Mineral Mountain Purchases the "Bullion Mine", a Former High Grade Gold Producer in the Keystone Mining District of South Dakota
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 08/20/12 -- Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: MMV)(OTCQX: MNRLF) -
Highlights:
-- Historical, non 43-101 compliant resource estimate (probable and
possible reserves) of 63,564 tonnes grading 11.38 g/t Au (0.332 oz/t Au)
-- Previous shallow drilling immediately below mine workings intersected
10.04 g/t (0.29 oz/t) Au over 10.61 metres including 14.86 g/t (0.43
oz/t) Au over 5.85 metres, 11.94 g/t (0.35 oz/t) Au over 8.05 metres,
7.44 g/t (0.22 oz/t) Au over 8.87 metres
-- Mineralization only drill tested from 120-230 metres below surface (0-
110 metres vertically below mine workings)
-- Zones remain untested to depth along plunge
-- Bullion Mine hosts wide intervals of shear hosted and iron formation
replacement gold mineralization analogous to Homestake Mine
Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. ("Mineral Mountain" or the "Company") and its joint venture partner Holy Terror Mining Company ("Holy Terror Mining") are pleased to report that the Holy Terror Project has expanded its property in the Keystone Mining District by purchasing the 189.8 acre Bullion Mine property from Energy Fuels Corporation ("Energy Fuels"), a privately-held company that explored the area between 1993-1996. The newly-acquired property hosts one of the historical high grade gold producers, the Bullion Mine, that was developed between 1874 and 1903 and is sited along the Bullion Fault Zone, a regional structural corridor that trends northwesterly to the Homestake mine. The Bullion Mine Property adjoins the Holy Terror Project and is situated in Pennington County of the Keystone Mining District in South Dakota. With the purchase of the Bullion Mine, the Holy Terror Project now consists of seven (7) former high grade gold producers covering a total area of 721.8 acres. The newly acquired property package consists of 10 unpatented mineral claims and 10 patented mining claims and their location with respect to the Holy Terror Project maps can be viewed on the Company's website www.mineralmtn.com. A table of significant drillhole gold intersections is outlined in Table 1:
TABLE 1: SIGNIFICANT DRILLHOLE INTERSECTIONS FROM ENERGY FUELS
BULLION MINE DRILLING PROGRAM (1993). DRILLHOLE INTERSECTIONS
REPRESENT approx. 65-75% OF TRUE WIDTHS.
CORE
HOLE-ID FROM (M) TO (M) LENGTH (M) AU (G/T) AU (OZ/T)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
FD93-1 53.34 57.18 3.84 10.80 0.32
FD93-2 78.97 88.76 9.79 4.09 0.12
FD93-3 53.28 62.15 8.87 7.44 0.22
INCL 58.22 62.15 3.93 10.93 0.32
FD93-4 44.81 55.41 10.61 10.04 0.29
INCL 44.81 50.66 5.85 14.86 0.43
FD93-6 45.14 53.19 8.05 11.94 0.35
FD93-8 83.00 86.87 3.87 6.55 0.19
FD93-8 97.05 99.58 2.53 5.75 0.17
Nelson Baker, President and CEO of Mineral Mountain comments: "With the purchase of the Bullion Mine, the Holy Terror Project has consolidated seven (7) historical high grade gold producers significantly enhancing our potential to define an economic gold resource. In addition, the excellent work completed by Energy Fuels during the 1993-1996 period included environmental studies, base line studies and initial metallurgical work on the Bullion North deposit. Permits were obtained for underground development and drilling to further explore the deposit. As part of purchase agreement, Energy Fuels transferred the permits to Mineral Mountain."
The last modern gold exploration program carried out in the Keystone Mining District was by Energy Fuels Corporation between 1993 and 1996. In 1992, they acquired control of the Holy Terror properties and proceeded with a $6 million program consisting of underground and surface drilling that totaled 76 holes. Energy Fuels proceeded with planning and permitting for underground development to further explore the Bullion and Bullion East deposits. Faced with lower gold prices in 1996, Energy Fuels abandoned any plans to expend any further funds in the Keystone Mining District and returned the properties to Holy Terror Mining Company.
In a news release dated May 31, 2012, the Company announced the signing of an option agreement with the Holy Terror Mining Company, a 120-year old privately-held mining company that owns 14 patented mineral claims and 22 unpatented mineral claims for an area totalling 532 acres (215 hectares) located along the southeastern extension of the Homestake Formation, which hosts the Homestake mine in the northern Black Hills. The Holy Terror Project is situated in the Keystone Mining District of South Dakota, U.S.A.
The Bullion Mine Property
Like other gold deposits in the Keystone Mining District, the Bullion Mine is Early Proterozoic age and associated with the Bullion Fault Zone, a regional northwest trending structural corridor. These brittle fault zones served as channels for the mineralized fluids, which deposited gold in or near the fault zone. In the Bullion Mine, gold mineralization, as well as arsenopyrite, pyrite and pyrrhotite is localized in iron formations as stratabound replacement bodies (similar to the Homestake Mine).
The Bullion Mine was first discovered in 1877 and was originally mined by open cut to a depth of 91 metres between 1878 and 1903. As indicated above, the mine occurs along a sub-parallel northwest trending regional structure about 137 metres from the Keystone mine shaft. It is comprised of three separate zones: the Bullion North, Bullion South and the Bullion East veins. Energy Fuels Corporation drilled 19 core holes that tested the downward extension of the Bullion North and the Bullion South ore shoots. The Bullion North deposit averages 4.83 meters wide, dips from 75 to 85 degrees to the northeast. Some stopes exceeded 6.45 meters in width and one stope is reported to have been 11.3 meters wide.
Using historic data, Derry, Michener Booth and Wahl of Arvada Colorado (1994), prepared a historical non 43-101 compliant estimate of probable and possible "reserves" for the Bullion Zones consisting of 63,564 tonnes grading 11.38 g/t Au (0.332 oz/t Au). This historical estimate has not verified as a current resource. Mineral Mountain believes that by closer in-fill drilling to standards suitable for formal resource estimation the historical resource estimate can be expanded. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves, and Mineral Mountain is not treating the estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves.
Terms of the Bullion Mine Property Purchase
In consideration for the Energy Fuels transferring, assigning and selling the Purchased Assets to Mineral Mountain (or, at Mineral Mountain's direction, the Subsidiary) pursuant to this Agreement, Mineral Mountain will, at Closing, issue the following securities to the Vendor:
1. 4,000,000 Purchaser Shares ("Consideration Shares"), 2,000,000 of which
will be subject to a one-year contractual resale restriction (the
"Restricted Consideration Shares"), with the exception that this
contractual resale restriction will not apply to transfers to children
of the directors of the Vendor and transfers to which Mineral Mountain
has provided its prior written consent will be permitted; and
2. 4,000,000 non-transferable share purchase warrants ("Consideration
Warrants"), with each Consideration Warrant exercisable into one
Purchaser Share (a "Consideration Warrant Share") for three years after
the Closing Date and with:
a. 2,000,000 Consideration Warrants having an exercise price of $0.35
per Purchaser Share for the entire three year term; and
b. 2,000,000 Consideration Warrants having an exercise price of $0.35
per Purchaser Share for the first year, and an exercise price of
$0.40 per Purchaser Share for the second and third years, of the
three year term.
The Consideration Shares shall be issued as fully paid, non-assessable shares in the capital of the Mineral Mountain, free and clear of all Encumbrances. The Energy Fuels acknowledges that: (a) the Consideration Shares and Consideration Warrant Shares will be subject to a hold period in Canada of four months from the Closing Date pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws.
Qualified Persons
The Holy Terror gold project is managed by Kevin Leonard, a Professional Geologist with greater than 30 years of exploration experience. Wally Rayner (P.Geo.), the Company's VP of Exploration, has verified the contents of this press release and is the Qualified Person for this project.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
MINERAL MOUNTAIN RESOURCES LTD.
Nelson W. Baker, President and CEO
Reader Advisory
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities laws. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, constitute forward looking-information. Forward looking information consists of statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking information are based on reasonable assumptions, such information does not constitute guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information. Factors that cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking information include gold prices, results of exploration and development activities, regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of materials and equipment, timeliness of government approvals, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. The Company cautions the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive. Investors and others who base themselves on the Company's forward-looking information should carefully consider the above factors as well as the uncertainties they represent and the risk they entail. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd.
Brad Baker
Vice-President Corporate Development & Director
(778) 383-3975
bbaker@mineralmtn.com
www.mineralmtn.com