Significant first hit for Almaden on Ixtaca zone

Vancouver – First-ever drilling on part of Almaden Minerals’ (AMM-T, AAU-X) Tuligtic project in Mexico has returned a long intersect of significant gold and silver mineralization.

The single drill result from what is now being called the Ixtaca zone was enough to propel the company’s stock price up 20¢ or 20.2% to close at $1.19.

Hole 10-01 averaged 1.01 grams gold per tonne and 48 grams silver per tonne over 302.4 metres, from the base of overburden at 47.5 metres to the bottom of the hole at 350 metres.

The hole intersected multiple quartz-carbonate-sulphide vein zones over its entire length including a 0.7-metre bonanza-grade intersect averaging 129 grams gold and 4,288 grams silver within a 4.1-metre intersect grading 25.71 grams gold and 936 grams silver.

“This is an exciting new gold-silver prospect in a brand new district,” said J.D. Poliquin, chairman of Almaden in a statement. “Both the high-grade and bulk-tonnage potential of this discovery have been demonstrated, and future exploration will now focus on developing a resource. Upon receiving the assay results from holes TU-10-2 and TU-10-3, a follow-up drilling program will be planned, likely to commence in early September, 2010.”

The project is located 150 km west of Mexico City in Puebla State and spans 5,000 ha. of claims held wholly by Almaden.

The company staked the project in 2002 and optioned it out to three different partners. All three chose to leave the option agreement and none drilled the Ixtaca zone.

The Ixtaca zone lies roughly 2 km southwest of the Tuligtic porphyry-copper zone the company drilled in late 2009 and early 2010.

The company describes Ixtaca as a blind drilling discovery because a thin layer of volcanic ash hides most of the surface evidence of the veins. Reports of historic clay mines drew the company to the area and then it applied epithermal models of mineralization.

Almaden has over 40 projects throughout the western half of North America covering a variety of minerals. The company is currently working through an 8,000-metre drill program on its Elk gold project in southern British Columbia, 45 km southeast of Merritt.

The company closed a private placement in early July of 1 million shares at $1.20 per share for proceeds of roughly $1.2 million. The company currently has 50.4 million shares outstanding.