NWM Mining Corporation (TSX-V: NWM) has announced additional Reverse-Circulation drilling results from the RC drilling program recently completed at Lluvia de Oro.
The Company has received and reviewed the results of an additional 17 drill holes completed at Lluvia de Oro since the drill results reported December 1, 2010. This new drill data includes RC holes R10-018 through R10-035, aggregating 2,109 meters, which were drilled primarily in the Northeast Pit Extension area.
As set forth in the Company's NI 43-101 report of July 8, 2010, the combined Mineral Reserves for the Lluvia-Jojoba project are calculated to be Proven plus Probable Reserves of 19,537,925 tonnes, grading 0.612 grams per tonne gold, for 384,361 ounces gold. The Reserves are contained within a global Measured plus Indicated (M+I) Resource base of 23.8 million tonnes grading 0.591 grams gold per tonne (g/t Au), aggregating 452,456 ounces gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au, and a $900 per ounce gold price. An important objective of the RC drilling program was to convert existing Inferred Resources to the higher M+I resource categories.
Except for drill hole R10-018 (a condemnation hole put down in leach pad area NE-1) all holes were completed in the NE Extension at Lluvia de Oro. The Phase 2 RC drilling concentrated on "Area 7 Pit", the farthest northeast of three production pits to the northeast of the Creston Pit. Rodney A. Blakestad, Manager of Exploration for the Company, said "These drill data have significantly expanded the defined gold mineralization in the vicinity of the Area 7 pit, as previously determined by Lluvia mining staff, and opens an area immediately north and northwest of the drilled area."
Drill hole R10-031 returned 59.4 meters of 0.737 g/t Au with a strong intercept of 7.6 meters grading 3.07 g/t Au, and hole R10-033, located 63 meters northeast, returned 1.054 g/t Au over 27.7 meters. Holes R10-024, 026, 027, 028, 031, 032, and 033 indicate that the northern and western margin of the pit is open and that additional drilling is needed to establish the economic edge of the Area 7 Pit. Drill holes R10-020 and R10-022 were designed to identify the east edge of the Area 7 Pit.
2011 Exploration Program
Total drilling completed at the Lluvia de Oro property during 2010 amounts to 5,090.4 meters of RC drilling and 8,390.7 meters of core drilling through core hole L10-043. Exploration drilling continues in the area north of the Area 7 Pit described above, and will be carried out in six other target areas at Lluvia-Jojoba, as set forth in the map below, through the first half of 2011.
Explanation of Drill Targets 1 through 11
Target 1 is the extension of Area 7 Pit where mineralization is entirely within the detachment block sedimentary sequence at Lluvia de Oro.
Target 2 is the northern extension of the Este Zone, which is a zone of gold-silver copper mineralization in metamorphic rocks below the detachment block.
Target 3 is the Southeast Lobe (SEL) of Creston Pit and is a continuation of gold-silver-copper drill intercepts described in previously announced RC and core drilling.
Targets 4 & 6 constitute the El Cobre and El Cobre West areas respectively, which exhibit widespread, near-surface copper-gold mineralization based on earlier air-track drilling and from surface soil geochemical exploration that defines the two or more zones with multi-element soil anomalies in Au-Ag-As-Bi-Cu-Mo.
Target 5 is the El Pozo Zone of mineralization that represents mineralization hosted in the detachment block sediments and by metamorphic rocks near the detachment fault.
Target 7 is a newly discovered zone of gold-copper mineralization associated with quartz veins and stockwork in a major fault zone that forms the southern limit of known mineralization for Lluvia de Oro and extends four kilometers to the northern part of the La Jojoba Northeast Zone.
Exploration targets for La Jojoba include the large area of multi-element soil geochemical anomalies identified in for the Campamento Zone (Target 8) in 2006, which coincides with enzyme leach soil anomalies obtained for the area in 2010. The Campamento soil geochemical anomaly defines an area almost twice the size of the footprint of the Northeast Zone, which hosts all the resources and mineral reserves defined for the La Jojoba property. Additional targets identified for 2011 exploration at La Jojoba include the SE Zone (Target 9) and the North plus Papalote Zones (Target 10), all of which occur in the detachment block of rock above the detachment fault at La Jojoba. The last, but not least important target for 2011 exploration is the Loma Colorada quartz-feldspar porphyry plug (Target 11), which has taken on greater importance with the discovery of mineralization in similar rocks at Lluvia.
Sample QA/QC
The Company's Qualified Person, Mr. Rodney A. Blakestad, C.P.G., oversees sampling and sample preparation, quality control procedures, and quality assurance matters pertaining to the RC drill programs at Lluvia-Jojoba. Drill cuttings are split with a riffle splitter or a rotary splitter at the drill where the sample bags and duplicate samples are secured with safety ties and removed daily to a secure storage container until shipped by commercial carrier to the processing lab. ALS-Chemex, an ISO 9001:2000 certified laboratory, receives the samples and prepares them at their Hermosillo, Sonora facility. RC samples are dried, fine-crushed to nominal 2mm size, and 250 gram homogenized pulps prepared and shipped to the ALS analytical lab in Nevada or Vancouver, Canada. Pulverized pulps are analyzed by 50 gram fire assay with AA finish. A 15 gram sub-sample is analyzed by ICP method ME-ICP41 for 35 additional elements to provide a broad range of geochemical information for analysis. Certified sample standards, sample blanks, and/or duplicate samples are included in the sample suite. Analytical data is returned to the QP by e-mail attachment and the data are checked for consistency and recorded.
Mr. Rodney A. Blakestad, C.P.G., is the designated Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators for this press release and has reviewed and approved the technical and scientific disclosure contained herein.