Orestone Mining Corporate Update and Captain Gold-Copper Project Exploration Milestones
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 05/10/12 -- Orestone Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE: ORS) ("the Company") is pleased to provide the following corporate update and outline plans for the coming field season.
With the change in the Company's management team in June 2011, Orestone changed its focus and initiated a strategic plan prioritizing exploration efforts on its 100% owned Captain Project, located 43 kilometers north of Fort St. James, British Columbia. This was due to our belief that the project has the potential to host a large copper/gold system similar to the neighboring Mt. Milligan Mine being developed by Thomson Creek Metals Inc., approximately 30 kilometers to the north.
The 532 metric tonne Mt. Milligan Deposit has proven and probable reserves containing 6.0 million ounces of gold and 2.1 billion pounds of copper and is currently under construction at a cost of $1.4 to $1.5 billion as a large open pit mine and processing facility.
To assist in this effort the Company formed an Advisory Board and appointed Mr. Rob Pease. Mr. Pease was previously the founder, CEO and a Director of Terrane Metals Corp., guiding the company and the Mt. Milligan Project from development through to its purchase by Thompson Creek Metals in 2010 for $700 million dollars.
With the goal of proving the existence of a similar mineralized system, we first outlined its aerial extent through a series of geophysical surveys consisting of 31 line kilometers of Ground Magnetometer, Induced Polarization Chargeability and Resistivity. The resulting data indicates an altered/mineralized porphyry system in excess of 50 square kilometers in size that extends beyond the boundaries of the surveys. Three large, distinct drill target areas are indicated that measure one by two and a half kilometers, one by three kilometers and one by four and a half kilometers in size (1x2.5 km, 1x3 km and 1x4.5 km).
In December of 2011, the Company completed a $736,500 financing through the issuance of 7,365,000 shares at $0.10 per share.
The next goal was to make a drill discovery as the area is covered by a thin veneer of glacial till 20 to 40 meters thick and in December of 2011 the Company initiated a four-hole, 1,240 meter diamond drill program utilizing HQ sized core.
Hole C11-02 was drilled to a depth of 185 metres at the eastern edge of a magnetic high, intersecting a monzonite intrusive, minor pyrite. Hole C12-01 was drilled 400 metres east of hole C11-02 to a depth of 499 metres, intersecting sericite-pyrite-quartz-carbonate over 250 metres or the pyritic halo, outer phyllic shell around the porphyry. Hole C11-01 was drilled 400 metres east of hole C12-01 to a depth of 255 metres, intercepting highly potassic-sericite-carbonate altered volcanic rocks, porphyry dykes and hydrothermal breccia with gold/copper mineralization.
Assays from hole C11-01 returned an intercept of 87 metres from 127 metres grading 0.230 g/t gold and 0.03% copper, including 43 metres grading 0.298 g/t gold and 0.09% copper and 16 metres grading 0.434 g/t gold and 0.133% copper thus validating the target (see Company news release dated February 23, 2012).
Next, a microscopic petrographic analysis of core samples from hole C11-01 was conducted with the results showing an alteration assemblage consisting of very fine-grained anchorite-potassium feldspar with minor kaolinite-sericite and abundant magnetite-hematite, overprinted in part by coarse-grained potassium feldspar. Fine-grained chalcopyrite, associated with magnetite and pyrite, is disseminated throughout the core interval. This gold/copper mineralized alteration assemblage coupled with the geophysical signature indicates a high temperature environment near an intrusive source and open for several kilometers to the east, northeast and southeast.
The Company plans to start outlining the size and grade of this porphyry system during the 2012 exploration season with an initial 2,000 to 4,000 meters of drilling. The Company has all permits in place to facilitate the planned program and currently has 30 sites approved for drilling by the B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The Captain Project area features relatively flat terrain, moderate tree cover and an extensive network of logging and Forest Service roads.
"This will be an exciting year for Orestone Mining as we get the drilling season underway with a multi-phase program at the Captain gold/copper project and begin to outline its potential," stated David Hottman, Orestone's President and CEO.
Orestone Mining Corp. is a Canadian based company that controls a portfolio of gold and gold-copper exploration projects totaling more than 700 square kilometers within B.C., Canada. Please visit www.orestone.ca.
ON BEHALF OF ORESTONE MINING CORP.
David Hottman, President and CEO
This news release has been prepared by management and no regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained here.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Contacts:
Orestone Mining Corp.
David Hottman
President & CEO
604-629-1929
info@orestone.ca
www.orestone.ca
Senergy Communications
Anthony Zelen
778-331-2028
ors@senergyir.com