Fortune River Begins Drilling On Nevada Projects

VANCOUVER, BC - Fortune River Resource Corp. reported that drilling is now underway at the Wind Mountain project and is expected to begin the week of April 1st at the East Manhattan project, both of which are low-sulfidation gold/silver properties in the Walker Lane gold trend of western Nevada. A truck-mounted reverse-circulation rig has begun drilling relatively deep holes (+300 metres) at Wind Mountain, while a track-mounted reverse-circulation rig will be used for somewhat shallower holes (approximately 250 metres) at East Manhattan.
The planned program at Wind Mountain consists of approximately 2500 metres in 6-8 holes and will include offsets to hole WM08016, which intersected 20m averaging 1.2g/t Au and 30.0g/t Ag within a broader zone of 56m averaging 0.71g/t Au and 20.7g/t Ag (true thicknesses estimated to be 15.3m and 34.6m, respectively). Significantly, the 20m intercept grade is nearly twice the reported average grade from the historic heap leach operations on the project.
Mineralization in hole WM08016 is associated with strong silicification, hydrothermal breccia, and crudely banded quartz veinlets. The new drill program will test this new mineralized zone down dip and 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 pits (based on Kinross Gold files).
The company recently received an independent NI 43-101 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.
The planned program at East Manhattan consists of 1,800-2,000 metres in 8-10 holes. The holes will be an initial test of several veins and vein intersections identified by the company's detailed mapping and sampling program. Numerous veins crop out within an east-west elongate zone with dimensions of approximately 1,825m by 46m. Individual veins can be traced on the surface for more than 1,350m. Both massive brecciated quartz veins, as much as 1.5m in width, and silicified quartz stockwork zones, some more than 10m in width, host the strong gold values. Chip sampling returned values ranging from detection limits up to 3m of 23.8g/t Au with 11.9g/t Ag from a silicified stockwork zone and 1.5m of 15.2g/t Au with 16.5g/t Ag from a massive quartz vein.
The company's address is Suite 1100, 1199 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3T5, (604) 684-9384, fax: (604) 688-4670.