Novawest & Brightstar (PGE)

[ewallman]

NovaWest Resources Inc NVE
Shares issued 28,052,850 Jul 17 close $0.47
Thu 17 Jul 2003 News Release
Also (CJ)
Mr. Patrick O'Brien of NovaWest Resources reports
RAGLAN NI-CU-PGM-CO PROJECT DRILL SITE PREPARATION UNDERWAY
NovaWest Resources and its partner Cascadia International Resources Inc. of
Vancouver, Canada have commenced exploration on the 660-square-kilometre
(161,000-acre) Raglan assemblage. Novawest/Cascadia personnel and a
geophysical team, along with geophysical, field and drill equipment,
arrived in the area in early July. Sampling, geophysical surveying and
drill site preparation are now under way. The fully financed $3.55-million
2003 exploration program, currently under way, includes an extensive
AeroTem airborne geophysics survey program, ground geophysics over both
known and new drill targets, prospecting and sampling, and diamond
drilling. Under the terms of their agreement, the two companies have agreed
on spending $12.35-million over three years on the Raglan assemblage, with
exploration commitments of $3.55-million in year 1, $4.3-million in year 2
and $4.5-million in year 3.
The expansive Novawest/Cascadia Raglan assemblage has taken seven years to
assemble and is strategically situated in the centre of the Raglan camp
between two of the world's largest metal producers, Falconbridge Ltd. and
Anglo American Exploration (Canada) Ltd. Available data indicate that the
west, central and east horizons of all three of the important
stratigraphies of the Raglan belt are now mostly covered by the extensive
holdings of Anglo American/Knight Resources Ltd. to the west,
Novawest/Cascadia in the centre, Falconbridge Ltd. to the east, west and
north, and Canadian Royalties to the east and south. Collectively, these
companies now encompass approximately 3,000 square kilometres at Raglan.
The straddling of all three of the Raglan trends, the north trend, the main
Raglan trend (hosting most of Falconbridge's deposits) and the south trend
is a situation that appears to only be apparent on the Raglan holdings
covered by the Novawest/Cascadia Raglan assemblage and Falconbridge Ltd.'s
adjoining holdings, most of which hosts its producing Raglan deposits.
The high-grade nickel, copper and PGM samples released by Knight Resources
Ltd. and its majority partner Anglo American Exploration (Canada) Ltd. from
the western extension of the Raglan belt on July 16, 2003, are very
positive and encouraging, supporting Novawest's own in-house model,
developed in the mid- to late 1990s, projecting the entire Raglan belt from
east to west as mineralized, including the western extension. Due to early
Novawest results, more recent Canadian Royalties results and the most
recent Knight/Anglo American results, the Raglan belt does appear capable
of hosting mineralization throughout that could result in economic
orebodies. The in-house Raglan model concluded that the western extension
was capable of mirroring the mineralization already known to exist along
the north, main and south Raglan trends to the east, and this model was
based on the fact that Novawest's own sampling clearly delineated the three
trends traversing the Novawest/Cascadia Raglan assemblage east to west. It
was clear from the early sampling that the three trends would likely
continue through the central Raglan belt currently controlled by Novawest
and Cascadia, and extend into the western extension.
The company's in-house Raglan exploration model and geological overview
identify the Raglan belt as part of the Circum-Superior mobile belt, which
includes the Thompson nickel belt (TNB). In order to estimate the economic
potential of the Raglan belt, Novawest drew upon its personnel's knowledge
and expertise in the TNB, Manitoba. The TNB represents another,
approximately 340-kilometre-long portion of the Circum-Superior belt; a
virtual mirror image of the Raglan (Cape Smith belt). A comparison of the
Raglan with the TNB indicates that, to date, only a fraction of the
Ni-PGM-Cu sulphide deposits and tonnage known to exist in the TNB have been
discovered in the Raglan belt. The TNB contains in the order of 800 million
tons of Ni-PGM-Cu sulphide mineralization in over 30 deposits (not all
producers), with exploration down in excess of 5,000 feet. In comparison,
the Raglan belt is early into its economic evaluation, with exploration to
date being shallow, above 1,000 feet depth.
Falconbridge's nearby Raglan (Katiniq) mine, on property adjoining
Novawest/Cascadia, is presently an important world source of nickel,
palladium, platinum, cobalt, osmium and copper. Some of Canada's most
significant palladium and platinum values are from the Raglan camp, with
Novawest itself reporting palladium values up to 26.76 grams per tonne, and
platinum values up to 9.3 grams per tonne from 1997/1998 surface samples of
hard-rock surface outcrops. In spring 2000, Amplats, the world's largest
platinum producer, tested a sample representative of an extensive
outcropping area on the Novawest/Cascadia Raglan assemblage at its South
Africa laboratory. Amplats reported identifying three palladium-telluride
(Pd-Te) phases in the samples, and confirmed that its chemical analysis
gave a value of 20.4 grams per tonne platinum group elements plus gold.
Novawest/Cascadia is pleased to have had such a recognized and respected
independent third party report such an assay from a Novawest finding in a
zone determined to be approximately 2,000 feet in strike length. Other
various surface samples from the Raglan camp area submitted to Chemex for
analysis returned notable assays of 21.8 grams per tonne palladium, 16.5
grams per tonne palladium, 8.83 grams per tonne palladium, 5.54 grams per
tonne palladium and 3.37 grams per tonne palladium. The Novawest/Cascadia
assemblage surrounds Falconbridge's Delta-Oasis property containing the
approximately 850,000-ton Delta deposit (D-8 and D-9) grading 3.08 per cent
nickel, 1.26 per cent copper and 2.25 grams per tonne platinum group
minerals (PGMs). It is understood that these holes were placed a few
hundred metres from Novawest/Cascadia boundaries.
Maps and information packages on the Raglan camp and the company in general
can be obtained by contacting Novawest at 1-800-663-8990 in North America,
or 604-683-8990 from elsewhere.
Novawest invites the public to visit its Web site at
http://www.novawest.com,, or E-mail it at [e-mail] to be added
to the company's E-mail list for news releases and updates.
WARNING: The company relies upon litigation protection for
"forward-looking" statements