at its newly acquired Pilot Mountain Tungsten Project in Nevada and Longonjo Rare Earth Element (REE) Project in Angola.

Black Fire acquired the Pilot Mountain Project on 14th February 2011. The project ranks favourably in tungsten grade with many existing tungsten mines and resource projects worldwide.

Black Fire acquired the Longonjo REE Project shortly after on 28th February 2011. The 3,600 square kilometre project is located in centre of the increasingly stable Angola and is particularly enticing as it has had little modern exploration.

Anthony Baillieu, Black Fire’s Acting Chairman, said “we are very pleased with the progress to date of the due diligence programs at both Pilot Mountain and Longonjo and the company remains excited about the prospectivity of both projects.

"The technical team has commenced planning first stage exploration programs for both projects and are looking forward to hitting the ground running with extensive drill programs upon the successful completion of due diligence”.


Pilot Mountain Tungsten Project

At Pilot Mountain technical and legal due diligence activities are well advanced and the company is encouraged by the potential of the project.

World Industrial Minerals LLC (WIM), a highly experienced Denver based consulting group, have been engaged to manage the project.

A further site visit has been conducted by Black Fire and WIM staff to review prospect areas and collect a 250kg bulk sample from the Desert Scheelite Trial Pit for preliminary metallurgical test work on the oxide material.

This sample has been submitted to a specialist tungsten metallurgical laboratory, Phillips Enterprises LLC, with a report due in the next 3‐4 weeks.

Rock chip sampling across one exposed wall of the historic trial pit has returned encouraging results including 10m at 0.25% WO3, 0.40% Cu, 20.8g/t Ag & 0.72% Zn.

There are high levels of potential credit metals, whilst the tungsten values are consistent with historic drill results in this particular lower‐grade portion of the deposit.

All available historic data has been captured and the construction of digital databases, that will allow first stage drill program planning, is progressing well.

The 100 day due diligence period ends on 18th May 2011 and upon a positive outcome Black Fire intends to commence an aggressive drilling program with the aim of bringing the historically defined mineralisation into a maiden JORC resource.

Longonjo REE Project

At Longonjo Rare Earth Element Project technical and legal due diligence activities are well advanced and the company remains enthusiastic about the potential of the Longonjo REE Prospect and the prospectivity of the remaining 3,600 square km licence area for REE, copper & gold.

Black Fire staff recently completed a highly successful two week due diligence visit to Angola comprising technical reviews as well as Government and JV partner meetings.

As part of the technical review, a trenching, pitting and rock chip geochemical sampling program across the Longonjo REE Prospect was completed with 88 samples collected and submitted for analysis.

In addition, a further 575 soil samples covering extensions to the current soil REE geochemical anomaly have also been submitted for analysis. All results are expected in 4‐5 weeks.

The 100 day due diligence period ends on 5th June 2011 and upon a positive outcome, Black Fire intends to immediately commence a substantial drilling program to test the Longonjo REE Prospect, which is defined by an “open” 2km x 1.5km >0.5% cerium and lanthanum soil anomaly.