VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- International Millennium Mining Corp. (“IMMC” or the “Company”) (IMI.V) announces that as a result of its recent land acquisitions at Silver Peak, the Company embarked on a winter exploration program, which demonstrated surface gold and silver mineralization was much more extensive than previously anticipated. The Silver Peak property now consists of approximately 4,000 contiguous acres, which hosts fourteen (14) well mineralized fault/vein structures. Two of these structures have so far produced 9.8 million ounces of silver (Ag) and 52.9 thousand ounces of gold (Au).

The winter program focused on sampling ten (10) known fault/vein structures in the 16-to-1 Canyon (see Silver Peak Property Map, on the Company’s website). Table 1 shows the veins that were examined during the work program along with their orientation and known lengths; these lengths represent the exposed occurrence of vein material.

Table 1. Vein Descriptions

Historical production at the 16-to-1 Mine was from the 16-to-1 Vein and the Colorado Zone, a splay vein. According to historical records, neither of these zones were completely exploited. Seven (7) samples were collected from muck-piles and adits of the 16-to-1 Mine, with sample values ranging from 1.09 to 8.79 g/t Au and 62 to 667 g/t Ag, as shown in Table 2. In this area, at surface, the structures consist of numerous narrow veins that individually are less than 1.5 m wide, but they lie within a wider (10 to 20 m wide) deformed zone containing irregular veining. At a depth of 50 m, it appears from historical work that this veining coalesces into much wider zones of well mineralized material.

Table 2.  16-to-1 Vein Sample Results

The Red Mountain Fault Zone is a major NE-SW trending fault zone, located 100 to 300 m north of the 16-to-1 Vein. With a strike of 042° it is projected to merge with the 16-to-1 Vein west of the 16-to-1 Canyon. Due to the rugged terrain only one sample from a narrow calcite-quartz vein was collected. This sample contained >25% Ca suggesting that it is very high in the epithermal vein system and above the zone where precious metals would be anticipated. Further work is required in this area either with surface drilling or underground development.

In the northwest portion of the property, northeast of the 16-to-1 structure, the 14-to-1 and Eagle Veins were sampled where exposed in old pits, trenches and outcrops. Sample results in these areas did not contain significant mineralization, with sample values ranging from no detectable precious metals to 0.25 g/t Au and 18 g/t Ag, the exception being one significant sample from an outcrop in the eastern projection of the Eagle Vein system on the west side of the 14-1 Canyon. This sample was from a 30 cm wide vein within a veined and deformed structure that was more than 20 m wide and assayed 2.57 g/t Au and 53 g/t Ag despite being dominantly calcite (>25% Ca).

The 2017 Winter program demonstrated that there is significant potential on the west side of the 16-to-1 Canyon, an area that has not been systematically explored to-date, and during the program three strongly mineralized areas were identified in the lower 16-to-1 Canyon, see sample results in Table 3, below. The mineralized zones include the western end of the Chico Vein, which is strongly mineralized at surface where the exposed veining is primarily calcite; the Burney Vein, which is well developed and well mineralized on both sides of the 16-to-1 Canyon, but was never fully explored underground; and the Patience, Kathy, Elaina and Merle Vein Cluster, which are all proximal and oriented in such a way as to suggest that they may merge at a shallow depth, or are related to a common structural feature, such as an intrusive body, at shallow depth. Most of the historical drilling in this region was carried out in the active mining areas in order to locate additional ore reserves. Very little attention was given to other known mineralization in this portion of the Silver Peak Property, partially because of ownership issues during the time when the mine was in operation by Sunshine Mines.

Table 3.  Lower 16-to-1 Canyon Sample Results

The host vein material located within the Silver Peak Project area are classic epithermal veins. The veins display distinct vertical zoning, consisting principally of quartz and adularia at the bottom, and calcite and gypsum nearer the surface. In addition, the upper parts of the vein systems in this area have been weathered and leached near surface and oxidized to depths of 200 to 300 meters. The higher grades of known Ag and Au mineralization appear to occur within the interval from 50 meters below surface to the base of the oxidized zone, a distance of 150 to 250 metres. Below that point, grades of Cu, Pb and Zn appear to increase and precious metals decrease, although there is very little drill data from below the oxidized zone to assess the economic viability of these zones. As a general rule, the mineralized veins in the Silver Peak Project area are narrow in surface exposures, but increase dramatically in width a short distance down dip. Drilling is required to further delineate the potential of this area.