Commencement Of Drilling At The Illinois Creek Ag-Zn-Pb CRD Property

TUSCON, AZ - Western Alaska Minerals reported that drilling has commenced on its Illinois Creek property in western Alaska. Initial drilling is focused on new target zones to expand and link together mineralization along 6 to 8 km of this silver-rich carbonate replacement (CRD) system.

The objective is to tie the individual zones of the CRD system together, beginning with "LH" and "Warm Springs priority areas, then linking them to the "Illinois Creek Mine" zone. Program is currently budgeted for 4,000m of diamond core drilling with potential to expand.

The drill targets are located along approximately 5 km of an 8 km long, SW-NE oriented trend connecting the Waterpump Creek, Warm Springs and Illinois Creek Mine systems. Initial targets lie 2.5 km (LH Zone) and 5 km (WS Zone) respectively, from the high-grade Waterpump Creek silver-zinc-lead NI 43-101 inferred resource containing 74.9 Moz at 980 g/t AgEq, with later drilling tentatively planned near the Illinois Creek Mine zone, which lies anther 2 km along the trend.

CEO, Kit Marrs, said, "Original continuity of mineralization is a hallmark of CRDs and the high grades and lateral consistency of mineralization shown by our new resource study tells us that there should be potent mineralization extending across Illinois Creek from Waterpump to the old open pit mine, which we think marks the source of the system. We are excited to undertake linking the known mineralization zones along this trend through aggressive step-outs guided by our exploration model, mineralization cut in historic drilling and our recent geophysical and geochemical studies. Drillers and technical crews arrived during the first week of June and began testing the LH zone right on schedule."