Silver Coin drilling cuts high grade gold

Vancouver – Drilling by Pinnacle Mines (PNL-V) and Mountain Boy Minerals (MTB-V) on the Silver Coin joint venture, near Stewart, B.C., intersected impressive gold values.

Five holes (48-52), testing the newly discovered Main Breccia zone, cut significant intervals of gold and silver mineralization. Hole 52 intersected a wide mineralization zone of 119 metres (from 88 metres down hole) grading 5.4 grams gold per tonne and 32.8 grams silver per tonne, including 15.3 metres of 34.1 grams gold and 206.7 grams silver.

The high grade hole was lost in a heavily mineralized faulted breccia at 207 metres, with the last 1.5 metres assaying 6.8 grams gold. Visible gold in the core is found within very fine grained sulphides that give the quartz component a black mottled appearance, similar to mineralization found at the nearby past producing Silbak-Premier mine operated by Westmin Resources until 1996.

Extensive historical exploration has been done on the claims, composing Silver Coin, delineating a number of discontinuous VMS lenses and zones. The joint venture partners have recently focused the heavily faulted breccia structures, looking at the precious metals mineralization potential.

Whereas previous exploration showed the breccia zones had limited widths, recent work has demonstrated widths of up to 120 metres with significant strike and depth potential.

The Main Breccia zone exhibits extensive sericite-pyrite-quartz alteration. Mineralization is associated with quartz stockworks, breccia and silica flooding, with gold occurring with disseminated pyrite, sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite. A later stage of mineralization consists of semi-massive sulphide pods containing significant base metals.

In contrast to the abundantly apparent mineralization at lower elevations, along the Granduc mine road and below, much of the higher level mineralization discovered (above 950 metres) is blind with minimal surface expression.

Pinnacle has reviewed plans to drill up to 15 additional holes (totaling 3,000 metres) on the Main Breccia zone this season. Increased drill density will assist in possibly joining-up the known pods and zones. A bulk sampling program is also contemplated by the joint venture partners, to ascertain potential mineable grades and the homogeneous nature of the mineralization.

Holes 48 and 49 are located on the Kansas claim held by Tenajon Resources (TJS-V) with Pinnacle and Mountain Boy earning up to a 70% interest. Holes 50-52 are situated on the Big Missouri claim, an option-joint venture between Pinnacle Mines and Mountain Boy Minerals.

Following the release of the high grade gold intercept, a flurry of trading in the companies drove up share values. Pinnacle and Mountain Boy both gained over 20%, closing up at $1.31 and 88 per share respectively on high volumes.