Status and Location — The Kugruk property/prospect located in Western Alaska lies 70 miles north of Nome in the northern Seward Peninsula and consists of a total of 177,280 acres of Alaska State Claims, consisting of 176,640 (1,113 claims) of 100% owned Alaska State Claims and 640 acres (4 claims) of leased Alaska State Claims.

The property, owned 100% by the Company, acquired from NovaGold Resources Inc., covers low tundra-covered hills and broad valleys along the Kugruk River which runs south to north through the claim block. Only very limited rock exposure is present. Exploration is helicopter supported from the historic Independence mining camp located roughly in the center of the property and approximately 20 miles from the coast and Kotzebue Sound. The very large scale targets developed to date on the Kugruk property show excellent potential for the discovery of large copper-gold porphyry, IOCG and replacement style deposits. (Click here to see a Company Presentation on the Kugruk Project (PDF Format — effective May 18, 2010).

Geology — The Kugruk area consists of Late Proterozoic and Paleozoic schists, quartzites, and carbonate cut by a major NNW trending structure called the Kugruk Fault. On the west of the fault, late Cretaceous granitoid rocks intrude the metasedimentary sequence and include the Kugruk Pluton dated at 94.9 Ma. The area is best known for placer gold occurrences which occur in many of the tributaries of both the Kugruk River and the Kiwalik River to the east.

Click here to see the Kugruk NI 43-101 Technical Report - November, 2009

Historic shallow drilling in the 1970’s encountered massive magnetite-chalcopyrite calc-silicate assemblage along the east margin of the Kugruk granitic intrusive complex, where it intrudes Paleozoic meta-sediments (please refer to attached Map - B1 above). A small amount of drill core left on site returned copper assays as high as 9060 ppm within massive magnetite and calc-silicate rock. This core came from holes drilled along a small portion of the 14-kilometer long Kugruk Magnetic Belt which flanks the east margin of the Kugruk pluton. It is speculated by geologic inference that the entire belt may contain additional Fe-Cu mineralization. Further east are scattered high grade silver-lead-zinc occurrences including the Independence mine. Extensive reconnaissance soil sampling across the 52 kilometer by 17 kilometer area of the property shows that glacial loess cover masks the bedrock geology and geochemistry in the lower elevations, and that only the tops of the low hills in the area produce a reliable bedrock-generated soil geochemical response. The strongest and most extensive Cu-in-soil anomalies where sampling was effective occur within the intrusive complex on Kugruk Mountain (see attached Map - B1 above), and in the southern part of the property in the Knowles Creek area (see attached Map - B2 above). 

Exploration Work previously done by NovaGold Exploration — Prior to Tintina Resources Inc. acquiring the Kugruk project from NovaGold Resources Inc. , NovaGold had staked claims in 2005 on the known significant mineral prospects and continued staking claims and completed an airborne geophysical survey over 50 kilometers of the trend in 2006. The survey identified an arcuate 16 kilometer high intensity magnetic anomaly which includes the drilled locations of the magnetite skarn. The highest intensity magnetic features on the arcuate belt which range up to 25K nT remain undrilled. The magnetic feature is virtually untested other than the few initial Placid Oil holes.

In addition to the magnetic features apparent in the airborne data, at least 15 low resistivity anomalies and conductors on the claim block show characteristics and size consistent with significant quantities of sulfide mineralization.

In 2007, NovaGold collected approximately 2000 soils from wide-spaced east-west lines placed across the Kugruk pluton and across other mineralized trends and geophysical anomalies on the property. The area which is largely covered by shallow loess still returned significant Cu soil anomalies associated with the margin of the Kugruk pluton and covering a second apparent intrusive center further south; and Ag, Pb, and Zn anomalies along the trend of the historic base prospects.

Follow-up analysis by NovaGold on the limited unassayed Placid Oil returned some very favorable results. Large intervals of core are missing from the camp and were (as related by an ex-Placid geologist whom had worked on the property) supposedly better intervals removed by Placid. Highlights from the NovaGold sampling of the remaining core include DDH20-78 with 38.7 meters of 60.8% Fe and 0.11% Cu and DDH6-78 with 25.9 meters of 60.9% Fe and 0.08% Cu.

Exploration activities: In 2009  — included an orientation ground geophysical survey carried out by Zonge Engineering to investigate three of the many strong magnetic anomalies and low resistivity anomalies outlined in a Fugro 2006 airborne magnetic and EM survey. The survey consisted of 16.4 line kilometers of 100 meter dipole-dipole Induced Polarity and resistivity, and 11 gravity profiles.

Work focused on three distinct areas:

1. A three kilometer segment of the northern Kugruk magnetic belt;
2. On a three kilometer non-magnetic airborne low resistivity anomaly on the south slope of Kugruk Mountain
3. On a five kilometer non-magnetic airborne low resistivity anomaly, coincident with a copper-in-soil anomaly, near Knowles Creek in the southern part of the property.

In all cases, the survey confirmed the low resistivity response shown in the airborne survey, and showed a coincident and unusually high IP response. The scale of the geophysical response in all cases was larger than the size of the survey — additional work is planned in the future. In addition, the magnetic high in the northern Kugruk magnetic belt also showed an extremely high gravity response.

The results of this orientation geophysical survey strongly indicate widespread concentrations of metallic minerals in the subsurface of the Kugruk property, some of which are coincident with copper mineralization known from soil sampling and from very limited historic shallow surface drilling. The targets developed to date indicate the potential for large scale metal deposits and define several excellent targets for drill testing for large copper-iron-gold porphyry, IOCG and replacement deposits.

Based on the surveys, an exploration drill program was undertaken in the summer of 2010.

Click here to see the Kugruk 2010 Exploration Drill Program highlights

Target Type — The juxtaposition of the Cretaceous intrusive complex, Cu-Fe skarn, widespread Ag-Pb-Zn prospects and a halo of placer Au rich drainages suggest an extremely large hydrothermal event typical of either a large scale porphyry copper or IOCG system. The area which is virtually covered by shallow loess has seen very limited work and clearly holds the potential for a world class Fe-Cu or Cu-Au deposit in an accessible near coastal location.

Exploration activities: in 2010 — The core of the property recieved a ground IP geophysical survey to help direct drilling, and approximately 3,000 meters of drill testing of the various geophysical and geochemical domains outlined in NovaGolds initial targeting was undertaken. Further outlying parts of the property received additional follow-up mapping and sampling of anomalies generated by NovaGolds earlier work.

* More information coming soon *