Richfield follows up at Blackwater

Vancouver – Richfield Ventures (RVC-V) has cut long gold intercepts in the first drill program following a successful January hit at the Blackwater gold project.

The company, exploring around the Nechako plateau in central British Columbia, is in the early days of a planned a two-stage, 25,000-metre drill program over 70 holes at Blackwater.

The first exploration stage involves step-out drilling with an expected completion sometime this summer. The second stage, which Richfield expects to complete by next January, involves infill drilling to shore-up known mineralization before a resource estimate.

In January Richfield released assay results from hole 59 that showed mineralization from 7 metres down to the bottom of the hole at 336 metres, with an average grade of 1.25 grams gold per tonne and 3.5 grams silver per tonne. The hole included several higher grade sections including 13 metres averaging 3.17 grams gold, a 1 metre section carrying 132 grams gold and ending in 5.2 metres grading 9.1 grams gold.

The company started the latest drill program by drilling hole 59 deeper, extending mineralization down to 462 metres for a 455-metre interval averaging 1.03 grams gold. The first four drill holes that followed in the program were based around that hole.

Hole 62, cut 117 metres northeast of hole 59, hit 175 metres carrying 0.88 gram gold from 54 metres and included a 38 metre section grading 2.09 grams gold. Hole 63, drilled 88 metres west-northwest of hole 59, cut 312 metres grading 0.76 grams gold from 34 metres depth, including 24 metres grading 1.52 grams gold. Hole 60, drilled 73 metres east of hole 59, cut 269 metres grading 0.4 gram gold from 57 metres with a 22 metre section grading 1.12 grams gold. All three holes were drilled vertically.

The company is also working to upgrade the exploration camp at Blackwater with a 36-person trailer camp and better access roads. A second drill rig is scheduled to arrive on site in mid-July.

Richfield is earning a 75% interest in the project from Silver Quest Resources (SQI-V). Richfield has to spend $1.5 million on exploration and make payments of $240,000 and 750,000 shares to Silver Quest to earn the interest.

In April the company entered into a joint venture with Paget Minerals (PGS-V) to explore the Nechako basin area that sits immediately north of the Blackwater gold project. Paget has contributed 75,800 hectares of claims, is operator and holds a 51% interest in the venture while Richfield put in 15,300 hectares and controls the remainder. Both companies agreed to contribute $500,000 for 2010 work on the project including target assessments, geochemical sampling, geophysical programs and around 2,250 metres of drilling.

Richfield’s stock price closed at $1.05 on the day. The company has a 52-week share price range between 13¢ and $2.25 and 27 million shares outstanding.