Full Metal options 811,000 Doyon acres

Expanding its Alaska properties dramatically, Vancouver-based junior Full Metal Minerals announced in late May that it had acquired 811,000 acres in an option agreement with Alaska Native regional corporation Doyon. Full Metal Minerals may earn a 100 percent interest in the mineral rights of Doyon's conveyed and selected lands in eastern Alaska.

The 40-Mile property covers numerous precious and base metal prospects, the most advanced of which is the Lead Creek high-grade silver target, located 12 kilometers west of the Taylor Highway. In addition, the Fish and WGM occurrences are silver-lead-zinc prospects with high-grade values on surface that have never been drill tested, according to Full Metal Minerals. The company plans to undertake a minimum 1,500-meter diamond drilling program, a ground-based gravity geophysical survey, and surface mapping and sampling on these prospects this summer.

$325,000 per year to Doyon

During the exploration agreement, Full Metal Minerals will pay Doyon US$325,000 over six years, make annual scholarship donations of US$10,000 per year, and make exploration expenditures totaling US$3.85 million. The agreement also details royalty payments that Full Metal Minerals would make to Doyon depending on the level of production. The 2006 exploration program will be supervised by consulting geologists Nicholas Van Wyck and Curt Freeman.

In April Full Metal Minerals acquired a 100 percent interest in the Immachuck gold property on the Seward Peninsula, 180 kilometers northeast of Nome. The company is exploring at various other properties around Alaska, including in the Aleutians and near the Pebble copper-gold deposit in southwest Alaska. One of the most promising targets is the historic Lucky Shot gold property near Anchorage, where a 60 hole, 10,000 meter diamond drill program is continuing this summer.

Full Metal Minerals has joint venture agreements with Metallica Resources, Triex Minerals, Andover Ventures and Fury Explorations. The company owns properties in Nunavut as well as Alaska.