Mountain Lake Resources Inc. (TSX-V: MOA) has reported the completion of an updated National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate for the Leprechaun Gold Deposit, which is situated near the south-western end of the highly prospective, 30 kilometre strike length of the Valentine Lake Gold Property located in central Newfoundland.
This is the first Measured and Indicated ("M+I") resource that has been developed within the Property and is a major advance for the project.
“Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon commented”
Additionally, the Company would like to announce that a fully funded 25,000 metre drill program is planned for the Property in 2011. The program will include aggressive resource expansion and exploration drilling to more fully evaluate the Property's potential.
Highlights:
- strike length of resource is now 750 m with an additional 750 m of gold mineralization ready for drilling
- resource is open down-dip and along strike to the southwest and northeast
- 74% of the M+I ounces and 73% of tonnes are within 150 m of surface where the 2010 drill holes were concentrated
- 25,000 m drill campaign using two drill rigs planned for 2011
- drilling to commence in January on the northeast arm of the Leprechaun Deposit, and the Sprite Prospect and Valentine East Gold Zones
- plans for 2011 also include: further metallurgical testing, drilling of geotechnical holes to assess the competency of potential pit walls so that a preliminary economic assessment can be completed by the 1st quarter of 2012, and base line environmental studies will also commence
Marathon Gold Corp. (TSX: MOZ) ("Marathon") is the operator of the Valentine Lake Project under the sub-option and joint venture agreement ("OJVA") between Mountain Lake and Marathon. For more information on the OJVA see the news release of December 23, 2009.
"Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon commented, "The results demonstrate clearly that there is open pit potential at the Leprechaun deposit. Both Marathon Gold and Mountain Lake believe that the geological model developed is working well and indicating where additional resources can be found. We are now poised to rapidly develop resources with what will be the largest drilling campaign to date on the Property."
Total Resource above 0.5 g/t Cut-Off
Resource Model
In order to better represent the geology of the Leprechaun Gold deposit, a block model was constructed which used an unfolding technique on the sample search ellipsoid. This approach allows a search ellipsoid to better reflect the actual trend of the mineralization. In addition, smaller block sizes were used in the mineralized zones to further help delineate the overall potential resource. Most of the previous drill holes were not completely sampled in all the mineralized zones and that has had a negative effect on the resource. Any unsampled intervals were considered as having a gold assay of 0.0 g/t. All of the new drill holes from this year were sampled in for every interval down the hole. Grade estimates were run using krigging, inverse distance squared, and polygonal and all compared favorably with each other. For the reported resources, the kriged gold estimate was used. High grade gold outlier values (76 g/t or higher) were given a limited area of influence. All of the geologic modeling and resource estimation were completed using the Vulcan mine planning software package. Details of the resource estimation will be available in an NI 43-101 compliant resource report to be filed within 45 days of this press release.
The mineral resources in this news release were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by CIM Council December 11, 2005.
Both Mountain Lake and Marathon Gold are pleased with the advancement of the Valentine Lake Project over the past year and have agreed to an aggressive exploration and resource definition drilling program of 25,000 m in 2011 to more fully evaluate the Property's potential. This program will begin in January with two drills on site. Drilling will be concentrated on developing and expanding the Leprechaun Deposit resources as well as the nearby Sprite Zone, 800 m along strike from Leprechaun. IP surveys over both zones indicate that the mineralization extends below 400 m in depth and some holes will be drilled to test these deeper geophysical targets to determine the potential for development of an underground resource. The Valentine East Zone, 13 km along strike from the Leprechaun Deposit, will be drilled as well to test mineralization intersected over a 700 m strike length where historic drill holes are known to contain up to 1 g/t over 60 m near surface.
Qualified Person
The mineral resource estimate was prepared by Sam Shoemaker, MAusIMM, of Micon International, and is the independent qualified person (QP) for the mineral resource estimate.
Source: Mountain Lake Resources Inc.