Fortune River Receives Met-test Results of Bulk Sample From Wind Mountain

 

VANCOUVER - Fortune River Resource Corp. reported that it has received column-leach results for a bulk sample of dump material collected at its wholly-owned Wind Mountain project, a former producing heap-leach low-sulfidation gold/silver property in the Walker Lane gold trend of western Nevada.  The bulk sample from the Wind Pit dump demonstrates attractive leaching characteristics, with 61% recovery for gold and 15% recovery for silver, low cyanide consumption (0.46 kg NaCN/mt) and low requirements for lime (1.4 kg/mt).  The test was performed over a period of 134 days on -150mm (-6 inch) material, which comprises 95% of the original 20-tonne sample.  Fifty percent recovery was obtained in 16 days.

The bulk sample from the smaller Breeze Pit dump plugged due to excessive fines (~37% -65 mesh), about twice the amount in the Wind Pit sample, and the test was discontinued.  This sample contained an unexpectedly high percentage of clay; thus further work is needed to determine the distribution of clay in this dump to avoid potential problems with heap percolation.

President Joe Kizis commented, “This test work provides us with information necessary to evaluate the economics of re-mining upgraded portions of the dumps and how sub-ore material might be handled during any new mining at Wind Mountain.”  The property contains a much larger large gold system than was previously recognized, as our 2008 drilling program demonstrated, and we are confident that persistence will lead to discovery of feeders that may contain bonanza-grade precious metals.  In the near term, however, we are searching for a partner to evaluate the economics of the near-surface oxidized resource that has already been well delineated.  The ability to add low-cost ounces from the dumps could significantly improve the economic of this project.

Historic mining created approximately 9.4 million tonnes of dump material at Wind Mountain.  The average grade of this material based on drilling is estimated to be 0.216 g/t Au; however, hand-trench sampling by Fortune River indicates that a substantial portion of this material was upgraded to approximately 0.3 g/t Au when it was loaded onto the waste dumps.  Larger, less mineralized boulders rolled to the base of the dumps during stacking, which left the finer residual material on the upper levels of the dump with an increased grade.  Some Nevada mines load their sub-ore material in this way, and then re-mine the upper portions of those dumps.

Fortune River collected two bulk samples from two of the dumps, with each sample being approximately 20 tonnes.  The bulk samples were tested for metallurgic characteristics at McClellan Metallurgical Laboratory.  Assaying of these large samples has confirmed the upgrading observed in Fortune River’s initial surface sampling, with each sample averaging approximately 0.4 g/t Au and 10 g/t Ag.  The test work included two large column leach tests of approximately 2.5 tonnes each, which was split from the original 20-tonne sample

The company’s address is Suite 1100, 1199 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, V6E 3T5, (604) 899-2515, fax: (604) 688-4670, email: [email protected].