VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 6, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ximen Mining Corp. (TSX-V: XIM ) is pleased to announce that it will be the first company in over a decade to begin a major work program on the main shear zone at one of southern BC's first and more significant epithermal gold systems. The breadth of this Epithermal Gold system is significant and covers an area several kilometers long and hundreds of meters wide. This is an extremely low sulphide system with exceptional high grade nugget gold. In the previous drill programs conducted over a decade ago, this system produced several bonanza gold grades such as 55 feet of 1 oz and away from the main shear, 4.9 oz over 4.3 feet. There are also several soil anomalies, with results such as 1 oz in soils. These exceptionally high grade targets have had no follow up since their discovery.
Ximen has spent the last several months compiling and researching all the previous data and programs conducted to date spanning a 40 year history of work. The company has retained John May, GIS Geologist, formally of Kinross who has a 30 year professional history in epithermal systems in the region, to work with Linda Caron, M.Sc. P. Eng., who is in charge and leading the exploration program on the Brett project. A GIS model of the previous work is expected imminently and will be announced when completed.
Ximen will be active on the ground next week. The company's four person crew consists of Linda Caron, and two field geologists as well as one field assistant who is specializing in earth sciences. They will be accompanied by a geophysics crew from Scotts Geophysics whom have been retained to conduct a combined ground magnetometer/VLF-EM survey. This survey is aimed at finding important structural controls to mineralization. This will represent the first geophysical survey ever completed on the Brett property. Epithermal gold mineralization on the Brett property is controlled by steep fault zones that are hosted within a sequence of variably magnetic Eocene volcanics. Fault zones can be identified as weak to moderate conductors by VLF-EM geophysics, because of the presence of broken rocks, clay gouge, and water along the faults. Gold mineralization is associated with clay and silica alteration within the volcanic host rocks. These alteration events destroy the primary magnetite in the volcanic rocks, and can be identified by ground geophysics as zones of low magnetic response along fault zones.
The field crew being mobilized will be focused on detailed geological mapping and re-logging select historic drill core to better understand zonation in the mineralizing system. Property-wide prospecting and rock sampling will be done to follow-up multiple high-quality geochemical (soil and rock) anomalies. Once this phase is completed, the company will follow up with a Diamond Drilling program (see news release dated February 27, 2014).
The Brett Gold Project consists of 2700 hectares situated in the North Okanagan region of Southwest British Columbia approximately 29 kilometers West of Vernon.
Key Highlights …
- Surface bulk sample 291 Ton's processed at Trail recov'd avg 27.74 g/t Au & 63.7 g/t Ag
- Approx $750,000 in work conducted on the property in the last 10 years.
- Excellent infrastructure and access along well maintained paved and gravel roads.
- Additional staking has increased the property to 2700 hectares
- Previous work include 10,000 M of Diamond Drilling, 2800 M's of RC Drilling
- 100's of M underground workings and two bulk samples
- Most of the work to-date has been done on the main Shear zone traced over 1300 meters
- Three Gold bearing shear zones, but indications may be 15-20 traced at surface
- Prior to 43-101 several drill indicated resources calculations estimated
- Since custom milling opportunities exist in the district, the Brett property does not necessarily need to support a stand-alone mine/mill operation to be viable.
- Property hosts epithermal style gold mineralization containing coarse gold and has excellent potential of hosting an economically viable gold deposit.
The geology, alteration and mineralization found on the Brett property is very similar to the Republic gold mining camp located just across the US border in upper Washington State, where several 1 million + ounce deposits have been mined or are being developed within that camp.
Exploration work carried out on the Brett Property previous to Ximen's involvement has confirmed the presence of a number of significant gold bearing mineralized zones associated with northerly trending altered shear/fracture zone(s). Previous work, summarized in a 43-101 report dated April 21, 2004, consisted of geochemical surveys, trenching, 10,000 meters (m) (32,900 feet) of diamond drilling, 2,800 meters (9,300 feet) of reverse circulation drilling, and 459 meters (1506 feet) of underground development.
The majority of work has been concentrated in a small area (200 m strike and 76 meters depth) of the property, along what is known as the Main Shear Zone- RW vein. One hole drilled on the property, Hole 93-19, a reverse circulation hole, returned an intersection of 16.76 m grading 35.79 gms Au/tonne (1.045 oz Au/ton) including 3.048 m grading 57.88 grams Au/tonne (1.69 oz Au/ton) and 4.57 m grading 107.88 gms Au/tonne (3.15 oz Au/ton) within the Main Shear Zone.
In 1996 a (291 tonne) bulk sample, from the RW vein and Main Shear Zone, was shipped to Trail and returned an average grade 27.74 gms Au/tonne and 63.7 gms Ag /tonne. Work was stopped in late 1996 and the property was tied up in litigation for several years.
To date, the Main Shear Zone has been traced for a strike length of over 1300 meters and down dip to a depth of 150 meters (possibly as deep as 500 meters, based on a single hole drilled on the neighboring property) and is wide open in all directions. In addition to the Main Shear Zone, the local geology and geochemistry indicates excellent exploration potential for developing other mineralized zones. Gold mineralization on the property appears to be a strongly related to the intersections between flat lying inter unit polymictic tuffaceous horizons and the northerly trending altered shear/fracture zone(s).
Based on the review of all available data, combined with information gained from a property inspection, the Brett property hosts epithermal bonanza style gold mineralization containing coarse gold and has excellent potential of hosting an economically viable gold deposit.
The soil geochemistry, which was a highlight of the 2004 program, consisted of 4,659 soil samples at 25 meter intervals on lines 100 meters apart. The survey totaled 144 line kilometers covering an area of approximately 15 square kilometers. Results indicate extensive gold anomalies cover a central portion of the area to the northeast of the main work area. Five values in excess of 500 ppb Au (0.5 grams) and another 15 were over 100 ppb Au (0.1 gms). These are considered extremely anomalous samples. One chip sample taken in an outcrop two meters away from a 41 ppb soil anomaly assayed 0.288 oz Au/ton indicating a good correlation between soil geochemistry and gold mineralization. Overall the soil geochemistry appears to indicate gold mineralization covering an unexplored area 1 kilometer wide and 2.5 kilometer long, trending northeast.
Readers are warned that "historical records" referred to in this release have been examined but not verified by a "Qualified Person". Further work is required to verify that the historical assays referred to in this release are accurate.
Patrick Forseille, P. Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 is responsible for the technical information contained in this release.
About Ximen Mining Corp
Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100 percent interest in its two projects, Gold Drop Project and Brett Gold Project located in southern British Columbia. Recently the company has entered into a due diligence agreement with Huldra Silver Inc. for the purposes of determining the feasibility, terms and conditions of a proposal for the acquisition of Huldra Silver. Ximen is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol XIM, and is listed on the Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin Stock Exchanges in Germany under the symbol 1XM and WKN number is A1W2EG.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
"Christopher R. Anderson."
Christopher R. Anderson, President, CEO and Director, Ximen Mining Corp.
For further information, please contact Ward Kondas 604-488-3900 or by email at ward@ximenminingcorp.com .
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Statements in this press release, other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company's future plans and objectives or expected results, may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties inherent in resource exploration and development. As a result, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
