Red Pine Exploration Inc. ("Red Pine" or the "Company") has commenced a 1500 metre diamond drill program on its Wawa Gold Property. The drill program is targeting the Hornblende Shear Zone, located in the footwall of the Surluga Deposit (inferred resource of 1,088,000 ounces @ 1.71 g/t gold), and the Mickelson-Sunrise Deformation Zone, located in the hanging wall of the Surluga Deposit (see Figure 1: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1028151_Figure1.pdf).
"The upcoming drilling program is exciting for many reasons said Quentin Yarie, President and CEO of Red Pine. "It may define a new gold-bearing shear zone that, from preliminary field studies, may be comparable in dimensions to the Jubilee Shear Zone that already contains an inferred resource of over 1 million ounces of gold1. In addition, results of sampling the Sunrise-Mickelson Deformation Zone indicate the potential to add a shallow high-grade component in the hanging wall of the existing resource."
Hornblende Shear Zone
Drilling will test the down-dip extension of the Hornblende Shear Zone where grab samples of quartz veins and strongly sheared material returned gold grades between 3 and 25 g/t. Drilling will also test higher grade gold zones identified in the 1960s in the deeper extension of the Hornblende Shear Zone (including a historic intersection of 3.01 g/t gold over 10.27 metres - U0007L7) but never followed up.
Previous drilling in the Surluga Deposit footwall indicates a stacked set of gold-bearing shear zones (0.64m at 8.1 g/t gold in S087 and 2.08m at 3.06 g/t gold in S088) and high-grade quartz veins (53.2 g/t gold over 1m and 51.7 g/t gold over 1m in SD-15-11) between the Surluga Deposit and the Hornblende Shear Zone. None of these gold-bearing shear zones have been sufficiently explored in the past to be included in the current inferred resource estimate for the Surluga Deposit.
Sunrise-Mickelson Deformation zone
Drilling will target different gold-bearing shear zones and vein systems examined during the Summer 2015 Surface Sampling Program, where composited channel samples returned intersections up to 28.04g/t gold over 2.75m (Mickelson East) and individual grab samples contained up to 93 g/t gold. Drilling will test the strike and down dip extension of the largest structures identified by an ongoing geophysical survey covering the Sunrise-Mickelson Deformation zone.
Readers are cautioned that the true width of the structures intersected in channel samples could not be determined from the information available although channel samples were collected perpendicular to strike. Also, grab samples are selective by nature. The grades and mineralization present are not necessarily representative of other mineralization that may be identified on the property.
Joint Venture Partnership
Red Pine has a 30% interest in the Wawa Gold Project and is part of a Joint Venture Agreement with Citabar LLP and Augustine Ventures Inc. The Wawa Gold Project is now owned by Citabar/Red Pine/Augustine in the ratio of 40%, 30% and 30%, respectively. The three JVA partners will share in the financing of the upcoming drill program on a pro rata basis. Under the terms of the JVA, Red Pine is the Operating Manager and will continue to explore and advance the current gold resource on the property.
On-site Quality Assurance/Quality Control ("QA/QC") Measures
Grab samples are selected based on geological features such as veins, presence of mineralization, strong alteration and/or more intense deformation with each sample bagged in situ in the field. Channel samples are collected with a portable diamond rock saw and bagged in situ on the field. Metal tags are placed along the channel to record the location of each sample. Each channel is 4 to 6 centimetres wide over the full length of the channel typically 0.5 to 1 metre long.
Grab and channel samples are transported in securely-sealed bags for analyses at Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Ancaster, Ontario. Individual samples are labeled, placed in plastic sample bags and sealed. Groups of samples are then placed into durable rice bags for shipping. All grab and channel samples are geo-referenced.
Red Pine has implemented a quality-control program to comply with best practices in the sampling and analysis of field samples. As part of its QA/QC program, Red Pine inserts external gold standards (low to high grade) and blanks every 20 samples in addition to random standards, blanks, and duplicates.
Qualified Person
Craig Scherba, P Geo. is the qualified person responsible for preparing, supervising and approving the scientific and technical content of this news release.