VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Jan. 23, 2009) - Otis Gold Corp. ("Otis" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:OOO) is pleased to announce the results of a recent CSAMT (Controlled-Source Audio-Frequency Magnetotellurics) geophysical survey that indicate the presence of a sizeable and geologically significant, 1.5 kilometer-long, low-resistivity anomaly underlying and extending downdip from the Company's Blue Hill Creek gold deposit and precious metals target area located in Cassia County, Idaho. Blue Hill Creek was the subject of NI 43-101 Technical Report Company authored by Mr. Laurence Pancoast, a registered professional geologist, entitled "Blue Hill Creek Gold Project - Geology, Mineralization, Resource Potential, Cassia County, Idaho" (the "Report"). The Report confirmed the presence of an open-ended Inferred Resource totaling 14.4 million tons having an average gold grade of 0.016 ounces per ton, for a total of approximately 235,000 ounces of gold.
Smaller, but geologically significant, CSAMT anomalies were also identified underlying and extending beyond Otis' Cold Creek gold deposit and target area, 4 miles north of the Blue Hill Creek target. Cold Creek hosts a historic gold resource totaling an estimated 85,000 ounces. The reader should be cautioned that Otis is not treating the historical estimate as a current mineral resource as it has not been verified and therefore should not be relied upon. Together, both targets make up Otis' Oakley Project located in a part of the Basin and Range Geologic Province in extreme southern Idaho near the Idaho-Nevada border.
The geophysical survey successfully identified a coherent and continuous low-resistivity anomaly/sheet-like zone at Blue Hill Creek that is 1.5 kilometers long, at least 1.5 kilometers wide, and up to 200 meters thick, all of which is dipping about 15 degrees east to west. The anomaly is open to the north and south, extends to the surface on the east, and is up to 300 meters deep at its westernmost margin. A large part of the most eastern updip portion of the anomaly corresponds to the known surface and near-surface extent of the Blue Hill Creek deposit area. The downdip portion of the anomaly, which is covered by post-mineral cover, is interpreted as the westward continuation of the mineralizing system at depth as argillic alteration and silicified knots associated with high-angle normal faults on two semi-vertical tears in the fabric of highly resistive Paleozoic basement rocks. These semi-vertical structural zones underlie and are interpreted to have supplied mineralizing fluids to the overlying Tertiary Salt Lake Formation host rocks containing the Blue Hill Creek gold deposit. The gold is in near-surface intercepts that are, in some instances, 100- to 400-feet thick, and are sandwiched between high-level sinter mounds located just off the west flank of the Albion Metamorphic Core Complex.
Otis geologists interpret the linear 1.5 kilometer-long, shallowly-dipping, low-resistivity anomaly as a large, sheet-like-shaped, gold target that will be tested by a series of five-to-six angle holes, up to 1,000-feet deep, this coming field season. Based on the results of the survey, the Company has staked additional Federal lode mining claims and applied for additional Idaho State leases to expand the Company's land position beyond the original core claims. Interpretive fence diagrams showing resistivity vs. depth, proposed faults, and drill targets are posted on the Company's website (www.otisgold.com/geocorner/). The CSAMT geophysical profiles for the Cold Creek portion of the Oakley Block show a shallow gold-bearing Tertiary volcaniclastic package overlying a distinct graben structure with unexplored low-resistivity anomalous zones and interspersed higher resistivity areas interpreted to be argillic alteration and silicification associated with possible feeder structures.
Company Chief Geologist Mitch Bernardi states: "The CSAMT geophysical targets identified may explain the large gold budget present at Blue Hill Creek that has only been partially explored by the shallow holes drilled by Meridian and WestGold in the mid to late 1980's. Otis now has the information required to explore the roots of the large epithermal system which we believe to have supplied the gold."
The survey was conducted using 50-meter-spaced electric-field receiver dipoles in order to identify low-resistivity structures that may have acted as feeders for the gold deposits at Blue Hill Creek and Cold Creek. The CSAMT survey was conducted by Zonge Geosciences Inc., Sparks, Nevada between October 9th and October 26th, 2008, and consisted of data acquisition from nine east-west oriented lines (16 line-km) using two transmitter dipoles concentrated over the Blue Hill Creek and Cold Creek portions of Otis' Oakley claim block.
John R. Carden, Ph.D., P. Geo., a Qualified Person (QP) as defined by National Instrument Policy 43-101, is responsible for the technical information contained in this News Release.
Otis currently owns four precious metals projects located in Idaho and Nevada. The Company recently completed a four-hole core program at its Kilgore Project, where a high-grade underground gold target is being explored.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Craig T. Lindsay, President and CEO
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