Drilling Continues At Mineral Ridge

SPARKS, NV - Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. reported that it has completed 6,260 feet of combined shallow and deep structure drilling at its Mineral Ridge gold and silver mine near Silver Peak, Nevada, using its newly acquired Atlas-Copco drill rig. The drilling is part of the exploration process involved in updating the Mineral Ridge feasibility study, which is designed to delineate and quantify the contained gold on the property, and to evaluate its economic potential.
The shallow drilling has occurred on the approximately 1.5 million-tons of heap leach material mined and placed on the pad since the late 1990s. Deep drilling is taking place between several open pits and open pit targets.
Assays of samples taken from fifty-nine shallow holes, covering about one-third of the heap, confirm the average grades of drill samples that were previously taken in 2001 and 2003. Some of these holes identify sections of the heap that contain five-foot intercepts at grades of 0.06 opt gold, and higher. Drilling on the remainder of the pad has been temporarily suspended due to the presence of pockets of pooled water formed, in part, by winter snowmelt. Golden Phoenix's Technical Services Group anticipates that once the retained water drains through the pad, drilling of the heap leach gold resource can be completed by mid-summer.
The drill rig has been redeployed to other areas of the property, and deep drilling is currently ongoing. Four holes targeting geologic structure have been completed to depths of between 800 and 1000 feet in areas not previously explored. This represents the start of an aggressive drilling initiative expected to extend over a period of two years, and designed to expand upon previous exploration drilling that rarely exceeded 300 feet in depth.
The first exploration test of the Company's TH-60 RC drill was a 1000-foot vertical hole (MR08301) sited between the solution pond and the Oromonte workings. This is a deep test of the west dipping structure that appears to connect the Brodie Pit and Wedge Pit. The hole was collared below the Mary Limestone, which hosts most of the gold in the Drinkwater and Mary deposits; however, the hole also intersected varying widths of potentially gold-bearing Alaskite and milky quartz in the granite/granodiorite intrusive, which characterized the past-producing historic Wedge and Oromonte underground gold workings, located on the property.
MR08302 and MR08303 were each drilled to 800 feet. These holes are approximately 350 feet apart along an east/west trend between the previously identified Bluelite and Solburry mineralization zones. MR08304 was drilled to 880 feet and lies west of the Coyote fault, which separates it from MR08302 and MR08303. The intent of these three holes is to identify structural offset as a result of the Coyote fault. Drilling samples have been submitted for analysis, and assay results are pending.
The company's address is 1675 E. Prater Way, Suite 102, Sparks, NV  89434, 775-853-4919, fax: 775-853-5010, email: [email protected].