Sultan cuts more bonanza grades (November 26, 2001)

Vancouver — With results in for 18 holes on the Gold Mountain zone, the large-scale, bulk tonnage target envisioned by Sultan Minerals (SUL-V) is rapidly turning into a much smaller, high-grade zone on the prospective property near Nelson, BC.

Collared on the Kena property, the latest round of drilling is aimed at testing a 1.5-km-by-500-metre coincidental geophysical and geochemical anomaly believed to be prospective for a large tonnage, open pittable gold resource. However, results received to date, show a high-grade zone confined to the east margin of the intrusive body within wide spread sub-economic gold mineralization

Holes 12 through 18 were collared in the intrusive body returning broad intervals of anomalous mineralization. The highest grades came from hole 18, which returned 180.7 metres grading 0.33 grams gold per tonne from 4.9 metres down-hole. Included in this section was an 18-metre section running 1.21 grams gold.

Moving back to the area of earlier drill success, Sultan deepened holes 1 through 3 with an eye on catching the high-grade interval cut in hole 8 (172.1 grams gold over 2 metres). Collared 125 metres east of the bonanza grade intercept, holes 1, 2 and 3 were all drilled from the same site. Hole 1 showed little change returning 130.5 metres grading 0.95 grams gold from 6.7 metres down-hole. Included in this zone was a higher-grade section running 3.05 gram fold over 18 metres from 16 metres down-hole. Hole 2 averaged 1.12 grams gold over 100.6 metres from 2.7 metres down-hole. Included in this portion was a 4-metre section running 7.74 grams gold from 54 metres down-hole. Hole 3 cut the high-grade section returning 240.7 grams gold over 1.2 metres from 48.8 metres down-hole. Cutting this bonanza section to 34.29 grams gold per tonne, the holes averaged 1.87 grams gold over 116.1 metres from 8 metres down-hole.

The high-grade zone has now been cut in four holes over a distance of 150 metres to a vertical depth of 190 metres. The mineralization appears to be related to the contact between the Silver King porphyry and the Elise volcanics and can occur in either unit.

Drilling is continuing with a total of 26 holes completed so far.

The junior plans on drilling 21 holes during the latest program testing the extent of the gold mineralization over the entire anomaly. Sultan is currently running a geophysical survey in hopes of tracing the prospective contact zone for additional drilling.P>Preliminary petrographic and alteration studies on the drill core indicated that the mineralization is consistent with a porphyry gold depositional setting (known for large tonnage deposits). Initial metallurgical test work on two composite core samples show that the ore is not refractory with recoveries hitting 92-to-97% using cyanide leaching.