Mr. Nelson Baker reports
MINERAL MOUNTAIN CONFIRMS PROOF OF CONCEPT IN THE HOMESTAKE GOLD BELT
Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. and its subsidiary, Mineral Mountain Resources (SD) Inc., have received the analytical results for the initial three of the planned 12 NQ diamond drill holes --ST18-001, ST18-002 and ST18-003 -- totalling 1,322 metres on the company's Standby mine target in the Rochford district in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Highlights:
Wide intervals of Homestake-style gold mineralization were intersected in all three drill holes.The Standby property hosts an altered/mineralized shear zone in banded iron formation that is part of the Standby synclinal structure, which has the magnitude to host a Ledge 9-scale gold deposit.Gold is associated with 30-metre-wide intervals of chert-grunerite-siderite-pyrrhotite iron formation with extensional gold-bearing quartz veins and chlorite selvages, which are classic Homestake-type mineralization.Increasing quartz flooding, hydrothermal chlorite alteration, remobilized pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite percentages and gold grades provide a strong vector both down dip and down plunge from ST18-003.Nine additional drill holes are planned to resume next week first to test down dip under ST18-003 and then to subsequently test the west limb structure, which has never been drill tested historically.
All three holes have only intersected the top 330 metres of a major southeast-trending shear and alteration system measuring 30 metres wide by greater than 1,800 metres down plunge. Gold mineralization within this 30-metre-wide structure improves from 2.0 grams per tonne gold over 3.2 metres in ST18-001 to 1.1 grams per tonne goldover 6.4 metres in ST18-002to 2.8 grams per tonne goldover 6.1 metres in ST18-003 (see 3-D isometric view and drill hole locations posted on the company's website). The more than doubling of gold grade over similar widths, along with a substantial increase in arsenopyrite from ST18-002 to ST18-003,provides a strong vector toward higher-grade gold mineralization down dip of this section. (Note: Pictures of arsenopyrite-bearing core from ST18-003 has been posted on the company's website.) A planned hole in the current drill section will undercut the mineralized zone in ST18-003 and then continue in iron formation down the thickened east limb of the Standby syncline. A subsequent drill section will be targeted 100 metres farther down plunge along the mineralized structure from the current drill site.
A second southeasterly trending mineralized structure averaging 30 metres in width occurs along the west limb of the Standby syncline. This structure has been confirmed by the company's geologic mapping along the historical surface pits and outcrops in iron formation. Drilling is planned during the latter part of the current drill program to test this structure along strike and at depth toward the south-southeast.
PRESENT AND HISTORICAL DRILL HOLES INTERSECTING THE EAST LIMBDrill hole penetrating east Structure gold-mineralizedApproximate distance ofStandby mineralized shear intersection in iron formation intersection down plunge (progressing down plunge from surfaceto the southeast)DDH ST18-001Mineral Mountain2.0 g/t Au over 3.2 metres 100 metres DDH BLG-UG3Historical underground DDH3.36 g/t Au over 24 metres 180 metresDDH- ST18-002Mineral Mountain1.1 g/t Au over 6.4 metres 300 metresDDH- ST18-003 Mineral Mountain2.8 g/t Au over 6.1 metres 330 metres (including 9.3 g/t Au over 0.5 metre) DDH SM-86 Historical Homestake DDH 2.3 g/t Au over 12 metres 1,000 metresDDH SM-87 Historical Homestake DDH 10.23 g/t Au over 3.05 metres 1,800 metres
Curt Hogge, chief geologist for the company, commented: "The 30-metre-wide Homestake-type mineralized core interval in ST18-003 from 153.0 to 183.0 metres downhole, from a visual standpoint, looks as good as any hole that I have logged in the Rochford district during my career in the Black Hills spanning over 30 years. The dramatic increase in arsenopyrite percentage and crystal size as well as gold grade between ST18-002 and ST18-003 makes the untested potential downdip and downplunge a compelling target."
By comparison, the surface expression of the 9 Ledge upper tail at Homestake is a 30-metre-by-15-metre area in a road cut, within which the majority of rock samples assay only hundreds of parts per billion gold Au to one gram per tonne gold, with one higher-grade sample assaying 4.5 grams per tonne gold.However, visible alteration, characterized by quartz veins with moderately developed to well-developed hydrothermal chlorite selvages and minor sulphide minerals, is locally well developed at the 9 Ledge upper tail position. Consistent ore-grade mineralization (approximately eight grams per tonne gold over five-metre-to-10-metrewidths) in the 9 Ledge does not begin to develop until 1,200 metres down plunge (vertical depth of 800 metres) on the 9 Ledge and the highest gold grades and widths in the 9 Ledge Centroid do not occur until 1,500 metres down plunge (vertical depth of 1,000 metres). By comparison, the gold grades and widths encountered in the shallow drilling (to 330 metres down plunge) to date by the Mineral Mountain on the Standby system, along with the 30-metre widths of intense quartz flooding/hydrothermal chlorite alteration/remobilized pyrrhotite/arsenopyrite alteration, are highly encouraging.
In another comparison, a systematic 36-hole drill program in the late 1980s tested the 15 Ledge target area at Homestake, which did not host a known gold ore ledge, from underground drill set-ups spaced initially several hundreds of metres apart. The best results from this first phase was only 4.6 grams per tonne gold over one metre, but many lower-level gold concentrations (hundreds of parts per billion gold), increased arsenopyrite and late-stage quartz veins with chlorite selvages were used to define vectors toward gold mineralization. Resumption of a second phase of drilling on closer-spaced 50-metre-to-100-metre stepouts from the modest mineralization encountered in the first phase resulted in the intersection of 25 grams per tonne gold over 10 metres, which isconsidered the discovery hole for the approximately one-million-gold-ounce gold 15 Ledge. Again, by comparison, early first-phase results at Standby are significantly better than the results initially encountered by Homestake during the first phase of its 15 Ledge discovery program.
Qualified persons
The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed and approved by Nelson W. Baker, PEng, the president and chief executive officer of Mineral Mountain Resources and a qualified person for this project.All exploration activities at the Rochford project are carried out under the strict supervision of Kevin Leonard, PGeo, also a qualified person for this project.
About Mineral Mountain Resources and the Rochford gold project
Mineral Mountain Resources, through its wholly owned subsidiary Mineral Mountain Resources (SD) Inc., is focused on the exploration of its 100-per-cent-owned Rochford gold project, situated along the highly prospective Homestake gold belt in the Black Hills of South Dakota, United States.The Rochford project covers approximately 7,500 acres and straddles three major trends of structurally thickened auriferous iron formation that host ledge-type gold mineralization.
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