CALGARY, April 30, 2012 -
Manson Creek Resources Ltd. ('Manson Creek') (TSX VENTURE: MCK) is pleased to announce that exploration is expected to commence on the Up Town Gold project in the Northwest Territories in two weeks. The favourable geology underlying the Up Town Gold project was outlined and staked based upon the deposit models of Trelawney Mining and Exploration Inc.'s Cote Lake deposit, Osisko Mining Corporation's Hammond Reef deposit, both in located in Ontario, and other Granitoid Hosted Lode Gold deposits worldwide. The recent announcement by
Trelawney Mining and Exploration Inc. and
IAMGOLD Corporation regarding the announced acquisition of Trelawney by IAMGOLD further demonstrates the value and importance of these bulk tonnage gold deposits.
The Up Town Gold project area has significant bedrock exposure that will allow for direct geological inspection and interpretation. Phase one work will involve detailed geological mapping of historic gold bearing zones with the intention of identifying favourable structures and associated alteration zones that expand upon the historically identified zones. Extensive channel sampling will then be conducted over the mineralized zones as the first step in defining the mineralization present.
Up Town Gold Project Background
Manson Creek's 3,388 hectare property has five known gold bearing zones hosted in an Archean granodiorite adjacent to the Yellowknife greenstone belt which boasts over 12 million ounces of gold production from the nearby Giant and Con mines. Historic work on the Up Town Gold property, done primarily in the 1960's, focused on the narrow quartz filled shears and associated quartz veins while largely ignoring the larger zones of hydrothermally altered host granodiorite. The shear zones, associated fractures and quartz veins vary from millimeter widths to well over 3.0 meters and they commonly are surrounded by a broader alteration halo. The alteration consists of silicification and sericitization with hematite alteration present as well. Mineralization is present at surface with exposures of tens of meters common with many stretching for hundreds of meters.
Until recently, gold exploration has focused primarily on the volcano-sedimentary greenstone belts, seeking structurally controlled mesothermal lode-gold deposits while the adjacent granitoid rocks have been largely ignored as hosts for gold mineralization. A growing number of significant bulk minable lode-gold deposits have been found in Archean granitic rocks and there is a growing awareness that they constitute a separate deposit class - referred to as Granitoid Hosted Lode Gold deposits.
Several of the gold bearing zones on the Up Town Gold property had historical estimates completed in the 1960's with over 2,500 meters of diamond drilling completed. In many of the historic assessment reports there is mention of hydrothermally altered host rock but no systematic sampling was ever conducted on these altered zones.
Due diligence work conducted by Company personnel in December 2011 located many of the historical areas of trenching. Shovelling of snow allowed for limited exposure of the located Rod and J Group trenches with thirteen rock samples collected from silicified shear and vein material as well as altered wall rock.
Nine grab samples were taken at various trenches in the Rod zone and four samples were taken from a trench in the J Group zone. The Rod samples returned an average of 11.2 g/t gold with two of the grab samples returning high grade gold grades of 49.6 g/t and 30.0 g/t. The J Group samples averaged 0.13 g/t gold with trace silver in the limited sampling. The assays show high grade zones occur within broader halos of lower grade mineralization and are consistent with the Granitoid Hosted Lode Gold deposit exploration model.
Corporate Update
Manson Creek is pleased to report that it has received a payment of $88,300 from the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Natural Resources Mineral Incentive Program. The Junior Exploration Grant program returns up to 50% of eligible exploration expenditures to the Company. The Grant Program has enabled the Company to control exploration dollars during challenging market conditions and conduct significantly more exploration than would have been possible otherwise.
The President of Manson Creek Resources Ltd., Regan Chernish P.Geol., is the Qualified Person responsible for the preparation of this news release.
Regan Chernish, P. Geol.
President and Director
Except for the historical and present factual information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release, including words such as "expects", "projects", "plans", "anticipates" and similar expressions, are forward-looking information that represents management of Manson Creek's internal projections, expectations or beliefs concerning, among other things, future operating results and various components thereof or the economic performance of Manson Creek. The projections, estimates and beliefs contained in such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause Manson Creek's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, those described in Manson Creek's filings with the Canadian securities authorities. Accordingly, holders of Manson Creek shares and potential investors are cautioned that events or circumstances could cause results to differ materially from those predicted. Manson Creek disclaims any responsibility to update these forward-looking statements.
The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.
Contact Information
Manson Creek Resources Ltd.
Regan Chernish
1.403.233.0464
www.manson.ca
