Reno, NV - NuLegacy Gold Corporation reports that its 2013 exploration programs will focus on following up the Carlin-type gold discoveries made this past year in the Central Mineralized Zone of its Red Hill Project and the pediment of its Wood Hills Project.
The Wood Hills project is at a lower elevation allowing access earlier in the year. Therefore the exploration program is planned to commence with a 5 hole drilling program on the Wood Hills in February, followed by a 10-12 hole program on the Red Hill Project starting late-March/early April, 2013.
The Wood Hills Project, located in the Pequop Gold district of north-central Nevada, is eight miles southwest of and on trend with the West Pequop and Long Canyon gold deposits. Newmont Mining Corp. acquired Long Canyon for approximately $2.3 billion in 2011. Basin and range faulting has offset the Wood Hills gold project which may otherwise have been a direct extension of the Pequop district's gold deposits.
Wood Hills 2013: The initial five-hole Wood Hills drilling program is designed to test three favorably complex structural areas with anomalous gold that were delineated on the Wood Hills project. The three are aligned in the favorable northeast/southwest orientation of the Long Canyon deposit.
Three of the holes will focus on following up on the significant gold intercept in hole WHS11-007 (10.7 meters of 0.40 g/t Au - first reported Feb 6, 2012), which is on the western margin of a large gravity low interpreted as outlining an area of intensely fractured carbonates. One hole each will test the other two 'aligned' gravity anomalies that are proximal to additional anomalous gold drill-hole intercepts, and had elevated levels of gold (and the associated trace elements suites) in the soil sampling geochemistry that are commonly associated with Carlin-type gold deposits.
These favorable targets were identified through an 18 month ever-narrowing exploration process that gave us considerable encouragement. Drilling is anticipated to start in early February.
The Red Hill Project, our most advanced prospect, is in the Cortez District, southeast of Barrick Gold's recent Goldrush discovery with a reported multi-million-ounce gold resource. Barrick Gold Inc. produces in excess of 1 million ounces of gold/year from its Cortez Operations, which have been in production since 1968.
Our COO Dr. Roger Steininger, who discovered the first of the three major Carlin deposits in the Cortez referred to above (the 21+ million ounce Pipeline gold deposit) says, "We have discovered a high grade near-surface oxide gold deposit (the Iceberg deposit) that has the potential in and of itself to become economic, and there is also the potential for deeper and higher grade sulphide gold mineralization."
That conclusion is based on the compilation and analysis of all the geophysics, geochemistry and drilling data from NuLegacy Gold and previous operators including Barrick Gold. The analysis suggests that the oxide gold mineralization in the Iceberg gold deposit (in the Central Mineralized Zone) has the classic northwest/southeast orientation, with the Avocado Anomaly as the possible higher grade sulphide part of this Carlin-type system.
Red Hill 2013: The initial drill program on the Barrick portion of Red Hill Project will be undertaken in two phases of 5/6 holes to allow for turnaround of the assays from the first phase of holes to guide the final selection of sites for the second phase holes.
Drilling of the first half-dozen (Phase 1) holes will commence late March/early April as soon as weather conditions permit. Holes in phase one will target extensions of the Iceberg gold deposit by stepping out aggressively to the northwest, and following up on several favorable historic drill hole intercepts in the northern part of the Central Mineralized Zone (such as RH92-04 with 25.9 m @ 3.64 g/T and RRR93-05 with 13.7 m @ 1.15 g/T). They are intended to provide a preliminary assessment of how large the Iceberg gold deposit could be and to determine if the Avocado Anomaly is part of the same mineralized gold system.
The second phase of drilling will consist of following up on favorable results from phase one drilling, and if the higher grade oxide mineralization extends far enough north, drilling an initial test of the Avocado IP anomaly at the northern extension of the CMZ. We are encouraged by the possibility of expanding the Iceberg Gold Deposit to economic proportions.
Field work will also continue to develop additional drill targets in adjacent Jasperiod Basin and at western end of the Barrick option on the VIO zone where rock chip sampling and mapping has defined areas of intensely altered carbonates that contain anomalous gold.
Consolidation of Land Package: NuLegacy also reports that it has further reduced its 2013 exploration budget to a fully funded $1.2 million dollars. This is a result of a decision to terminate the earn-in agreement on Miranda Gold Inc.'s portion of the Red Hill Project claims.
CEO James Anderson says, "This is consistent with our business plan of reducing non-core exploration activities to focus on our discovery success in the Central Mineralized Zone (the Iceberg Deposit) and the Avocado anomaly on the Barrick Gold portion of the Red Hill Project as well as our progress identifying gold targets at the Wood Hills Project during the first half of 2013".
This decision reduces NuLegacy's Red Hill Project expenditures by $1.4 million in 2013 and $1.85 million in 2014. Combined with the agreements reported on Nov. 8, 2012 we have reduced earn-in expenditures by a total of $6.5 million overall while maintaining our exposure to the best of the prospective ground we originally secured in the Cortez trend.
NuLegacy Gold Corporation is focused on delineating gold resources within the Carlin-type gold systems it has identified on its two highly prospective district scale properties in Nevada; the 100km2Red Hill Project and the 100 km2 Wood Hills South Project. Both projects have geology similar to the adjacent multi-million ounce gold deposits that were discovered subsequent to NuLegacy securing these projects. The NuLegacy exploration and drilling programs employ proprietary techniques for targeting multi-million ounce deposits.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF NULEGACY GOLD CORPORATION
James E Anderson, Chief Executive Officer
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
This news release and the accompanying graphic links contain forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. There are no known resources or reserves on the Company's properties and the proposed exploration programs are exploratory searches for commercial bodies of ore. The presence of gold deposits on properties adjacent or in close proximity to the Company's properties is not necessarily indicative of the gold mineralization on the Company's properties. Historical assays reported in this news release cannot be independently verified and should not be relied upon. They are presented to provide an indication of the gold mineralization present in the CMZ and as a guide to future exploration. All of the forward-looking statements made in this news release and the accompanying graphic links are qualified by these cautionary statements and those in our continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com including our annual management's discussion and analysis dated July 30, 2012 for the year ended March 31, 2012. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required under applicable securities legislation. The technical disclosure in this press release and the accompanying graphic links has been reviewed by Dr. Roger Steininger, the Chief Operating Officer of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators.
