Mar 3 2011
Balmoral Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:BAR) announced today that the first hole of its winter 2011 program on its wholly owned Martiniere Project, located along the Detour Lake Gold Trend in Central Quebec, has intersected three high-grade gold bearing intervals within a 72.00 metre wide gold zone which returned an average grade of 2.40 g/t gold.
The three high-grade sections returned intercepts of 11.18 g/t gold over 12.00 metres, 4.53 g/t gold over 5.25 metres and 10.20 g/t gold over 0.50 metres. Hole MDW11-01 was the first hole of a planned 20+ hole winter program and targeted the Martiniere West Zone, one of three known gold zones on the Martiniere Property.
"Today's high-grade intercepts from the Martiniere West Zone exceed any historic results and illustrate what we believe to be the outstanding potential of this project," said Darin Wagner, President and CEO of Balmoral. "While one never wants to put too much emphasis on a single hole, today's results confirm the high-grade potential of the Martiniere gold system which has been traced for over 1.20 kilometres along strike and which remains open in all directions. These results also help to confirm our working model which indicates the potential for the discovery of multiple high-grade gold zones on the Martiniere Project and speak to the highly prospective nature of the 70+ kilometres of the Detour Lake Gold Trend now controlled by Balmoral."
The Company has requested screen metallic assays on the high-grade core of the intercepts announced today and those results, should they vary in a material fashion from those released today, will be released as they become available.
Drill hole MDW11-01 was collared 25 metres up-dip of historic drill hole MD07-14 to test the interpreted plunge of the high-grade gold mineralization intersected in that hole. MD07-14 had returned high-grade intercepts of 5.86 g/t gold over 4.00 metres and 4.47 g/t gold over 4.00 metres within a broader zone grading 1.27 g/t gold over 49.00 metres.
Both holes are located within the central portion of the Martiniere West Zone, a 450+ metre long trend of alteration and gold mineralization which remains open in all directions. Gold mineralization within the Martiniere West Zone is associated with a broad envelope of silica flooding, tourmaline and sulphide mineralization centered on a zone of structural deformation. The deformation zone is located within a mafic (gabbroic) intrusion which is marked by a magnetic anomaly which can be traced for over 2.0 kilometres. The gabbro body occurs at the contact between felsic volcanic and sedimentary lithologies.
Seven additional holes have now been completed along the Martiniere West Zone. Results are pending and will be released as they become available. The Martiniere West Zone is one of three known zones of gold mineralization located on the Martiniere Project. The Martiniere gold trend parallels, and occurs approximately 2.70 kilometres north of, the regional Sunday-Detour Lake deformation zone. The Company is now looking to add an additional drill to the Martiniere Project to accelerate testing of the West, Central and East gold zones.
Sectional drilling also continues on the Company's nearby Fenelon gold project. Initial results from the Fenelon Project are anticipated within the next 2-3 weeks.
Quality Control
Mr. Darin Wagner (P.Geo.), President and CEO of the Company, is the non-independent qualified person for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Mr. Wagner has supervised the initial work programs on the properties, visited the properties on multiple occasions, examined the drill core from the holes summarized in this release and reviewed the analytical and quality control results. The Company has requested screen metallic gold assays from the higher grade portions of the zone intersected in the above mentioned MDW11-01.
Balmoral has implemented a quality control program for all of its drill programs to ensure best practice in the sampling and analysis of the drill core which includes the insertion of blind blanks and certified standards into sample stream. NQ sized drill core is saw cut with half of the drill core sampled at intervals based on geological criteria including lithology, visual mineralization and alteration. The remaining half of the core is securely stored on-site at the Company's Fenelon camp in Central Quebec. Drill core samples are transported in sealed bags to ALS-Chemex's Val d'Or, Quebec analytical facilities. Gold analyses are obtained via industry standard fire assay with atomic absorption finish using 50 g aliquots. For samples returning greater than 1.0 g/t gold the sample is re-analyzed via fire assay with a gravimetric finish. The Company has also requested that any samples returning greater than 8.0 g/t gold undergo screen metallic assay. ALS Chemex is an ISO 9001-200 and ISO 17025 certified laboratory.