News - More good stuff!High River Gold Intersects More High-Grade Mineralization at Bissa Additional Drilling in Planning Stage
TORONTO, Mar 21, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
High River Gold Mines Ltd. ("High River" or the "Company") (TSX:HRG) is pleased to report the final results of its 31,500 metre drilling programme on the Bissa project in Burkina Faso. Assay results have been received from the last 10 diamond drill holes at Bissa Hill Deposit South Extension and Bissa Southwest which were designed to extend the known gold mineralization.
An independent resource estimate for the Bissa project is currently being calculated by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. and is expected to be completed in April 2006.
Highlights of the latest results include:
- Three significant gold intersections in separate holes on the
high-grade zone of the Bissa Hill Deposit South Extension:
59.2 g/t over 9.1 m
10.7 g/t over 25.1 m
7.1 g/t over 14.0 m
- Two high-grade gold intersections on Zones 2 and 3 at Bissa
Southwest:
10.8 g/t over 5.3 m
9.0 g/t over 6.0 m
(The Bissa Southwest results extend gold mineralization down-dip to approximately 145 metres vertical and indicate that Zones 2 and 3 are merging into one larger zone along strike.)
High River is presently planning the next drilling programme which will include three high priority targets at Bouly, Liliga and Gougre, all located within 10 to 15 kilometres of Bissa. At Bissa, exploration work is continuing over an additional 25 kilometres of strike length of the Sabce deformation corridor and further drilling will be planned following receipt of the resource estimate.
Bissa Hill Deposit South Extension
High River drilled seven core holes (1,008 m) on the Bissa Hill Deposit South Extension, including five holes (746.5 m) on the high-grade southwestern zone. The results from these five holes, progressing from the southwest to the northeast (ZK06-80 to ZK06-76), are as follows. Hole ZK06-80, drilled on section 8620E and testing the down-dip extension of the main intersection in RC ZBR-200 (3.3 g/t over 25 m), successfully returned 59.2 g/t over 9.1 m from 74 m, followed by 4.5 g/t over 3 m from 87 m, extending the zone to a vertical depth of 65 m. Hole ZK06-79, drilled on section 8660E and testing the high-grade zone up-dip from ZK05-17 (17.6 g/t over 16 m from 66 m), intersected 10.7 g/t over 25.1 m from 40.9 m. Hole ZK06-78, drilled below RC ZBR-198 (4.4 g/t over 14 m) on section 8700E, cut a high-grade intersection of 7.1 g/t over 14 m from 31 m before reaching the target zone that returned 1.1 g/t over 9.1 m at a vertical depth of 75 metres. Hole ZK06-77, drilled below ZK05-54 (12.2 g/t over 27.1 m) on section 8740E, intersected 1.2 g/t over 8.5 m from 27 m and 7.7 g/t over 1.5 m from 83.0 m, with the target zone returning 0.77 g/t over 6.0 m at a vertical depth of 95 m. ZK06-76, drilled below ZK06-63 on section 8780E, cut three main gold intersections including two new zones with 2.0 g/t over 11.1 m from 21.5 m and 1.4 g/t over 16 m from 52.9 m, with the target zone returning 0.9 g/t over 16.9 m from 135.1 m. Hole ZK06-75, drilled on section 9100E below ZK05-22 (0.9 g/t over 9 m), intersected the zone with 1.3 g/t over 6 m from 65 m, extending the zone to a depth of 50 metres vertical, and cut a new hanging wall zone from 49.7 m, grading 5.3 g/t over 3.3 m; both zones remain open down-dip. Hole ZK06-74, drilled on section 9340E below RC ZBR-192 (1.9 g/t over 23 m), returned 0.7 g/t over 19.2 m from 79.2 m, extending the zone down-dip to 60 metres vertical.
he high-grade mineralized zone extends for 300 metres along strike (between sections 8500E and 8800E), plunges 30 degrees to the northeast and remains open down-dip. Drill results have confirmed the continuity and high-grade nature of the zone to a vertical depth of at least 90 metres at the currently defined down-plunge extent of the zone.
Bissa Hill Deposit South Extension Highlights (latest results)
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Hole No. From To Interval Gold
(m) (m) (m) (g/t)
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DDH ZK06-074 79.2 98.4 19.2 0.74
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DDH ZK06-075 49.7 53.0 3.3 5.27
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Including 51.5 52.0 0.5 21.80
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DDH ZK06-076 21.5 32.6 11.1 2.01
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Including 27.8 29.0 1.2 13.20
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52.9 68.85 16.0 1.39
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135.1 152.0 16.9 0.85
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DDH ZK06-077 27.0 35.5 8.5 1.19
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83.0 84.5 1.5 7.67
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Including 84.0 84.5 0.5 13.60
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DDH ZK06-078 31.0 45.0 14.0 7.07
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Including 37.3 38.0 0.7 60.00
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Including 38.0 39.0 1.0 45.60
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101.25 110.3 9.1 1.10
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DDH ZK06-079 40.9 66.0 25.1 10.72
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Including 40.9 42.0 1.1 11.10
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Including 42.0 43.0 1.0 53.00
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Including 51.0 52.0 1.0 112.00
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Including 52.0 52.9 0.9 56.00
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DDH ZK06-080 74.0 83.1 9.1 59.19
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Including 77.5 78.0 0.5 33.40
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Including 78.0 79.0 1.0 268.70
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Including 79.0 80.0 1.0 9.80
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Including 81.15 82.0 0.9 144.00
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Including 82.0 83.1 1.1 108.50
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Note: Assays reported are uncut. All values above 10 g/t in the
composite are reported in the table. True width is estimated
to be 60% of the drilled length.
High River has completed 15 core holes (2,247 m), 19 RC holes (2,220 m) and 12 trenches (1,012 m) at the Bissa Hill Deposit South Extension since September 2005. Prior to High River's programme, Jilbey Gold Exploration Ltd. ("Jilbey") had drilled 16 core holes (2,058 m), 36 RC holes (3,589 m), and excavated one trench (200 m).
Bissa Southwest
The Bissa Southwest area, located immediately north of the Bissa Hill Deposit South Extension and 700 metres southwest of the Bissa Hill deposit is composed of four subparallel gold zones hosted preferentially by the argillaceous sediments of an easterly plunging syncline (adjacent sandstone gold intersections are frequently thicker and of lower grade). The latest results from one core hole confirm the merging of Zones 2 and 3 along strike, and from two core holes extend Zone 2 down-dip.
Hole ZK06-81, located 50 metres east of ZK05-48 and 40 metres west of ZK05-41 which was planned to test the continuity of the gold mineralization between Zone 2 and Zone 3 successfully cut several gold intersections joining the two zones. The main intercepts are 10.8 g/t over 5.3 m from 50.5 m; 3.3 g/t over 5.5 m from 70 m; 7.1 g/t over 2.9 m from 91.5 m; 2.7 g/t over 7.6 m from 110 m; 2.0 g/t over 6.8 m from 132.2 m; and two lower grade gold intersections farther down the hole. Zone 2 was tested on section 9180E with hole ZK06-73, 30 metres behind ZK05-50, and successfully extended the gold mineralization down-dip to 115 metres and to 125 metres vertically in the argillite unit and to 145 metres vertically in the sandstone unit. The main intersections are 9.0 g/t over 6 m from 131 m (in argillite); 4.4 g/t over 7 m from 140 m (in argillite); and 1.2 g/t over 18.4 m from 157.6 m (in sandstone). Hole ZK06-72 was drilled on section 9220E and returned 0.7 g/t over 14 m from 112 m and 1.0 g/t over 16 m from 162 m, extending the gold zone to a vertical depth of 145 metres (approximately 50 metres down-dip from ZK05-49, which had returned 10.6 g/t over 7 m from 136 m).
Bissa Southwest Highlights (latest results)
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Hole No. From To Interval Gold
(m) (m) (m) (g/t)
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DDH ZK06-072 112.0 126.0 14.0 0.73
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162.0 178.0 16.0 1.03
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DDH ZK06-073 131.0 137.0 6.0 9.01
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Including 132.5 133.0 0.5 25.80
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Including 133.0 134.0 1.0 22.61
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140.0 147.0 7.0 4.41
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Including 143.0 143.5 0.5 46.40
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157.6 176.0 18.4 1.23
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Including 160.25 161.0 0.8 9.90
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DDH ZK06-081 50.5 55.8 5.3 10.84
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Including 50.5 51.3 0.8 12.75
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Including 51.3 52.0 0.7 16.15
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Including 52.0 53.2 1.2 23.90
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70.0 75.5 5.5 3.31
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Including 74.0 75.1 1.1 13.40
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91.5 94.4 2.9 7.14
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Including 91.5 92.0 0.5 25.40
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110.0 117.6 7.6 2.68
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Including 115.55 116.35 0.8 16.55
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132.2 139.0 6.8 1.98
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Note: Assays reported are uncut. All values above 10 g/t in the
composite are reported in the table. True width is estimated
to be 90-100% of the drilled length.
High River has completed 27 core holes (4,535 m), 20 RC holes (2,338 m) and 5 trenches (285 m) at Bissa Southwest and has defined four subparallel gold zones, 100 to 150 metres apart, trending northeasterly and dipping 30 to 40 degrees to the northwest. The previous campaign by Jilbey included 10 core holes (1,197 m), 28 RC holes (2,750 m), and two trenches (1,060 m).
Since the start of the drilling programme in September 2005, High River has completed a total of 31,479 metres of drilling at Bissa consisting of 8,729 metres of core (DDH), 17,043 metres of reverse circulation (RC), and 5,707 metres of rotary air blast (RAB) drilling, and 2,580 metres of trenching. Prior to the merger, Jilbey had completed 26 core hole (3,256 m), 81 RC holes (7,792 m), 809 RAB holes (31,983 m) and five trenches (1,971 m).
By combining the Bissa Hill Deposit, the Bissa Hill Deposit South Extension, Bissa Southwest and part of the Bissa-Gonglou corridor, High River anticipates achieving its initial goal of defining a one million ounce gold resource. All zones lie within a 5.5 kilometre strike length on the Sabce shear zone, which has been traced for over 30 kilometres. Five other promising gold target areas that are within 10 to 15 kilometres of the Bissa project are being evaluated by High River, and offer the potential to host a similar size resource.
Complete tables of results, surface and longitudinal plans and cross-sections for the Bissa Project are posted on the Company's website www.hrg.ca/Projects/Exploration/Bissa Group Permits or on the home page under Qwik Access.
Bouly, Liliga and Gougre Targets
Three high priority gold occurrences in the Bissa area are being rapidly advanced to the drilling stage. High River has completed geological mapping, soil sampling on a 100 m by 100 m grid, and rock chip sampling at both Bouly and Liliga, located approximately 10 kilometres from the Bissa Hill Deposit. The results are being compiled along with the past exploration work which included airborne geophysics and limited drilling. At Gougre, approximately 13 kilometres south southwest of the Bissa Hill Deposit, similar work has been carried out; results of the detailed soil sampling were received and integrated into the database. Previous work completed by Randgold Resources Ltd. and its joint venture partners is detailed in High River's press release dated November 10, 2005.
Quality Control Programme
The Quality Control Protocol ("QC") in place has been designed to meet or exceed the requirements of National Investment 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators. This QC programme includes the use of standard reference samples, coarse field blank material and duplicate assaying. Driffield Cameron P. Geo., Vice President Exploration, is the Qualified Person for High River Gold Mines Ltd. supervising the Bissa project. Analytical work is carried out at the independent Abilab Laboratories Ltd. in Bamako, Mali. A 0.5 g/t cut-off grade was used for the calculation of composite intervals. The maximum distance of dilution of assay results of less than the cut-off grade included within a composite interval is 2.5 metres.
About High River
High River is currently constructing two open pit gold mines, the Taparko-Bouroum project in Burkina Faso and the Berezitovy project in Russia. Upon successful commissioning of these two development projects, together with gold production from High River's 85%-owned Russian subsidiary, OJSC Buryatzoloto, High River's annual gold production rate is expected to exceed 300,000 ounces by 2007, establishing the Company as a mid-tier gold producer.