Widespread Gold Mineralization At McGill Canyon Area

VANCOUVER - Newrange Gold Corp. reported that preliminary surface rock sampling and mapping in the McGill Canyon area of the Pamlico Project has identified widespread gold mineralization and local concentrations of copper, lead and zinc associated with skarn alteration.  This skarn hosted mineralization is coincident with a much larger Induced Polarization (IP) chargeability anomaly interpreted to be at least 5.5 kilometers long and, in the area sampled, more than 1.5 kilometers wide.

Of particular interest is the occurrence of an altered porphyry dike with weak to moderate potassic alteration, evidenced by abundant secondary biotite, grading 2.994 grams gold per metric tonne (g/t Au) and 0.115 percent copper (% Cu).  Of the 42 rock chip samples collected from outcrop in the McGill Canyon area, 16 were identified as skarn altered carbonate sediments, 11 of which contained gold mineralization grading from 0.106 g/t Au to 1.969 g/t Au.  The results cover an area roughly 1.5 kilometers long and 750 meters wide that appears to remain open to expansion.

The average copper content of all 42 samples was 2,072 ppm or 0.207% Cu within a range of 88 to 19,600 ppm Cu (0.009 to 1.96%), with four samples grading more than 1.0%.  One sample of quartz breccia with oxidized sulfides returned 1.7 g/t gold, 147 g/t silver, 2.45% lead and 4.96% zinc.  Three other samples returned 1-2% zinc.

“These results from reconnaissance sampling are extremely encouraging,” said, Robert Archer, CEO.  “We had previously identified this area as having potential to host skarn type mineralization and the completion of the recent, expanded IP survey showing a strong chargeability anomaly here underscores this potential.  The identification of a mineralized and altered porphyry dike is also the first direct indication we have seen of a possible porphyry relationship.  With Kennecott drilling a porphyry target just 30 kilometers east of us and the Yerington Mine approximately 90 kilometers to the northwest, we are certainly in the right geological environment.”

The McGill Canyon area lies a little more than 5 kilometers to the south-southeast of the Pamlico Ridge target zone.  As currently known, the geology of the prospective area in McGill Canyon is dominated by weak to intensely metamorphosed carbonate sediments that are typically overlain by, and possibly interlayered with, silici-clastic to volcano-clastic sediments that commonly have been metamorphosed to hornfels, all of which are in turn overlain by younger volcanic, paleo-fluvial and alluvial formations that appear to postdate mineralization.  Sample results and observed alteration in the metamorphosed sediments are indicative of an intrusive, possibly porphyry related gold-copper mineralized skarn system.