Metalline Mining Company (NYSE Amex: MMG; TSX: MMZ) announced additional drilling results from the ongoing 2010 and earlier drilling programs at the shallow silver-zinc resource area ("Area A") at the Sierra Mojada Project located in Coahuila, Mexico. Results reported below are at a 30 gpt Ag or 1% Zn external cut-off.
Metalline has now reported a total of 58 drill holes that average 43 meters thick above the 30 gpt Ag cut-off, averaging 80 gpt Ag, 1.1% Zn, and 0.26% Pb. Depth to the top of the mineralized zone averages only about 20 meters, rendering the deposit readily amenable to open pit mining.
Section 631400E lies roughly in the middle of the three kilometer long Area A zone mineralized trend. It has been drilled over the past several years mostly to test the up-plunge portion of the zinc oxide zone, and only recently have company geologists pieced together the geometry of the shallow silver-zinc zone and its host geometry. The Area A mineralization on Section 631400E is roughly 150 meters long and averages 50 meters thick. The weighted average of twenty-nine drill hole intercepts is 79 gpt (2.3 ounces per tonne) Ag and 0.53% Zn. The section lies 100 meters west of section 631500E, which was reported earlier, and demonstrates continuity westward from 631500E. Compilation of adjacent sections 631300E and 631200E is in progress
The Company is also pleased to report drill hole results for section 630100E located 1300 kilometers west of section 631400E and 100 meters eastward of previously reported section 630000E. On Section 630100E the average 45 meters thick with an average silver grade is 32 gpt (0.93 ounces per tonne) Ag, but the average zinc grade is high at 2.24% Zn. The results on this section, and drilling completed on the periphery of the silver zone on other sections, suggest there is a zinc halo around the silver-rich portion of the Area A deposit, whereby zinc is low when silver is high, and vice versa.
The Company has sent three one-tonne bulk samples from the metallurgical trench on Section 630600E to Mountain States Research and Development for metallurgical testing. Gravity, flotation, and Dense Media Separation (DMS) testing will be done to examine the ability to produce a zinc concentrate without accompanying silver, and flotation and cyanidation tests on the silver to optimize silver extractions. Scoping tests indicate 80% average recoveries for both silver and zinc should be achievable.
The deposit has now been quantified over +800 meters of strike length. It averages over 43 meters thick and about 200 meters wide. The density of mineralized material is approximately 2.6 tonnes/cubic meter. Graphic presentation of the drill intercepts on all of the sections reported to date and conceptual pit profiles and silver grade contours on the sections can be accessed on the Metalline web site at: http://www.metallinemining.com/i/maps/Section_630100E_631400E.pdf
Drilling has been completed west of section 631000E and we are awaiting assays and QA/QC on assay results. Drilling is currently on the east end of the Area A resource between sections 631500E and 632000E. Rotary drilling is piloting holes down 50 meters through alluvium and earlier post-mineral cover. We currently have three core drills on the property. Drilling is expected to continue through the end of November, and all assays are expected in by the end of December.
All of the sampling and sample preparation for assays other than the B10000-series holes reported herein have been done on site under supervision by Metalline personnel and all those samples and samples of sawed core from the 2010 drilling program were shipped directly to ALS-Chemex for further sample preparation and assaying with insertion of appropriate standards and blanks. QA/QC on all of the assay data reported here has been completed by Nick Suter, Chief Geologist at the Sierra Mojada Project.
Greg Hahn, Interim President and CEO, a Certified Professional Geologist, is the Qualified Person responsible for reviewing and reporting the contents of this press release and assuring the results reported herein are in accordance with NI 43-101.