Feb 7 2011
Asia Now Resources Corp. (TSX VENTURE:NOW) has announced that the Company now has 11 rigs drilling at Beiya North adjacent to the open-pit Beiya Gold Mine, the largest gold mine in Yunnan Province of China, whose production capacity has been increased to 200,000 ounces of gold annually.
The Company's accelerated drill program started last October (see News on October 6, 2010) and a total of 18 holes have been drilled to date. All the holes intersected the mineralized zones as expected and confirm that the Beiya North gold/silver and base metal zone continues for 1,200 meters by 350 to 620 meters and remains open to the north and west.
Dr. Kaihui Yang, President and CEO of the Company, said, "We are very pleased to have received the initial assay results confirming and extending the high-grade zones at Beiya North. Our positive results have caused us to accelerate our drill campaign by adding drills for a total of 11. The additional drills will enable us to develop a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate at Beiya North sooner than originally planned."
Assay results of six holes returned demonstrate high-grade intercepts as highlighted below, while the assay results for the other 12 holes are expected in late February:
ZK750: intersected mineralized zones with cumulative thickness of 52.8 meters including 15 meters at 3.5 g/t gold, 72 g/t silver and 4.2% lead; 21 meters at 1.1g/t gold; 1.5 meters at 18.7 g/t gold, 221 g/t silver and 16.1% lead; 1.5 meters at 4.4 g/t gold, 66 g/t silver and 4.2% lead; 0.63 meters at 4.16 g/t gold, 928 g/t silver and 23.9% lead; 1.3 meters at 1.9 g/t gold, 155 g/t silver; 1.4 meters at 4.9g/t gold, 92g/t silver and 1.58% copper.
ZK1548: intersected mineralized zones with cumulative thickness of 34.4 meters including 16.1 meters grading 2.1 g/t gold; 1.85 meters at 6.3 g/t gold and 17 g/t silver; 1.5 meters at 6.5 g/t gold; 1.1 meters at 5.0 g/t gold and 13 g/t silver; 1.5 meters at 0.7 g/t gold, 91 g/t silver and 9.7% combined lead and zinc.
ZK1873: intersected mineralized zones with cumulative thickness of 29.4 meters mineralized zone including 10.5 meters grading 0.3 g/t gold, 37 g/t silver and 2.9% combined lead and zinc; 1.3 meters at 78 g/t silver and 7.3% lead; 1.2 meters at 0.4 g/t gold, 61 g/t silver and 9.2% combined lead and zinc.
ZK2658: intersected mineralized zones with cumulative thickness of 12.8 meters including 9.0 meters grading 0.35 g/t gold, 46 g/t silver and 4.2% lead; 0.9 meters at 1.0 g/t gold, 89 g/t silver and 8.8% lead; 0.4 meters at 0.2 g/t gold, 59 g/t silver and 1.3% copper.
ZK350: intersected 1.3 meters grading 0.6 g/t gold, 47 g/t silver and 9.3% combined lead and zinc.
All the holes were drilled vertically, each stepping out 160 to 240 meters from others at Beiya North. Two holes (ZK1873 and ZK2658) stepping out to the north intersected altered intrusions, confirming the proximity to a new center with potential for high-grade skarn mineralization, in addition to the center at the Beiya Gold Mine (see news release on August 9, 2010). Drilling is slowing down for the Chinese New Year in early February, but will be resumed in mid February.
Asia Now has earned 72% with the option of increasing to 90% our interest in the Beiya North property where the Company is currently drilling. Beiya North is part of the Beiya project that involves two joint venture companies. Beiya North is part of the joint venture with Yunnan Non-Ferrous Geology and Mineral Resources Company Limited. The Company is earning a 70-88% interest in another joint venture with Yunnan Geology and Mineral Resources Company Limited. The Beiya project is 60 km by highway north of the city of Dali, which is a 35 minute flight from Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan. There are several daily flights, a railway and a paved highway between the two cities. The Beiya property is one of two key projects the Company is exploring in China.
SAMPLING, ASSAYING, QUALITY CONTROL AND QUALIFIED PERSON
Drill core samples were cut in halves using a diamond saw. One half of the core was sampled and assayed using aqua regia digestion with AAS determination for gold, and hydrochloric/perchloric (HCl/HClO4) digestion with ICP-MS determination for copper, molybdenum, silver, zinc, lead and others (a total of 35 elements). For samples with Cu grade higher than 1%, a four acid (HCl/HNO3/HClO4/HF) digestion method and AAS determination were applied. All the assays were completed at SGS-CSTC Standards Technical Sciences Co. Ltd in Tianjin in accordance with international standard ISO17025. To maintain independent quality control on the laboratory, duplicate samples are submitted from 5% of sample sites, and replicate samples are submitted for 3% of samples. In addition the laboratories use an extensive range of internal standards. External check assays are routinely performed on check samples submitted independently by the Company to other international laboratories.