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Sur American Gold Corporation: Multiple Strong Gold Mineralized Zones Encountered in Initial Drilling at Batoto Gold Project
Tuesday March 7, 12:58 pm ET
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2006--Sur American Gold Corporation (TSX VENTURE:SUR - News) is very pleased to advise that the initial 12,000 Batoto drilling program in the Compostela Valley, Eastern Mindanao, Philippines has achieved early success by outlining multiple strong gold mineralized zones constituting substantial potential bulk mineable gold mineralization in the second hole of an estimated 50 hole program.
BATOTO #2 DRILL HOLE (-50 degrees to an azimuth of 160 degrees) intersected 5 wide intervals of leached and oxidized quartz-sericite-pyrite related gold mineralization totaling 68 metres and containing a weighted average grade of 0.83 g/t gold with a range from 0.69 g/t to 1.13 g/t. Grades such as these are typical of some of the largest bulk mineable gold operations in the world such as Yanacocha in Peru (Newmont), Fort Knox in Alaska (Kinross) and Round Mountain in Nevada (Barrick and Kinross).
Significantly all the mineralization is still in the zone of leaching (depletion) and accordingly the Company believes that higher grades may be encountered as drilling progresses into the fresh, unoxidized rock. Indeed the deeper portions of Batoto #2 were higher grade than the upper zones.
Little or no waste rock is present at Batoto and the mineralization encountered to date is largely oxidized with excellent metallurgy and appears suited to extraction by either CIP or heap leaching.
Even though the hole was not drilled at the optimum angle to test the entire 250-300 metre wide Clark Zone the results are particularly encouraging as drill holes Batoto #3 and 4 have also intersected similar mineralization. Batoto #3 is currently being processed including assaying as quickly as possible.
Significantly, from the point of a potential large size deposit the gold mineralization in Batoto #2 is particularly evenly distributed with the highest assay of 2.8 g/t gold and more than 75% of the individual one metre intersections contain gold grades greater than 0.3 gold.
The hole penetrated a total of 95 metres of well mineralized diorite from 10-105 metres until a fault terminated the mineralization. Even though further zones were expected deeper the Company decided to complete the hole and commence Batoto #3 150 metres to the south.
The Clark Zone is only one of several large mineralized zones within the area of East Batoto in which alteration and gold mineralization occurs over an area of at least 1000m by 1000m.
BATOTO #2 DRILL RESULTS
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Azimuth Dip From To Interval Grade
(degrees) (degrees) (m) (m) (m) (g/t gold)
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160 -50 10 105 95 0.63
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Incl. 10 24 14 0.76
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and 27 37 10 0.69
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and 43 67 24 0.78
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and 72 79 7 1.13
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and 92 105 13 0.95
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Width of
Higher
Grade Zones 68 0.83
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BATOTO #1 (-50 degrees to an azimuth of 225 degrees) was located 200 metres to the east of Batoto #2. As previously reported even though most of the Clark Zone at East Batoto is expected to be well mineralized the system does however contain zones of lower grade mineralization between the major alteration zones.
Batoto #1 drill hole was drilled down one of these zones for much of its 152 metre length and only started to penetrate interesting mineralization near the end of the hole. Sporadic intervals grading between 0.5 and 1.2 g/t gold were encountered and the latter 18 metres graded an encouraging 0.47 g/t gold. The hole also intersect a very high grade vein at 101 metres which graded 36 g/t gold over a one metre interval and also a void (mined out area) between 14-18 metres which from prior work is known to be a high grade system of quartz veins known as the Agrix workings.
BATOTO #3 (-50 degrees to an azimuth of 320 degrees) hole was located approximately 150 metres south of Batoto#2 and was prematurely terminated for technical reasons at 118 metres in very strong mineralization having been well mineralized for much of its length. Upon completion of Batoto #4, Batoto#3 will be reamed and deepened. In the meantime the first 118 metres has been geologically logged and will be sampled and assayed within three weeks.
BATOTO #4 (-60 degrees to an azimuth of 40 degrees) is projected to be drilled to a depth of between 250-300 metres. The hole is at a depth of 80 metres and has been well mineralized throughout.
To ensure complete independence all sample preparation was undertaken at the Intertek Laboratory in Surigao, Northern Mindanao. Intertek is a 9002 Certified Laboratory. Pulverized 200 gram sub samples were then sent to Genalysis Laboratories in Perth, Western Australia for analysis using the FA 50/SAAS method (fire assay with atomic absorption finish). Assays for Batoto #2 were received on Saturday March 4, 2006
SUMMARY
According to Sur American Gold President, Mr Rennie Blair MSc, F.Aus.IMM, "the Company is extremely excited about these drill results which confirm the long intervals of gold mineralization that were previously identified by earlier exploration including surface trenching and tunneling.
These results, particularly from Batoto #2 drill hole are however just the beginning of a large drilling campaign. Moreover, given the large potential size of this project and the fact that the same alteration and mineralization occurs in holes #3 and #4 there is considerable reason for optimism," he said.
This news release was prepared by Mr. Rennie Blair, Company President who is the qualified person as required by National Policy 43-101 and who is the technical person responsible for this news release.
Sur American Gold Corporation is a well financed junior exploration Company and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange (Canada) with trading symbol SUR-V.
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