[email protected]

Tel: 604-694-2344

Free
Message: Merit Mining to Drill Main Zone at J&L Property

Breaking News

Merit Mining to Drill Main Zone at J&L Property

12:40 EDT Thursday, November 04, 2010

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Nov. 4, 2010) - Merit Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE:MEM) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it will commence an underground diamond drilling program by mid-November at its 100% owned gold-silver-lead-zinc J&L property, near Revelstoke, BC. A minimum of 2,000 metres of drilling from within existing underground workings is aimed at verifying historic drilling and historic resources on the Main Zone. Crews are currently on site reactivating the underground workings in preparation for the drill program.

The J&L property is located 35 kilometres north of Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada. In August, the Company completed payments to secure 100% ownership of the J&L, which for decades had been held by an estate.

The J&L property is one of the largest undeveloped polymetallic deposits in British Columbia. The 2,325 hectare property has two known and significant precious and polymetallic mineral deposits. The Main Zone is a stratiform, structurally controlled precious metal and polymetallic base metal massive sulphide deposit. Historic underground drilling has defined the Main Zone for a 1.4 kilometre strikelength. Surface exploration has traced the Main Zone for 3 kilometres. The Main Zone averages 2.5 metres thick. The Yellowjacket Zone is a very siliceous Zn-Pb-Ag stratabound deposit that sub parallels and is in the immediate hangingwall of the Main Zone. The Main Zone will be the focus of this new drilling.

Several major mining companies, including Asarco, BP-Selco, and Noranda previously explored and advanced the Main Zone. A total of 197 diamond drill holes were completed on the property from 1983 to 1997 (21,926 metres). Underground development is comprised of 2.0 kilometres of drifting, cross cuts and raises with the Main Zone exposed for a distance of 0.85 kilometres along the drift.

Main Zone Historical Resource
As was previously disclosed by Merit in a news release dated April 15, 2007, the Main Zone has an historic resource, which was prepared by Equinox Resources Ltd. in 1991 as "Proven and Probable Ore Reserves" of 1.7 million tonnes grading 7.38 g/t gold, 75.9 g/t silver, 2.64% lead and 4.43% zinc and an historic "Possible Ore Reserve" of 1.9 million tonnes grading 7.12 g/t gold, 85.5 g/t silver, 3.32% lead and 3.48% zinc. Merit has not prepared nor confirmed this resource estimation and as it pre-dates National Instrument 43-101, it does not comply with NI 43-101 requirements for mineral resource estimation. Merit does not treat these numbers as a current resource on the property and the resource should not be relied upon, but remains a historic figure. Mr. David Makepeace, P.Eng. prepared a NI 43-101 geological report for Merit dated April 13, 2007. In Mr. Makepeace's report, the historic "Proven and Probable Ore Reserve" category would likely be equivalent to an "Indicated Mineral Resource" category and the historic "Possible Ore Reserve" category would likely be equivalent to an "Inferred Mineral Resource" category under the current CIM classification (CIM Definition Standards, 2004).

Verification drilling and sampling is required in order to justify a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate on the Main Zone deposit. It is apparent that the Main Zone has potential to expand beyond the limits of the current drilling, as the deposit is open in a number of directions. The Main Zone, with its tabular, predictable geometry and grade, and its demonstrated and interpreted lateral extent, suggests considerable opportunity to expand its size.

Paul Cowley, P.Geo, VP Exploration of Merit Mining Corp., is the Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release.

Share
New Message
Please login to post a reply