Thick Gold Intercept At Wind Mountain Project
VANCOUVER, BC - Fortune River Resource Corp. reported that preliminary gold assays in hole WM08018 confirm the presence of a significant new gold deposit at the former producing heap leach Wind Mountain project and that an initial twelve hole drill program has been completed at the East Manhattan project. Both projects are low-sulfidation gold/silver properties in the Walker Lane gold trend of western Nevada.
Preliminary gold assays for hole WM08018, the first hole of the current drilling campaign, returned a 102.1 metre interval averaging 0.691 g/t Au beginning at a depth of 187m and included two higher grade intervals of 7.6m of 1.5 g/t Au and 4.6m of 1.1 g/t Au. Silver values are pending.
The hole is a down-dip offset from the same site as hole WM08016 (see cross section below), which intersected 56m averaging 0.71g/t Au and 20.7g/t Ag, before crossing out of mineralization at the Wind Mountain fault. The mineralization appears to be essentially flat lying, making the intervals nearly true thicknesses. Mineralization in both holes is associated with strong silicification, hydrothermal breccia, and crudely banded quartz veinlets.
Drilling continues, currently on hole WM08020. Holes WM08019 and WM08020 are located approximately 60m south and north, respectively, of hole WM08016 and have intersected similar alteration over significant thicknesses.
Additional holes are planned to test this new mineralized zone farther along strike of the Wind Mountain fault, which the company interprets as an important "feeder" structure. The Wind Mountain fault can be traced on surface for +3,400m.
The project is located approximately 160km northeast of Reno and has good road access and a power line to the property. AMAX Gold/Kinross Gold recovered nearly 300,000 ounces of gold and over 1,700,000 ounces of silver between 1989 and 1999 from the Wind Mountain and Breeze open pit heap leach operations (based on Kinross Gold files).
In late 2007 the company received an independent NI43-101 compliant resource estimate of the remaining mineralization, which includes a total Measured plus Indicated Resource for the project of 33.7 million tons averaging 0.012opt gold (0.411g/t Au) using a cutoff grade of 0.0075opt Au (0.257g/t Au), containing 406,000 ounces of gold (See News Release dated January 8/08). The estimate also includes an Inferred Resource of 9.8 million tons averaging 0.009opt Au (0.308g/t Au) using a cutoff grade of 0.0075opt Au, containing 92,000 ounces of gold. None of the mineralization encountered in 2008 holes is included in the resource estimates.
The company's address is Suite 1100, 1199 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3T5, (604) 684-9384, fax: (604) 688-4670.