J-Pacific Gold Provides Progress Report on its Montgolfier Drilling Program
VANCOUVER, MARCH 3, 2008 - J-Pacific Gold Inc. ("J-Pacific," TSXV - JPN) announced today that the 12,000-metre core drilling program at its Montgolfier Project is progressing on schedule. The Montgolfier Project is located in the Casa Berardi region of northwestern Quebec, some 85 kilometres west of Matagami and 40 kilometres east of the Casa Berardi gold deposit.
To date, seven of the 18 planned drill holes have been completed, for 3,700 of the planned 10,000 metres. The drilling program is progressing with two drill rigs, and assay results are pending. Drilling is expected to continue until the end of March.
The 2008 program comprises 18 boreholes designed to test the lateral and depth extensions of gold mineralization encountered during the 2007 program. The current program focuses on three main target areas, spanning 16 kilometres of strike length along the Casa Berardi Fault. Maps detailing the planned drill holes are available for download on the J-Pacific website. As of February 26, 2008, seven boreholes totalling 3,700 metres have been completed in the western target areas, and the drill rigs have been moved to the eastern target area, where an additional 10 boreholes are planned.
Six boreholes (JPN08-27, JPN08-28, JPN08-29, JPN08-30, JPN08-32, JPN-08-34) have been completed to investigate, on three 100-metre sections, the lateral and depth extensions of hole JPN07-06 (1.44g Au/t over 12.0 metres*), which is hosted inside a broad muscovite-carbonate-pyrite alteration zone adjacent to the Casa Berardi Fault. All six boreholes intersected the targeted alteration structure in the foot wall of the Casa Berardi Fault, with weak to moderate muscovite-carbonate-pyrite alteration over 10- to 30-metres core length intervals.* Assay results are pending.
Further, the three boreholes designed to investigate approximately 100 metres below (300 metres vertical depth) hole JPN07-06 intersected a new muscovite-carbonate-pyrite alteration corridor, approximately 200 metres south of the corridor along the foot wall of the Casa Berardi Fault (150 metres depth). The new structure exhibits similar weak to moderate muscovite-carbonate-pyrite alteration over a few to tens of metres in core length,* and is accompanied with minor quartz-carbonate-pyrite veining, identical to the section intersected in borehole JPN07-06. In light of these results, the casing was left in three of the boreholes to allow for down-hole geophysical probing, to trace the depth and lateral extensions of the two favourable alteration corridors. It is expected that one or two additional boreholes will be completed toward the end of the drilling program.
Borehole JPN08-31 tested the depth extensions of JPN07-01 that intersected a weakly anomalous (<200 ppb Au) quartz-carbonate-tourmaline vein breccia zone (8.0 metres core length) accompanied by strong arsenopyrite-pyrite mineralization (5-15 percent). The hole was drilled from the north and did not intersect the targeted arsenopyrite-bearing quartz-tourmaline vein breccia. However, north of the projected depth extension the hole intersected several decametre-scale silica-carbonate alteration zones with disseminated arsenopyrite and pyrite mineralization (traces to 8 percent over metre-scale sections). The planned second hole is on hold pending analysis of results.
The two drill rigs have now been moved approximately 15 kilometres east, to investigate the lateral and depth extensions of gold mineralization intersected in hole JPN07-17 (10.42g Au/t over 1.0 metre*) and hole JPN07-21 (6.44g Au/t over 3.2 metres*), on seven 100-metre sections over a strike length of 1.3 kilometres.
*There is insufficient data to determine if the reported core intervals represent true widths. See J-Pacific news releases dated March 22 and July 19, 2007.
BACKGROUND
The Montgolfier Project straddles the Casa Berardi Tectonic Zone, approximately 30 kilometres east of the Casa Berardi Mine, where Aurizon Mines Ltd. has outlined a mineral reserve of 4.9 million tonnes grading 7.69 g Au/t (equivalent to 1,211,471 oz Au), with an indicated mineral resource of 2.7 million tonnes grading 5.11 g Au/t (equivalent to 443,583 oz Au), and an inferred mineral resource of 5.7 million tonnes grading 6.50 g Au/t (equivalent to 1,191,183 oz Au) (Source: Aurizon Mines Ltd. website).
While the presence of gold reserves and resources at the Casa Berardi Mine does not necessarily indicate that gold resources will be delineated on the Montgolfier Property, SRK Consulting believes there are similarities in the stratigraphy and structural setting of the Montgolfier Property to those of the Casa Berardi Mine, as well as other occurrences of gold mineralization elsewhere in the Casa Berardi Tectonic Zone.
The drilling is being completed by Major Drilling Group International Inc., and the on-site geological expertise is being provided by IOS Services G�oscientifiques Inc., a Quebec-based geological services consulting company, under the supervision of Dr. Jean-Francois Couture, P.Geo., J-Pacific's qualified person for this project as defined by NI 43-101 regulations, who has reviewed and approved this news release.
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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J-PACIFIC GOLD INC.
802-1166 ALBERNI ST.
VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA&NBSP; V6E 3Z3
TEL:+1 (888) 236-5200
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