Svetloye Returns More Good Results For Fortress

VANCOUVER– Preparing for a drill program in Russia’s Far East is not easy but Fortress Minerals (FTS-V, FTMNF-O) is seeing results for its efforts with promising gold intercepts from its Svetloye property.

Svetloye hosts nine prospects along an 8-km-long zone of epithermal gold mineralization. Three prospects — Amy, Elena, and Tamara — host defined resources. The current drilling effort is at Amy, where Fortress’s work has already outlined 6 million inferred tonnes grading 2.43 grams gold per tonne.

Drilling at Amy, which is in the northwestern corner of the square property, is probing the southern extent of the zone. While the first few holes of the season included significant stepouts, the latest six holes lie just south of the centre of the deposit as defined to date.

Hole 247 cut 73 metres grading 1.51 grams gold and 1.5 grams silver from 18 metres down-hole. Hole 248, which was collared 100 metres to the east, returned 68.2 metres of 0.49 gram gold from surface.

Collared 50 metres north, hole 249 intercepted 152.1 metres grading 0.52 gram gold from 17 metres depth. Roughly 50 metres northwest of hole 249, hole 252 cut three mineralized intercepts: 60.8 metres of 2.62 grams gold from 14 metres down-hole, 85.3 metres of 0.37 gram gold from 92 metres, and 12.4 metres of 4.77 grams gold from 212 metres.

Finally, hole 250 was collared 50 metres east of hole 252 and it returned five mineralized hits between surface and 206 metres depth, including one bonanza hit: 10.2 metres of 0.77 gram gold, 4.5 metres of 1.35 grams gold, 16.4 metres of 1.06 grams gold, 2.4 metres of 29.6 grams gold, and 4.4 metres of 0.9 gram gold.

These holes comprised the second set of results out of Svetloye this year. The first few holes of the season included a 320-metre stepout to the south that hit 17.1 metres grading 0.7 gram gold and 2.9 grams silver from surface, followed by 10.2 metres grading 1.4 grams gold and 1.4 grams silver from 73 metres down-hole. Other strong results from earlier this year include hole 243, which cut 40 metres of 3.68 grams gold from 20 metres, and hole 244, which returned 30 metres of 1.54 grams gold from surface followed by 99.4 metres of 1.03 grams gold from 43 metres down-hole.

Gold in the Svetloye trend is associated with extensive zones of vuggy silica, quartz-alunite, and quartz-dickite-kaolinite alteration. The style of mineralization is common to high-sulphidation epithermal deposits.

Fortress is planning to drill 8,000 metres at Svetloye this year. The company will drill more holes at Amy, then move to Tamara and Elena, and finally punch several holes into covered, geophysical targets between the deposits. The deposit at Elena currently stands at 12.2 million inferred tonnes grading 2.1 grams gold, while Tamara hosts 1.9 million inferred tonnes averaging 2.22 grams gold.

To prepare for the drill program, Fortress used 18 trucks to haul 700 tonnes of fuel and 400 tonnes of supplies along the 310-km winter road into Svetloye. The project is roughly 80 km from the Pacific coast, close to the port of Okhotsk.

Fortress acquired an option to earn an 80% interest in Svetloye in 2005 from Phelps Dodge (before Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold [FCX-N] acquired the company in 2007). By early 2008, Fortress had increased its ownership to 100% for a total price of roughly $14 million.

On news of the Svetloye drill results, Fortress shares gained 3¢ to close at 36.5¢. The company has a 52-week trading range of 12¢- $1.02 and 164 million shares outstanding.