First Drill Hole Complete At The Coronado VMS Project

VANCOUVER - Nevada Sunrise Gold Corporation reported that the first diamond drill hole has been completed at the Coronado VMS property, located in the Tobin and Sonoma Range of Pershing County, Nevada, approximately 48 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Winnemucca.

Hole COR18-01 was completed at the Coronado South target to a depth of 31,232 feet. Winter drilling conditions necessitated an alternate location for the initial drill hole and a site approximately 550 feet from the original location was chosen to test an electromagnetic (EM) anomaly detected in an airborne survey carried out by the Company.  Downhole conditions were difficult during the program and daily drilling progress was slower than anticipated. The drill hole intersected what is believed to be the host section for the EM anomaly.  That section included a sequence of black argillites and basaltic flows and flow breccias (Pumpernickel Formation) between a depth of 508 and 638 feet.  Significant hydrothermal epidote alteration was evident in flow breccias below 618 feet. This alteration is likely related to the EM anomaly and distal to a potential VMS system. The host section was abruptly cut off by a major fault at 638 feet that extends to a depth of 208.23 metres (683 feet). This fault is one of several that were intersected by the drillhole and exemplifies the structural complexity of this area, which is relatively unknown. Several weakly developed stockwork sulphide zones were encountered deeper in the hole at depth intervals from 268.2 to 881 to 900 feet and 1027 to 1038 feet. These zones consisted of fracture-controlled, cross-cutting, fresh to strongly oxidized pyrite veinlets and disseminations (< 1%).   Core samples have been collected from both sulphide zones and shipped to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories in Saskatoon, SK for multi-element analysis. 

Coronado currently consists of 234 located unpatented claims totaling approximately 4,680 acres (1,890 hectares) located over an interpreted trend adjacent to the historic Big Mike open pit copper mine (Big Mike) that lies within the Middle Pennsylvanian to Late Permian-age Havallah volcanic-sedimentary sequence. Big Mike was discovered in the 1930s when a shallow, oxidized portion (gold-bearing gossan) of the deposit was located by prospectors. The area was explored further in the late 1960s by Cerro Corp. and a deeper (greater than 300 feet, or 91 meters) high-grade, massive sulphide lens was discovered by diamond drilling. The deposit was considered a supergene-enriched, Cyprus-type VMS occurrence.

In 1969, Cerro Corp. published a historical resource estimate of 634,000 tons grading 3.41% copper, which included 74,000 tons of massive sulphide ore grading 11.78% copper, and 380,000 tons of oxide and mixed ore grading 3.16% copper.  This historical estimate, which is dated February 21, 1969, uses categories that are not consistent with National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) and cannot be readily compared to NI 43-101 categories. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the estimate as a current resource and Nevada Sunrise is not treating the estimate as a current resource estimate.  A portion of the ground on which this estimate was based was subsequently mined, and thus this estimate cannot be relied upon.  The estimate is relevant to guiding the Company's exploration plans and provides geological information regarding the type of mineralization that could be present in the Coronado area.

In 1970, Ranchers Exploration and Development Company developed the high-grade portion of the deposit with an open pit mine that produced approximately 25 million pounds of copper in 100,000 tons of ore grading 10.5% copper, which was shipped directly to smelters in West Germany and Japan. Heap leaching of lower-grade disseminated copper ore was also carried out by Ranchers; approximately 300,000 tons of mineralized rock was treated. Historical sampling also shows the presence of cobalt at Big Mike, with values in the deposit ranging up to 2,500 parts per million (0.25%) cobalt. Big Mike was mined out in 1970.