Gold Mountain Mining drills 1.6 m of 159 g/t Au atGold Mountain Mining Corp. has released initial assay results from the Company's 2011 exploration program at its 100% owned advanced stage Elk Gold project near Merritt BC. The drill campaign was successful in confirming and extending several high grade veins within the historic pit area, and also discovered a new vein occurrence or extension some 450 meters along strike from previous drilling on the known resource. Highlights of the holes announced today include the following:
- SND11-110: 1.46 meters of 16.6 g/t gold and 141.5 g/t silver;
- SND11-112 1.24 meters of 22.3 g/t gold and 54.9 g/t silver;
- SND11-128 1.60 meters of 159.9 g/t gold and 118.3 g/t silver;
- SND11-132 1.20 meters of 30.3 g/t gold and 95.8 g/t silver.
Gold Mountain's CEO Jim O'Rourke commented "Elk is an intriguing deposit with veins locally carrying very high grades of gold and silver and has an existing half million ounce gold resource. The veins are narrow but generally project to surface and are potentially amenable to selective open pit and/or underground mining methods, as outlined in our Preliminary Economic Assessment. We are now looking forward to completing an updated resource estimate, based on the 26,750m of additional drilling completed since the last estimate in 2009."
During the 4 month field program, the Company completed 14,000m of core drilling in 77 holes. The drill program was designed to confirm and upgrade the existing resource and to test three other high priority targets on the property, which included the Gold Creek, Lake and South zones. Highlights of the first 45 drill holes in the historic pit area (numbered 88 to 132) are reported below. Results from the remaining 32 regional holes (numbered 133- 164) are pending and will be reported once assays are received.
Hole From (m)To (m)Interval (m)Au (g/t)Ag (g/t)SND11-088 281.82 283.60 1.78 22.5 17.0Including 281.82 282.08 0.26 154.0 113.0SND11-090 91.75 93.15 1.40 19.2 21.5Including 91.75 91.97 0.22 105.0 104.0And 396.95 398.64 1.69 15.0 17.6Including 398.08 398.34 0.26 96.0 108.0SND11-092 34.40 35.80 1.40 25.3 13.8Including 35.40 35.60 0.20 168.0 42.2SND11-096 136.45 138.12 1.67 4.76 8.5Including 137.20 137.62 0.42 18.9 33.8SND11-105 167.42 168.62 1.20 4.45 210.6Including 167.42 167.92 0.50 10.6 500.0SND11-106 143.50 144.76 1.26 4.73 35.7Including 144.20 144.45 0.25 23.4 168.0SND11-110 128.10 129.56 1.46 16.6 141.5Including 128.80 129.00 0.20 115.0 860.0SND11-112 41.21 42.45 1.24 22.3 54.9Including 41.41 41.61 0.20 126.0 286.0SND11-113 86.70 88.33 1.63 14.2 8.5Including 87.41 87.62 0.21 109.0 64.0SND11-115 229.42 230.83 1.41 9.13 5.8Including 229.77 229.97 0.20 64.0 40.2SND11-123 73.67 74.75 1.08 10.9 20.7Including 74.13 74.52 0.39 30.4 56.2SND11-128 131.10 132.7 1.60 159.9 118.3Including 132.00 132.55 0.55 465.0 344.0SND11-132 292.10 293.30 1.20 30.33 95.8Including 292.60 292.80 0.20 182.0 575.0
Please note that the gold assays above have been composited to a "minimum mining width" of 1-2 meters (which may include zero grade material) to reflect the average widths used in the existing block model resource estimate. Also note that all widths reported above are down hole intercepts only, with true widths ranging from approximately 70 to 100 % of the reported width.
Drilling was successful in confirming the continuity of high grade vein structures in several areas surrounding the historic bulk sample pit where 53,000 ounces of gold was recovered. Infill hole SND11-128, in the central pit area, where the steeply dipping 1300 vein was intersected as expected, returning grades up to 159 g/t gold over 1.60 meters (including 465 g/t over 0.55m). Step out hole SND11-110, in the northwest pit area, where the steeply dipping 2400 vein was extended along strike at least 300 meters to the west, with grades up to 16.6 g/t gold over 1.46 meters (including 115 g/t over 0.2m); and step out hole SND11-113, in the southeast resource area, where the flat lying 1200 vein was extended at least 35 meters down dip to the south, with grades up to 14.2 g/t gold over 1.63 meters (including 109 g/t over 0.21m). A drill hole location map and composite cross section for these holes will be posted to our website shortly.
Drilling also discovered a new vein structure in the Far West zone, located some 450 meters west and along strike of the historic pit area, where drill hole SND11-123 returned an intercept of semi-massive pyrite, sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite in quartz, which graded 30.4 g/t gold over 0.39 meters. This could represent an extension of the 1300 vein (which was previously mined in the historic pit) and will be a particular focus of drill testing next year. This intercept suggests significant additional resource potential along strike from known mineralization.
The drill data is now being compiled and interpreted in more detail, to allow for an updated resource estimate, planned for completion in Q2 2012. The current NI 43-101 resource estimate, based on drill data available in 2009, stands at 2,190,000 tonnes Measured and Indicated at an average grade of 4.26 g/t Au (for 301,000 ounces gold contained), plus 1,150,000 tonnes Inferred at an average grade of 7.13 g/t Au (for 263,000 ounces gold contained).
The resource update will be performed by Giroux Consultants Ltd. of Vancouver, BC to include new data from both the 2010 program of 12,750m drilling (conducted by previous owner Almaden Minerals) and the 2011 program of 14,000m drilling discussed herein. The update will also be based on a new interpretation of the vein system based on a complete re-survey of the existing holes, moving from the old mine grid into modern UTM coordinates.
Gold Mountain adheres to a strict QA/QC monitoring program that includes the insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates into the sample stream, as well as the re-submission of select samples for check assays by a third party laboratory. Core samples were analyzed at Ecotech Labs (a Stewart Group company) in Kamloops, BC, by Fire Assay with a gravimetric finish if over 10g/t gold, and an Atomic Absorption finish if under 10 g/t.
Gold Mountain's Vice President of Exploration, Peter Thiersch, M.Sc., P.Geo., was responsible for the design and execution of the 2011 field program and also acts as the Company's Qualified Person for technical disclosure per National Instrument 43-101.