The Company Reports Further Analytical Results From its Drilling Program at the Eagle Mountain Gold Project in Guyana
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Sept. 26, 2011) - Stronghold Metals Inc. ("Stronghold" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:Z)(OTCQX:SDMTF)(FRANKFURT:E9X), is pleased to provide the following update to its previously announced 2011 exploration program at the Eagle Mountain Gold Project ("Eagle Mountain" or the "Project") in Guyana and to announce analytical results from an additional twenty (20) holes of the program.
Highlights
- The current planned program is for a minimum of 120 exploratory, expansion and in-fill diamond drill holes and a minimum of 15,000 metres.
- To date, 38 holes have been completed, representing 6,017 meters of diamond drilling.
- The analytical results of the first 11 holes were announced in August 2011 (read corporate News Release on August 15, 2011). Analytical results of an additional 20 holes (19 complete holes and one partial hole) have been received to date and are reported in this news release.
- The Company continues to be highly encouraged by ongoing drilling results and intends to continue its step out mineral resource outline drilling program in order to further expand the known mineralized zone.
- Each of the new diamond drill holes with complete analytical results to date has returned favourable gold intersections.
- Stand-out results include intersections from different zones, as follows:
- 24.19 metres at 9.1 g/t Au from 0.0 to 24.19 metres depth in EMD11-76 (Zion - infill),
- 22.85 m at 2.28 g/t Au from 1.5 to 24.35 metres depth in EMD11-75 (Zion – infill),
- 14.1 m at 1.82 g/t Au from 5.4 to 19.5 metres depth in EMD11-62 (Ounce – infill),
- 14.4 m at 1.40 g/t Au from 33 to 47.4 metres depth in EMD11-70 (Saddle – step out), and
- 7.10 m at 2.35 g/t Au from 55.8 to 62.9 metres depth in EMD11-66 (Saddle – step out)
- 10.91 m at 2.2 g/t Au from 74.64 to 85.5 metres depth in EMD11-73 (Saddle infill).
Note: A step out hole is a hole drilled outside the known gold mineralised area, indicating expansion of the deposit towards this direction. It must be noted that the average gold grade of productive systems of the Guyana Shield region is known to be between 1.0 and 1.5 g/t Au for historic open pit mining.
The Eagle Mountain Drilling Program
The Company's primary focus has been the accelerated development of the advanced exploration stage Eagle Mountain Gold Project. The Project comprises an area of approximately 5,050 Ha (12,480 acres) in central Guyana, 200km southwest of the capital Georgetown and 45 kilometres from the historic Omai Gold Mine, which was in production from 1993 to 2005. The Company is pleased to announce that the on-going resource outline diamond drilling program at Eagle Mountain is progressing very well. To date, 38 drill holes totalling 6,017 metres have been completed in the current drilling program. Analytical results from 30 complete holes and one partial hole have been received from ACME Analytical Laboratories Ltd to date and it is extremely encouraging that all 30 holes have gold intersections of favourable grade that correspond well with historical data from the Project. In September 2010, Stronghold entered into an Earn-In and Joint Venture Agreement with a subsidiary of IAMGOLD Corporation, under which the Company has been granted the right to acquire in stages up to 95% interest in the Property. In November 2010, the Company filed an NI 43-101 reporting an Inferred Mineral Resources of 18Mt @ 1.27 g/t gold, containing 733,500 ounces of gold (using a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off grade). More than 250,000 ounces of the contained gold in this inferred mineral resource is hosted in oxide material (saprolite). The primary focus of the 2011 drilling program at Eagle Mountain has been to enhance the NI43-101 compliant mineral resource with both exploration drilling to extend the mineral resource zone and definition drilling to increase the resource within that previously defined zone. The 2011 diamond drilling program (comprising 15,000 meters of drilling) has the following three objectives:
- Expand the Inferred mineral resource by in-fill drilling and step-out drilling along and across strike in three directions.
- Confirm historic records of gold mineralised horizons by twinning older historic holes. With success, that gold mineralization can be brought into the current mineral resource estimate.
- Upgrade the Inferred mineral resources to Indicated mineral resources with closely spaced in-fill drilling.
The exploration program in Guyana is supervised by Stronghold's Guyana team, which is headed by Ms. Anne Casselman, M.Sc., Exploration and Country Manager. The completed drill holes are a combination of infill holes and exploration step out holes.. It is also very promising that very good intersections have been returned to date from several different zones within the known deposit and at least one zone outside the known mineralisation towards the North and North-Eastern sides of the deposit.
Mr. Paul McGuigan, P. Geo., a Director of the Company, and a Qualified Person under NI 43-101, has reviewed and verified the data disclosed in this news release. He approves the disclosures made within.
Mr. Yannis Tsitos, President and CEO of Stronghold stated: "The management of Stronghold is fascinated and further encouraged with the analytical results received to date from our current drilling program at Eagle Mountain. The infill diamond drilling program is progressing well, and we are particularly pleased with the results of the step out exploration drilling in the Saddle area. The drill intercept in the Zion zone of 24.19 metres @ 9.1 g/t Au represents one of the best results from drilling on Eagle Mountain to date. What is of even more significance is that all the drill holes completed under our current exploration resource outline program, have intersected gold mineralization of meaningful widths and grades."