Hunt Gold Corporation (PINKSHEETS: HGLC) today addresses the
questions that investors have been asking about why it is taking so
long to release assay results for the recent and initial drill
campaign at the Company's "Mockingbird" Gold Property in Arizona.
As your Company's Project Geologist Ed Huskinson often states,
"Quality results take time."
Before the assay process even begins, the drill core needs to be
logged, split, placed in sample bags and shipped to the Assay
Laboratory. Splitting the core involves taking an electric saw and
sawing end to end through hundreds and hundreds of feet of drill
core. The core from this drilling program was mostly gneiss
(altered granite), a very hard rock indeed.
The splitting of the core took weeks of effort by Mr. Huskinson
and his team. While the core from the very first hole was split and
sent to the Assay Laboratory in late December of 2008, this process
was not completed for the final and eighth drill hole until the end
of last week.
Once at the Assay Laboratory, the drill core is processed at
time frames which are at the Assay Laboratory's discretion and your
Company's Management is in their hands, from a timeframe
perspective. While current economic conditions have resulted in
significantly less exploration activity by other mining companies,
our work is not the only work undertaken at the Assay Laboratory.
Once the Assay Laboratory started on our work on our core samples,
the pulps are prepared from the split core. They are then put
through the fire assay process, which is still the preferred choice
for laboratories all over the world. Typically, the samples are
mixed with fluxing agents including lead oxide, and fused at high
temperature. The lead oxide is reduced to lead, which collects the
precious metals. Once cooled, the lead remains at the bottom, while
a glass-like slag remains at the top. The precious metals (Your
Company is having its samples assayed for both gold and silver) are
then separated from the lead by cupellation. The final technique
used to determine the gold and other precious metals contents of
the residue can range from a balance (for very high grade samples),
to AAS, ICP-AES or ICP-MS. Finally, the gold and silver content of
the remaining residue is determined.
The Assay Laboratory then checks its calculation before
releasing the assay results. This whole process can and does take
over a month. The recent drill campaign was interrupted by the
worst snow storm in the Las Vegas area since 1979; this coupled
with the Assay Laboratory closed for the Holidays, so no assay work
(other than preliminary sample preparation) was begun by the Assay
Laboratory lab until January of 2009.
Hunt Gold's Management will not know definitively of any gold in
the drill core until the assay results are in from the Assay
Laboratory, however, Management has proven historical data
verifying that the four mines at the Mockingbird Property
historically produced gold. Please be aware that Your Company's
Management has, collectively, over 200 years of experience between
them, and we would not be expending enormous sums of money and
energy on these projects unless we were convinced that our efforts
are based on provable numbers, and that we have the wherewithal to
significantly increase our productivity, as well as our
reserves.
The tailings of all four mines, plus the Williamson and Blue
Copper Mines, all forming part of the Company's "Mockingbird" Gold
Mine were previously sampled by Geologist John McIntyre. These
samples were taken from the waste rock piles and represented
mineralization that the previous miners regarded as too low grade
to send through the mill, so they should not be viewed as
representative of the remaining unmined deposit. These tailings may
in fact prove to be an as of yet unrecognized significant
additional asset, due to more modern refinery capabilities than
were previously employed.
Jacobs Assay at that time, released the following results for
McIntyre's sampling (values in ounces per ton):
Mockingbird Mine:
Sample # gold silver
37 .004 .30
38 .009 .75
39 .026 .30
40 .008 .10
41 .003 .15
42 .002 .25
Great West Mine:
43 .003 .35
44 .271 .65
45 .067 .40
46 .002 .10
Pocahontas Mine:
47 .003 .30
48 .001 .05
49 .025 .05
50 .003 .05
Dandy Mine:
51 .003 .10
52 .004 .10
53 .063 .25
54 2.024 1.10
55 .005 .05
56 .022 .20
Williamson Mine:
1 .026 .35
2 .049 .25
3 .050 .40
4 .005 < .05
5 < .001 < .05
Blue Copper Mine:
.024 < .05
Of these 26 samples, all but one had detectable gold, and all
but 3 had detectable silver. While your Company will not know the
cut-off grade for what is considered "ore" until a feasibility
study is completed following drilling out of the project, open pit
gold deposits in the Arizona, Nevada and California area have
profitably mined ore with a grade as low as .02 ounces of gold per
ton, so 11 of the 26 samples had a potentially economic gold grade.
Finally, two of the samples could be considered "high grade," with
a gold content over .1 ounce per ton (one sample at the Dandy mine
was over 2 ounces per ton).
In summary, your Company has no doubts whatsoever that there is
gold at the Mockingbird Property. Whether the first 8 drill holes
encountered gold will only be known when the assay results are
received.
In the interim, we shall be announcing the awarding of the
drilling contract; the recipient of this contract(s) will be
drilling on a number of your Company's Gold properties' drill sites
continually being selected by our Professional Geologists. This
will be a "non stop" drilling process with no breaks whatsoever in
drilling, (barring adverse weather conditions); using a "state of
the art," faster and less costly drilling process. The present
intention is to use a track-mounted or rubber tire (buggy) rig
capable of reverse circulation (RC) drilling. RC drilling is much
more economical on a per foot basis than core drilling and will
permit the next drill campaign to dramatically increase the footage
drilled. Using such a drill rig minimizes the need to construct
drill roads, thus operating in a much more environmentally friendly
manner with minimum disturbance, and having the added benefit of
greatly reducing BLM bonding requirements.
Hunt Gold Corporation's Project Geologist Ed Huskinson initiated
a comprehensive reconnaissance sampling program at the Company's
"Mockingbird" Gold property. Numerous additional mineralized areas
were discovered during the recent drill campaign, and this program
is inventorizing and sampling the surface outcrops in a very
thorough and scientific manner. Soil geochemical samples are being
taken on a 200 foot grid over priority areas, most notably the 56
recently staked claims in the former Anaconda project area.
Geochemical results will be posted onto a map and contoured, thus
generating "bulls-eye" targets for the next phases of drilling.
This approach by the Company is a very "fast track," yet
scientific approach designed and calculated to produce enormous
amounts of data over this year with daily drilling results and
ongoing Assay Results being published from our various Gold Mining
properties. We will be continually drilling throughout this year to
expand our gold resource and to advance our gold properties toward
production. Nonstop exploration is at the heart of Hunt Gold's
business model. Drilling will be expeditious and at best cost.
Drill targets will continue to be selected in a prudent and
geologically sound manner. Announcement of assay results will be
regular and periodic as an ongoing part of the business.
Stockholders are reminded that their Company has only performed
initial drilling on very small sections of its "Mockingbird" Gold
property.
The new drilling campaign commencing this month will focus on a
wide range of carefully selected drill sites over a large number of
sections on the majority of Hunt Gold Corporation's Eleven
principal Gold Mining properties. Exploration will be done during
2009 primarily at but not limited to your Company's "Golden Eagle,"
"Ambassador," "Venezia," "Starlight" and "American Flag" Gold
Mining properties, as well as the continued "fast track"
exploration taking place at our extensive "Mockingbird" Gold
Project.
Hunt Gold Corporation's CEO, Mike Saner, stated that "Hunt Gold
Corporation's exploration program at its 'Mockingbird' Gold Project
is expanding as we continue to learn important new details about
this exciting gold property. Exploration will be done in a
systematic way in order to maximize 'Mockingbird's' potential for
Hunt Gold Corporation and its shareholders." He added that "The new
policy of nonstop but systematic drilling on numerous sections of
the Company's Gold Mining properties are expected to significantly
add to Hunt's Gold Resources and given the return of the Gold Price
to a number now well in excess of US$900/oz; the value of the
Company's Gold properties would continue to escalate rapidly."
Your Company is committed to strict compliance with any and all
environmental requirements. As noted above, we are designing our
exploration program to minimize environmental disturbance. Your
Company is also committed to mine safety. In cooperation with the
BLM and the Arizona State Mine Inspector, numerous former shafts,
adits and other workings on the Mockingbird Gold property have been
safety fenced, and official warning signs have been posted.
Your Team of Professionals at Hunt Gold looks forward to
continually updating its shareholders about our progress in these
exciting and timely endeavors.
ABOUT HUNT GOLD CORPORATION
Hunt Gold Corporation is a Gold Mining & Exploration Company
focused on the development and exploration of its Gold properties,
namely "Mockingbird," "Ambassador," "Golden Eagle," "Gladstone
Lookout," "Lady Alde," "Williamson," "Blue Copper Mine,"
"Starlight," "American Flag," "Venezia," "Stormcloud," "Cherry,"
"Buffalo Limecap," "Red Cloud" and "Federal." The Company has
completed the sale of its "American Molygold" interests and will be
distributing the entire sale proceeds through a Stock Dividend to
its stockholders. The Company has disposed of its "Lookout" Silver
Projects and will be retaining an amount of US$65 million in quoted
stock from that disposal.
This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and
such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe
harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations,
plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words
such as "may," "future," "plan" or "planned," "will" or "should,"
"expected," "anticipates," "draft," "eventually" or "projected."
You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude
of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances,
events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the
forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results
may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking
statements as a result of various factors, and other risks
identified in a companies' annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and
other filings made by such company with the SEC.
For further information contact: MDM Worldwide Solutions, Inc.
(Investor Relations Enquiries) E Mail : Email Contact Telephone :
(646) 961-4458 Contact : Richard Hausig Hunt Gold Corporation
(Corporate Enquiries) E Mail: Email Contact Telephone: (954)
840-6956 Contact: Mr. Michael G Saner
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