KELLOGG, Idaho, Jan. 27, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New Jersey Mining Company (OTCBB:NJMC) is pleased to announce the preliminary exploration plans for the 2010 field season for the Toboggan Project located near Murray, Idaho. The Toboggan project is a gold exploration joint venture between New Jersey Mining Company and Newmont North America Exploration Limited (Newmont), a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE:NEM), which covers an area of 38 square miles.
Gold mineralization is related to northerly-striking structures coincident with a broad anticline in Belt rocks of the Prichard, Burke and Revett formations. Gold mineralization also tends to favor more quartzitic stratigraphic units. At least five structural zones with gold mineralization have been located in the joint venture area. Mineralogy is predominantly pyrite and quartz with anomalous amounts of tellurium. The gold mineralization is interpreted to be younger than Revett stratabound copper-silver mineralization and Coeur d’Alene style silver-lead-zinc veins which are both present in the area.
Newmont will be required to spend approximately $750,000 by March 20, 2011, to complete the Phase 1 Earn-In which gives it a 51% interest in the joint venture.
Exploration plans call for the pace of drilling to increase with the utilization of two drill rigs – one reverse-circulation drill and one core drill. Target areas to be drilled include the Gold Butte, Mineral Ridge, and the Progress prospect. Drilling at Gold Butte in 2009 intercepted a pyritic quartz vein along a fault structure at a shallow depth of 24 meters that assayed 2.51 grams per tonne (gpt) gold over 4 meters including a higher grade section of 1 meter of 7.15 gpt gold. This summer’s drilling will target the projection of this vein into a more favorable host rock at depth which is a quartzite unit of the Prichard formation.
A better understanding of the geology of the Mineral Ridge prospect from field investigations has led to the location of four drill pads to the south of last year’s drilling. These new drill pads are interpreted to be closer to the main gold-mineralizing structure. The new drill pads will require the building of new roads and the reconstruction of old roads. The timing of drilling is dependent upon the receipt of an approved operating plan from the U.S. Forest Service which is expected in June of this year.
Drilling is also planned for the Progress prospect in 2010. The Progress is a gold-tellurium showing where soil sampling has delineated a zone with anomalous gold-in-soils that is 350 meters long by 80 meters wide. Several historic adits and prospect trenches are present at the Progress and underground sampling by NJMC staff in the northernmost adit revealed a chip sample one meter wide that assayed 12.9 gpt gold, 11.4 gpt silver and 10.6 gpt tellurium. The prospect was discovered and worked in the 1920’s and abandoned during the 1930’s Great Depression when funding for exploration became very difficult. Apparently, the Progress was forgotten and no work has been done on the prospect since the 1930’s.
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 Toboggan project, the Niagara copper-silver deposit, the Golden Chest project, the New Jersey mine, and the Silver Strand mine. The New Jersey mine includes a fully-permitted flotation mill and 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.
Further information about New Jersey Mining Company and its properties can be found at the company's website at www.newjerseymining.com.