Definitive Agreement For Acquisition of Interest in Ren Joint Venture
VANCOUVER, BC - Rye Patch Gold Corp. reported that it has entered into a binding definitive agreement with Centerra Gold (U.S.) Inc., a subsidiary of Centerra Gold Inc., for the acquisition of Centerra's participating interest (currently 63.96%) in the Ren property which is the subject of a joint venture between Homestake Mining Company of California Inc. and Centerra. Completion of the acquisition is subject to a waiver of a pre-emptive right in favour of Homestake which must be exercised by Homestake within 60 days of notification by Centerra, and is subject to final acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.
The Ren property consists of 91 contiguous unpatented lode mining claims covering 7.4 square kilometres of the Northern Carlin trend which are under lease to the Ren JV. The southern boundary of the property adjoins Barrick Gold's Goldstrike property. On the Goldstrike property, Barrick is currently mining from the Meikle mine and is developing the Banshee deposits, located approximately 250 metres south of the Ren property. The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG) compiled and published geologic mapping that shows the Meikle/Banshee geology and structural settings continue onto the Ren property. Using the REN drillhole database, Rye Patch has completed geologic cross sections confirming the NBMG interpretation.
The Company has completed a National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") compliant resource estimate on the REN property as of the date hereof. The results of the estimate are summarized in Table 1.
------------------------------------------------------------
Table 1: REN Project Resource Estimate (February 2010)
------------------------------------------------------------
Rye Patch's
Au Au Share
Cut Off Tonnes Grade Contained (63.96%) Gold
Grade Category x 1,000 (g/t) Ounces Ounces
------------------------------------------------------------
Indicated 4,541 10.29 1,656,000 1,059,177
5 g/t Au ---------------------------------------------------
Inferred 1,135 12.94 520,000 332,592
------------------------------------------------------------
The gold resource estimate is based on 3-D geologic model that incorporated over 645 individual gold assays, of 5 g/t Au or greater, from 395 drillholes. Holes were established by Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling to the mineralized rock, then completed by drilling out the mineralization with core drilling. Block model grades were interpolated from over 585 five foot down-the-hole composites, that had grades of 5 g/t Au or greater, using Inverse Distance Squared (ID2) estimation techniques. Assays that are greater than 70 g/t Au were capped at 70 g/t Au. SEWC is not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing or other relevant issues that could potentially affect this estimate of mineral resources. The mineral resources may be affected by subsequent assessments of mining, environmental, processing, permitting, taxation, socio-economic and other factors.
Rye Patch is prioritizing a number of targets for exploration on the Ren property for drilling in the spring of 2010. The most obvious targets are within the southern portion of the Ren property along the extension of the north-northwest trending Post fault system which is the same geologic environment as Barrick's Meikle underground mine. These targets are within 400 metres of the surface and offer additional upside to the known REN resource.
In the known resource, the JB Zone, has expansion potential. The deposit is open to the north, northwest and south. Additional work is warranted to follow up high-grade intercepts such as the 69 zone (RU-69-W2 which returned 13.7 g/t Au over 28.2 metres at a 5 g/t Au cut off) where open-ended, high-grade gold mineralization requires follow up.
The company’s address is 1740-1177 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 2K3, (604) 638-1588, fax: (604) 638-1589, email: [email protected].