Strongbow Exploration Inc. Drilling Expands Gold Mineralization at the Shovelnose Property, BC by 24hgold

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January 09, 2013

Drilling Expands Gold Mineralization at the Shovelnose Property, BC

Strongbow Exploration Inc. (SBW: TSXV) has been notified by Westhaven Ventures Inc. (WHN: TSXV) that assay results have been returned from a five hole, 778 m exploration drilling program completed at the Shovelnose gold property, approximately 30 km south of Merritt, British Columbia. The 2012 drilling program has expanded low sulphidation gold mineralization at the Tower showing over a 220 metre east-west extent, including drill hole SN12-04 which intersected 50.4 metres grading 0.54 g/t Au and 4.77 g/t Ag.

The majority of the 2012 drilling program focused on testing the Tower Zone and the adjacent Tower Creek valley. The results from the 2012 drilling are summarized below in Table 1.

Drill Hole	Zone	From (m)	To (m)	Length (m)	Au (g/t)	Ag (g/t)	Ag/Au
SN12-01	Tower Creek	No Significant Results
SN12-02	Tower Zone	4.69	60.96	56.3	0.22	0.86	3.9
SN12-03	Tower Zone	7.62	10.66	3.00	0.26	0.51	2.0
		23.44	34.49	11.05	0.23	0.65	2.8
		39.62	59.51	19.90	0.11	0.39	3.4
SN12-04	Tower Creek	20.90	71.32	50.42	0.54	4.77	8.8
incl.		27.12	40.84	13.72	0.91	6.65	7.31
also incl.		53.03	56.08	3.05	1.27	18.61	14.6
SN12-05	Cell Tower Soil Anomaly	No Significant Results

Table 1: 2012 drill assay results. True widths are not known due to limited drilling. All significant intervals contain gold grades greater than 0.1 g/t Au, with no more than 3 consecutive metres of material grading less than 0.1 g/t Au.

Drill holes SN12-02, SN12-03 and SN12-04 were all positioned to follow-up 2011 drill hole 11SH-04 which tested the Tower Zone and returned 55.8 metres grading 0.21 g/t Au and 0.78 g/t Ag. SN12-02, collared 27 m northeast of 11SH-04 and drilled vertically, returned comparable results (56.3 m grading 0.22 g/t Au and 0.86 g/t Ag). Drill hole SN12-03 was collared 26 m northeast of SN12-02, drilled at an angle of -450 to the northeast, and intersected a slightly more discontinuous mineralized interval. SN12-04, collared 115 m to the southwest of SN12-02, was drilled at a -450 angle to the southwest to test the Tower Creek valley and returned the best results of the program, intersecting 50.4 metres grading 0.54 g/t Au and 4.77 g/t Ag, which includes 13.7 metres grading 0.91 g/t Au and 6.65 g/t Ag. Together these four holes define a 220 metre wide east-west mineralized system consisting of dark grey, variably pyrite bearing, quartz veins and silica flooding. Mineralization is hosted within a strong to intense silica altered sequence of heterolithic rhyolite lapilli tuffs of the Pimainus Formation -- Spences Bridge Group. The geometry of mineralization is unknown but is interpreted to be crudely stratiform, as well as fault zone hosted in the case of the westernmost hole, SN12-04. It is presently unclear how this mineralization relates to the bonanza grade epithermal quartz veins, ranging from background values up to 38.2 g/t gold and 93.7 g/t Ag, previously discovered at the Mik Zone and located 275 m to the southwest.

Drill hole SN12-01 tested the Tower Creek valley 380 metres northwest of SN12-04 and encountered weak to moderate silicification with locally anomalous gold values. A resistivity anomaly located east of the SN12-01 drill collar suggests that a northern extension of the strong silicification and gold mineralization encountered in SN12-04 could occur further to the east of, and have been missed by, SN12-01. Drill hole SN12-05 tested the center of a 1,100 m long, northwest trending gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly, located 720 m to the north of the Tower Zone. No significant results were returned from this drill hole, however several zones of weak to moderate silica and clay alteration were encountered along with locally anomalous gold values.

David Gale, Vice President of Exploration for Strongbow concluded, "The Tower Creek valley remains the most compelling target on the Shovelnose gold property. The mineralized and silica flooded felsic tuffs encountered in SN12-04 occur in the centre of a 1,400 m long geophysical and geochemical anomaly with elevated gold, arsenic, mercury, antimony and molybdenum. The silver/gold ratios observed in drill hole SN12-04 increase with depth and, coupled with the consistently elevated arsenic, antimony and mercury diagnostic epithermal pathfinder suite identified in all four Tower Zone drill holes, suggests the presence of a high level, low sulphidation epithermal gold system. This target requires further drilling to evaluate the Tower Creek valley area at depth."

Westhaven is currently working to earn up to a 70% interest in the Shovelnose property, including an initial 51% interest by incurring $1.5 million in exploration expenditures over a three year period and issuing a total of 300,000 common shares to Strongbow. Within 12 months of having earned its 51% interest in the property, Westhaven will have the option to increase its total property interest to 70% by issuing an additional 500,000 shares to Strongbow, and incurring an additional $1.5 million in exploration expenditures.

Spences Bridge Gold Belt

The Shovelnose property is located within the Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB) which is defined by a series of epithermal gold occurrences within the volcanic rocks of the Spences Bridge Group extending over a 100 kilometre long trend between Shovelnose Mountain and the Spences Bridge area of BC. The Shovelnose Gold project is one of two Strongbow projects within the SBGB. The drill results reported herein, combined with results from the Skoonka Creek gold property (Strongbow 65.74%), which include 20.2 g/t Au and 7.27 g/t Ag over 12.8 metres at the JJ Zone, have confirmed that the relatively underexplored volcanic rocks of the Spences Bridge Group are highly prospective for epithermal style gold mineralization. Including the Skoonka Creek project, Strongbow has exposure to approximately 28,000 ha of mineral claims within the SBGB, all of which are situated close to power and transportation infrastructure.

Qualified Person Statement

All drill samples and analytical data for the 2012 Shovelnose drilling program were collected under the supervision of L. John Peters, P. Geo, and Project Geologist for Westhaven. David Gale, Vice President of Exploration for Strongbow Exploration Inc. and a "Qualified Person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), is responsible for compiling the technical information contained in this release. Mr. Gale has not verified all the assay data generated by Westhaven as project operator, however Mr. Gale has reviewed the drill core from the program and the grades and widths reported here agree well with Westhaven's past results on the project. Drill core samples were submitted to Acme Analytical Laboratories in Vancouver, British Columbia. They were analyzed with a 36 element ICP mass spectrometer package, using a 15 gram sample size and an aqua regia digestion. A quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program is in place that includes the insertion of gold standards into the sample stream to confirm the accuracy of the reported results. Those rocks returning >100 ppb gold are re-evaluated using a 30 gram fire assay analysis with an AA finish.

STRONGBOW EXPLORATION INC.

/s/"Kenneth A. Armstrong"
Kenneth A. Armstrong
President and CEO

For further information, please contact:

David Gale
Vice-President, Exploration
Tel: 604 668 8355
Email: info@strongbowexploration.com
Website: www.strongbowexploration.com

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed, and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy of this release.

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