By Patricia Liles
For the Journal

Vancouver, B.C.-based Full Metal Minerals Ltd. kicked off its industrious exploration work planned for 2008 in late April, with drilling on the company's 40 Mile project in east-central Alaska on land optioned from Interior Alaska Native corporation Doyon Ltd.

Full Metal, one of Alaska's aggressive junior exploration companies with nine different properties spread throughout the state, announced April 22 the start of drilling exploration on key targets located with a large land package optioned from Doyon.

Using two core drill rigs operating this spring on the 40 Mile property, Full Metal plans to complete almost 50,000 feet of samples from CRD (carbonate replacement deposit) targets containing high grades of zinc and silver.

The company also plans to complete more than 32,000 feet of core samples on the Little White Man (LWM) prospect, which has produced past samples containing high grades of zinc, lead, silver and copper.

Results from last year's drill program include a 146-foot sample averaging 15.9 percent, 5.3 percent lead and 2.46 ounces of silver per ton of rock, and a 21-foot sample averaging 31.6 percent zinc, 11.3 percent lead, 1.41 percent copper and 14.9 ounces of silver per ton of rock, Full Metal said.

“Drilling to date has encountered massive sphalerite/galena/chalcopyrite mineralization over 300 meters of strike length, and over 200 meters below surface and remains open for expansion in all directions,” the company said in an April release.

Also this year on the 40 Mile property, Full Metal plans to complete about 16,000 feet of drilling to test new occurrences and prospects on the 235,376-acre property owned by Doyon that Full Metal has optioned for mineral exploration activity. Specifically, the Eva and Drumstick prospects will be tested with several drill holes, according to the company.

The prospects are contained within a 55-mile-long trend of mineralization spread across the Doyon land package, according to Janna Baker, who presented an overview of Full Metal's carbonate replacement discoveries at the 40 Mile project during a mining conference held in Fairbanks in late March.

Plans call for spending $6.5 million in an “aggressive” drill program at the 40 Mile project, Baker said. Additional work will include several geophysical surveys and extensive regional mapping.

Spending on the 40 Mile project is part of Full Metal's phase 1 budget for 2008 exploration in Alaska and the Yukon totaling $17 million, of which a minimum of $5.2 million will be funded by joint venture partners.

According to a late February release, the spending will cover a minimum of eight drill programs, totaling more than 90,000 feet.

“Part of Full Metal's exploration strategy is to enter into option agreements with major mining companies and qualified junior explorers, while retaining a 100 percent interest in key flagship properties such as 40 Mile and Lucky Shot,” the company said.

Since 2005, Full Metal has explored the historic Lucky Shot underground gold mine, located in the Willow Creek mining district just north of Anchorage. This year, Full Metal plans to evaluate several options at Lucky Shot, including both underground and surface drilling, as well as a bulk sampling program. The company's minimum budget for Lucky Shot is $2.5 million, according to the February announcement.

Full Metal also plans to begin a spring drilling program at the Moore Creek property, located in Southwest Alaska, according to Jodie Gibson, who described that gold project during the March mining conference held in Fairbanks.

Moore Creek, located about 55 miles northeast of the 32 million-ounce Donlin Creek gold deposit in the hills of the upper Kuskokwim River, is situated along the Iditarod-Nixon Fork fault, Gibson said.

Historic and recent placer gold production on the 42,250-acre property totals about 60,000 ounces of gold. Currently, a placer mine resource of 70,000 ounces of gold and about 12,000 ounces of silver exists, he said.

Moore Creek is a joint venture between Full Metal, which hold a 40 percent interest in the property, and Highbury Projects Inc., which holds the remaining 60 percent.

Initial drilling, totaling about 10,000 feet, will test coarse-gold bearing quartz stockwork within a 984-foot-by-1,312-foot mineralized zone discovered during last year's trenching program. The first phase of exploration work this year is budgeted at $1.2 million, Full Metal said.

Last year, Full Metal conducted soil and rock sampling, completed 1,968 feet of trenching and contracted for airborne geophysics. A total of $200,000 was spent at Moore Creek in 2007, Gibson said.

Another sizeable exploration project this year is Full Metal's Pebble South property, a joint venture with Freeport-McMoRan Exploration Co. An initial 6,500-foot drill program is planned to start in early May this year, with a $1 million budget proposed.

Full Metal and its various partners also plan work this year on other gold properties in Alaska, including the CJ project and the Mount Andrew/Kasaan property, both located in Southeast Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula project located in far Southwest Alaska.

In a new joint venture with BHP Billiton, Full Metal plans to spend $1.3 million on its Alaska Porphyry Reconnaissance program. Work will include an airborne geophysical survey and surface geological work to develop drill targets on up to six copper-gold-molybdenum targets staked in Alaska by Full Metal in 2007.