Stratabound Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SB) ("Stratabound" or "the Company") is pleased to provide a progress report for the ongoing exploration campaign on its Golden Culvert Project located in the Hyland Valley gold district of the southeast Yukon Territory. Key features of the Project are the 250 metre wide by 3 kilometre long +30 parts per billion (ppb) gold-in-soil anomaly and the exposed quartz veins in outcrop assaying up to 23.8 gpt gold. The exploration target is orogenic-type broad, low grade gold mineralization in sediment hosted wall rocks centred around higher grade gold bearing quartz veins. The Hyland Gold District also includes Goldstrike Resources Ltd.'s Plateau, Golden Predator Mining Corp.'s 3 Aces and Banyan Gold's Hyland projects, all located within the Hyland Group of sedimentary rocks.
Road and Trenching:
As previously reported, the 2 kilometre road to the work site was completed in mid-June. Since then the road has been extended to access 6 trenches across 800 metres strike of the strongest portion of the gold-in-soil anomaly to the southeast of the main discovery showing. Shallow trenching totaling 1.6 kilometres over six trenches has now been recently completed of which 750 metres have exposed the bedrock sufficiently for mapping and sampling. From the trenching a total of 515 samples have been collected to date, of which only 17% of these assays have been received. The Company is expecting further assay results in the next 2-3 weeks.
Geological Mapping and Early Interpretations:
First pass geological mapping of the first six trenches has identified a very large pervasive hydrothermal system of sericite, silica and sulphide altered phyllite host rocks that is greater than 0.5 km wide and open beyond the 800 m of strike mapped to date. The +30 ppb gold-in-soil anomaly is zoned within the larger newly identified hydrothermal system.
Also, very significantly, the system hosts a 400 metre wide corridor of at least 7 major quartz veins up to 3 metres wide that are traced continuously beyond the 800 metres of strike length of trenching completed so far. Oxidized and sulphidized quartz vein surface float is observed to extend beyond the 800 metres of mapped areas along and across strike.
The veins have the same 310°-330° orientation as the gold-in-soil anomaly and are mineralized with oxidized sulphides to a varying degree. Most significantly, the quartz veins when accompanied by the stronger oxidation/sulphidation mineralization are coincident with the higher gold-in-soil anomaly trends.
The dip of the veins averages -80° both east and west. The veins are oriented parallel to the regional foliation fabric. The primary near-vertical quartz veins are accompanied in places by sets of 1 mm sheeted veins, or "flats". These extension veinlets into the wall rock are known from previous work to occasionally host gold mineralization. More work is required to understand the gold deposition within the entire system as the veins pass through the gold-in-soil anomaly.
It is important to note that the vein corridor is not only traced along strike but also vertically between the 1500 metre elevation at trench TR1801 and the 1800 metre elevation at trench TR1808 (800 metres to the south), providing a determination of a minimum 300 metre vertical, 400 metre wide and 800 metre long horizontal strike extent where it remains open beyond that mapped to date.
Diamond Drilling:
The diamond drill arrived on site July 24 and commenced drilling on July 27. About 1,000 metres of drilling is planned to cover about 500 metres of strike length to a vertical depth of about 180 metres from surface. It is expected that core will be logged and split by the end of August. Drill results are expected by the middle of September.
President and CEO R. Kim Tyler commented, "We have made some very exciting new discoveries on Golden Culvert so far and are very pleased with the progress and quality of work performed by our contractors and suppliers. Besides the very large hydrothermal envelope that hosts and helps explain the large gold-in-soil anomaly, we have also confirmed a coincident large multi-quartz vein corridor that has proved to be much larger, more continuous and more extensive than first thought. The strongest gold mineralization indicated by the gold-in-soil anomaly is also visually coincident with strong oxidized sulphide mineralization associated with the quartz veining in the corridor, all good indicators. The few assay results received to date indicate gold mineralization exists outside the known gold-in-soil anomaly. We look forward to receiving all the trench assay results so that we can put the full picture together. Diamond drilling is now proceeding as planned."
Mr. R. Kim Tyler, P.Geo., President and CEO of Stratabound, is a "Qualified Person" for the purpose of NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.
About the Golden Culvert and Little Hyland Properties
Golden Culvert and Little Hyland cover 83.8 square kilometres in the southeast Yukon Territory across a 24-kilometre strike located approximately 20 kilometres northeast of and parallel to Golden Predator Mining Corp.'s 3 Aces property. Work filed in Yukon mineral claims assessment reports has outlined a northerly trending, 3 kilometre by 250 metre, +30 ppb Au up to 791 ppb Au gold-in-soil anomaly that remains open at both ends. The soil anomaly is centred around partially exposed primary gold-bearing quartz veins grading between 7.7 to 22.8 gpt gold over 1 metre and complimentary gold-bearing quartz vein stockwork within a larger silicified, altered, sulphide and gold-bearing wallrock grading up to 2.27 gpt gold over 0.5 metre.
Prior to this summer's exploration program a total of $564,400 of work had been done on the Property, including 3,645 soil samples, 48 stream samples, 239 rock samples, 19.4 line-km of ground magnetic survey and 18.5 line-km of VLF survey. This summer's program of $1.1 million includes trenching and drilling to further define the highly mineralized areas of the property.
About Stratabound
Stratabound Minerals Corp. is a Canadian exploration and development company focused on the Yukon Territory and to a lesser extent the Bathurst Mining Camp in New Brunswick. Stratabound management has a diversified track record of exploration, development and operating successes that will facilitate the development of the Company's exploration projects