Mountain Lake Resources, www.mountain-lake.com – the strategically diversified mineral exploration and development firm, reported excellent data yesterday from an updated and now complete NI 43-101 resource estimate on the Leprechaun Gold Deposit.
The data indicates clear open pit potential for the deposit, making it the first measured and indicated resource to be developed within the highly prospective, 30km strike length, Valentine Lake Gold Property, located in central Newfoundland.
The deposit falls in the southwestern portion of the property and its development represents a major milestone for Valentine Lake as a whole.
President and CEO of Valentine Lake operator Marathon Gold Corp., Phillip Walford, asseverated the potential of both the deposit and the property as a whole, citing the rationale of the resource model, the property being geologically analogous to gold camps like the Abitibi Belt and the extremely positive results from what was a truly rigorous analysis.
An overview of findings and conclusions is as follows:
• Strike length of the resource upwardly revised to 750 m with an additional 750 m of gold mineralization defined for drilling
• 74% of the targeted resources are within 150 m of the surface area where the 2010 drilling was focused
• Clear indication for open down-dip resource along strike to the southwest and northeast
• Analysis indicates potential for a fully funded, 25,000 m drilling program with two rigs slated for 2011, to aggressively evaluate the entire property
• The 2011 drilling will emphasize the Leprechaun deposit, determining if the projected mineralization extends below 400 m
• January start date for drilling at Leprechaun northeast arm as well as the Sprite Prospect and Valentine East Gold Zones
• Further 2011 activities to include metallurgical tests, geotechnical hole drilling to evaluate pit structure and clear the way for a Q1 FY12 preliminary economic assessment and base-line environmental study
A breakdown of the resource totals above 0.5 g/t Cut-Off:
• Measured – 2.104M tonnes at 2.768 g/t, or 187k oz Au
• Indicated – 1.18M tonnes at 2.363 g/t, or 90k oz Au
• Total – 3.284M tonnes at 2.622 g/t, or 277k oz Au
The inferred value is 2.007 g/t, or 285k oz Au, and the planned 2011 strategic analysis will derive validation for this inference from extensive testing, like the high density block model for mineralization trend mapping, full interval drill hole sampling and Vulcan mine planning software-based modeling/estimation already performed.
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C.Gert