KELLOGG, Idaho, April 15, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New Jersey Mining Company (OTCBB:NJMC) announced today that it has received notice from Newmont North American Exploration (Newmont) that it is withdrawing from the Toboggan joint venture and the entire land package covering about 8,000 acres has been quitclaimed to NJMC.
During the three field seasons of exploration work completed by Newmont, a substantial amount of exploration data was generated from a work program that included soil sampling, rock sampling, geologic mapping, surface and airborne geophysics, core drilling and reverse-circulation drilling. This data will be transferred to NJMC and will be used to plan future exploration on the prospects in the area. Newmont spent just under $2 million during its exploration program.
During 2010, Newmont completed both core and reverse-circulation (RC) drilling at the Toboggan project. A total of eight core holes totaling 914.2 meters and seven RC holes totaling 941 meters were drilled. Six of the core holes were drilled at Gold Butte and intercepted a fault with anomalous gold mineralization. In 2009, a core hole drilled near the outcrop of this mineralized structure intercepted 2.52 grams per tonne (gpt) gold over a 4.0 meter interval including one meter of 7.15 gpt. An untested target at the Gold Butte prospect is the intersection of this gold bearing fault structure with a large quartzite unit which is known to be a favorable host for gold mineralization at the nearby Golden Chest mine.
The remaining two core holes were drilled at Mineral Ridge, and both holes were terminated before hitting the target due to difficult ground conditions, but anomalous intervals of gold values (71 meters of 104 ppb in DDH-14) were observed in quartzite beds. The seven RC holes were drilled at various prospects near Toboggan Creek, and RC-7 was the most promising with 100 meters of 100 ppb gold from the surface at the Golden Reward prospect.
Unfortunately, Newmont was unable to obtain the required U.S. Forest Service drilling permit until the end of the 2010 drilling season so Newmont's highest priority targets remain untested, but now permitted.
Additionally, NJMC now has complete control of the Niagara copper-silver prospect which contains an indicated and inferred resource of 17.7 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.39% copper and 15.5 grams per tonne of silver which implies a total of 8.8 million ounces of contained silver.
The Company plans to seek separate joint venture partners for the gold prospects and the Niagara copper-silver deposit to fund further exploration so as to gain more exposure to silver prices.
About New Jersey Mining Company:
New Jersey Mining Company is involved in exploring for and developing gold, silver and base metal resources in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District of northern Idaho. New Jersey Mining Company has a portfolio of mineral properties in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District including the New Jersey Mine which includes a fully-permitted flotation mill and a concentrate leach plant.
This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections. Such statements are based on good faith assumptions that New Jersey Mining Company believes are reasonable but which are subject to a wide range of uncertainties and business risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated are discussed in New Jersey Mining Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. We use certain terms, such as "measured," "indicated," and "inferred resources," that the SEC guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in our filing with the SEC. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any or all of measured, indicated or inferred resources are economically or legally mineable or that these resources will ever be converted into reserves. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.