Commencement Of Drilling At The Sunnyside Project

VANCOUVER - Barksdale Resources Corp. has commenced drilling at its Sunnyside copper-lead-zinc-silver exploration project in Arizona, with the first hole currently at approximately 765 meters depth. Additionally, the Company is happy to report that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the Plaintiff's motion for an injunction during the appeal process.

The Company's Plan of Operations for the Sunnyside drilling program was recently approved by the United States Forest Service. This program will test our high-grade exploration targets, within a district scale mineral system, for up to seven years. The current Phase I drill program is focused on extending known carbonate replacement mineralization ("CRD") from the eastern claim boundary west towards the Sunnyside copper-molybdenum-silver porphyry.

Drilling has commenced at the first target and a second drill is expected to arrive in October. The first large-scale target is the Boundary CRD copper-zinc-lead-silver zone that was intersected in historic drilling from the 1980's. Hole SUN-001 is currently at 765 meters depth and will test for mineralized horizons within the Concha and Scherrer carbonate units occurring from an approximate depth of 1200 meters.

Rick Trotman, President and CEO, said, "The drill is actively turning at Sunnyside. After many years of hard work on the permitting front, I'm truly excited to take the next step and start testing our targets. Sunnyside is part of a world-class mineral system and getting the first hole underway is a fantastic achievement. We look forward to providing additional updates as we advance the drilling program."

The first hole from the planned ~16,000-meter drilling program is currently underway at the Boundary zone target, located between the eastern property boundary and the previously drilled Sunnyside copper-molybdenum-silver porphyry system. The Boundary zone is within a larger projected horizon of carbonate host rocks that extend through the northeastern portion of the Sunnyside property. This target was previously intersected by drilling in the 1980's that encountered approximately 362 meters of highly altered carbonate rocks hosting over a dozen mineralized intervals of CRD mantos of massive sulfide mineralization. The Boundary zone target is roughly 1.1 kilometers long (NW-SE) by 700 meters wide (SW-NE), plunging shallowly (5-15 degrees) to the northwest and dipping to the northeast (20-40 degrees).

In most CRD systems, the thickest and highest-grade mineralization is often found where key geologic features coalesce, including reactive carbonate host rocks, structural/stratigraphic conduits that aid in channeling metal-rich fluids, and fluid traps that ultimately slow fluid flow and aid metal deposition. The first drill hole will target the upper sequence of Paleozoic carbonates (Concha and Scherrer units) that are located beneath a capping unit comprised of Jurassic and Triassic volcanic rocks, which acted as an aquitard for deposition of polymetallic (Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag) mineralizing fluids. Structural features mapped at surface on the Sunnyside property suggest that a series of deep-seated faults are strongly correlated with near-surface mineralization in the system, which is interpreted to be leakage from strataform CRD mantos at depth. Intersection of these structural features with the host carbonate stratigraphy is the primary target for the drilling program at the Boundary zone.

To initiate the exploration drilling campaign, the Company has re-entered historic drill hole TCH-2 after down-hole surveys determined that the protective casing from the 1980's was intact from surface to 762 meters. After reentering the historic hole, a wedge has been set shortly past the casing and a new hole that projects away from the original drill hole is being advanced in a northwesterly direction. Assuming no deviation, the hole is expected to intersect the altered carbonate units from approximately 1,200 meters depth at a lateral distance approximately 50 meters to the northwest of the first historic intercept in TCH-2. Drill results from the original TCH-2 drill hole included over a dozen mineralized intercepts.

Additional intersections into the carbonate stratigraphy will advance the refining of targeted projections of host stratigraphy and will guide future drilling along the Boundary zone target. Depending on drilling conditions, additional wedge holes could be completed from the TCH-2 mother hole.

Drilling will, over time, shift progressively to the west, where the CRD (mantos) are projected to intersect the Sunnyside porphyry copper-molybdenum-silver deposit. This area surrounding the porphyry has the potential to host zones of copper-dominated skarn mineralization such as those seen in the nearby Rosemont copper deposit (Hudbay Minerals Inc.), which is hosted in the same Paleozoic carbonate sequence as Sunnyside.