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Headline: First Point Expands Ground Position and Updates Work on the Corralitos Property, Mexico
Symbol: FPX
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - March 26, 2008) - First Point Minerals Corp. (TSX VENTURE:FPX) has applied for an additional 8,500 hectare claim at the gold, silver, zinc Corralitos Project, Chihuahua State, Mexico, which will almost triple its original 2,975 hectare claim.
Exploration has identified seventy-five old workings which consist of shafts, open stopes and adits on the Corralitos property to date. These define a total of 17 kilometers of strike length of veins and mineralized structures. Significant historic gold and silver production in the last century came from many of these workings on vein, chimney and skarn deposits. Historic records of production are non-existent but mine grades are thought to range between 1 to 4 grams/tonne (g/t) gold and 100 to 500 g/t silver as well as zinc, lead and copper.
Zones of silicified limestones host significant gold in the Noria target and silver-gold mineralization occurs in a swarm of vein or structurally controlled zones in the Candelaria area, including the Gloria vein.
At the Noria target several silicified-altered zones range from 50 to 200 meters strike length and the southwest extensions of the zones are covered by overburden. Trenching has exposed zones that range from 1.5 to 9.2 meters wide and 3.7 to 17.0 g/t gold as shown in the table below. Limestone has been intensely silicified, iron oxide stained and correlates with strong multi-element anomalies including arsenic, antimony and mercury and, most important, significant gold values. These characteristics indicate a strong \"Carlin\" type setting for the gold mineralization.
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Width Gold Silver
Noria Target (Meters) (g/t) (g/t) Comment
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Structure A 5.6 5.7(i) 7 estimated true width
2.4 5.8(i) 16 estimated true width
1.5 17.0 1 estimated true width
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Structure B 3.0 10.7(i) 5 estimated true width
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Structure C 9.2 3.7(i) 17 estimated true width
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Disseminated Zone 3.0 6.3(i) 13 unknown
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(i) previously released
In the Candelaria area fourteen vein structures typically trend northeast, contain gold and silver and occur in an area measuring 1.6 by 2.2 kilometers. These veins range from 200 meters to 1.5 kilometers in strike length; 1 to 10 meters wide and based on old workings extend 25 to 100 meters deep. In the northern-most vein channel sample results in old workings at surface contain 8.0 g/t gold and 43 g/t silver over 2 meters true width and 3.3 g/t gold and 183 g/t silver over 2 meters wide where float grab samples range up to 572 g/t silver over 360 meters strike length.
The Gloria Vein, located in the southern portion of the Candelaria area has been mined in 4 open stopes or slots measuring 20 or 30 meters deep and 150 meters long. To the northeast historical shallow pits were probably excavated to expose hard quartz veins but were never been mined. Grab samples from dump or float material carried up to 3 g/t gold and 390 g/t silver. Recent channel samples over the wider section of the quartz vein carried 0.44 g/t gold over 8 meters but no significant silver.
Other veins or structures in the Candelaria area contain sporadic significant gold (less than 0.5 to 8.0 g/t) and silver (15 to 250 g/t) associated with minor copper, lead and zinc. Further underground sampling and mapping on some of these veins will be completed depending on access and safety issues.
Carbonate-hosted (mainly limestone) deposits in North America are one of the largest producers of silver-zinc-lead in the world (eg. Santa Eulalia, Mexico with past production of at least 400 million oz. silver and 3 million tonnes of both zinc and lead). The Corralitos Property contains several carbonate hosted targets including this exceptional gold target in the Noria area which is partly covered by Tertiary volcanics and overburden.
First Point is expanding its exploration including mapping and sampling of surface outcrops and old workings to define a series of drill targets in the Noria gold target, the gold-silver targets in the Candelaria area and any other targets that are defined by the current work on the Corralitos Property.
First Point holds the Corralitos Property under option from Teck Cominco Limited's Mexican subsidiary, Minera Teck Cominco, S.A. de C.V. \"MTC\". Under the terms of the agreement First Point, can earn a 100% interest in the property by spending US$2 million on exploration over the next 5 years and issuing MTC 500,000 First Point shares and following, MTC will have a one time right to back-in to the Corralitos Property.
First Point also continues its exploration program in Central America. At the high sulphidation gold/silver Mesas de Cuapa property in Nicaragua the company is applying to expand its exploration concession. In Honduras the company is waiting for the Honduran government to publish its revised mining law before proceeding with further work on the high grade gold/silver Camporo property and the intrusive hosted gold/copper Tule property.
Surface exploration work at the Corralitos Property was supervised by Ron Britten, P.Eng. All samples were submitted to Acme preparation lab in Guadalajara, Mexico and ICP-MS analytical work was completed at Acme Laboratory in Vancouver, BC.
First Point is a Canadian precious and base metal exploration company focused on the Americas.
FIRST POINT MINERALS CORP.