STEWART, British Columbia, Nov. 28, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mountain Boy Minerals Ltd. (MTB.V) (M9U.F) (“Mountain Boy”) is pleased to announce that the Company has received assays on an additional 6 holes from the 2017 drill program at its Silver Coin project in northwestern British Columbia. Results indicate a new significant high-grade gold discovery zone in an unexplored area located 550 metres to the northeast of the main Silver Coin deposit. The Silver Coin project is an advanced stage gold-silver property located about 25 kilometers north of Stewart within the Golden Triangle in northwestern British Columbia. Mountain Boy owns a 20% carried interest in the property.

Drill Hole SC17-452, recently completed in this untested area intersected a new gold-bearing zone grading 8.63 g/t Au over 7.7 metres, from 16.5 to 24.2 metres, including several higher-grade intervals up to 37.1 g/t Au.  This gold bearing structure is hosted in andesite and is characterized by a quartz-sericite-chlorite altered breccia zone exhibiting quartz stringers with visible gold grains, 5-6% sphalerite, up to 1% galena and 7-8% pyrite mineralization. Further down this drill hole, additional zones of siliceous breccia returned 6.5 g/t Au over 1.5 metres between 77.82 and 79.32 metres and 8.25 g/t Au over 1.0 metre between 88.97 and 89.97 metres.

The hole was drilled to test for shallow dipping gold-bearing breccias east of the flagship Silver Coin deposit. Six holes were drilled from three separate pads spaced approximately 100-150 metres apart along strike of a favorable lithological unit with assays for the remaining four holes still pending.

Results from drilling within the NW Extension area of Silver Coin’s main breccia zone continue to support a high success ratio with almost all holes encountering significant mineralization, resulting in extensions of known zones beyond historical limits.

New Drilling Highlights are as follows:

• SC17-444: Intersected continuity of main breccia zone at depth to the north-northwest.
• SC17-445: Intersected a new modest gold zone at surface approximately 70 metres to the NE of the main breccia body and a broad continuation of the main zone at depth.
• SC17-446: Intersected a northerly extension of the main zone at depth.  
• SC17-448: Drilled to test the westerly extension of the main breccia body, this hole intersected modest gold grades.
• SC17-452: Intersected a new high-grade sub-surface gold zone 550 metres to the northeast of the current Silver Coin resource area suggesting a shallow dipping mineralized breccia package.
• The 2017 drill program is now complete with 14 drill holes totalling 7300 feet. The Company has logged and sampled all holes. Holes SC17-447 and SC17-449 were lost due to poor ground conditions and Hole SC17-450 reported no significant results. Assays are still pending for 4 drill holes.

Stated lengths are core width as drilled, true widths vary and average between 60 and 80 percent of drilled widths. Core axis angles of the intersection contacts and surrounding rock units average 40 to 70 degrees. Some assay results for silver grades on Hole SC17-452 are still pending and will be reported in the Company’s next release.

The 1,470 hectare Silver Coin gold project features a zone of faulting and brecciation with accompanying mineralization up to 300 meters wide that has been traced for 2.5 kilometers. Significant exploration potential remains to the north, northwest and south of the existing resource at Silver Coin, and will be tested in this year’s drilling.

The total inferred mineral resource estimate for the high-grade core at Silver Coin already consists of 967,000 tonnes grading 4.39 g/t Au, 18.98 g/t Ag (Au equivalent of Ag – 4.64 g/t), 0.64% Zn, 0.25% Pb, and 0.04% Cu [calculated in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 standards, at a 2 g/t Au cut-off by Mining Plus Canada - August, 2013].

At the 0.3 gpt cut-off grade the estimated Measured and Indicated resource is 24.13 million tonnes grading 1.08 gpt gold for a total of 842,416 ounces of gold, 4.45 million ounces of silver and 91.17 million pounds of zinc. The estimated Inferred resources comprise an additional 813,273 ounces of gold, 6.69 million ounces of silver, and 128 million lbs of zinc (report available on www.sedar.com). Estimates do not include 109 drill holes from the 2011 drilling as well as the recent 2017 drilling.

Mineralization is characterized as epithermal to mesothermal gold-silver with sulfide-bearing breccias and veins similar to those mined at the Silbak-Premier Mine, located just 4 kilometers to the south. Over its mine life, the Silbak-Premier Mine produced 4.7 million tonnes yielding approximately 2 million ounces gold, 43 million ounces silver, 4 million pounds copper, 55 million pounds lead and 20 million pounds zinc.

Technical information in this press release was reviewed by Ed Kruchkowski, P.Geo., recognized as a Qualified Person under the guidelines of National Instrument 43-101.

Drill core is split, with half sent for assay at Activation Laboratories Ltd. located in Kamloops, BC. The other half is secured and retained on site.  A program of blank and standard insertion into the sample stream is also conducted.  The samples are processed using fire assay with an AA finish. Gravimetrics are performed on samples with assays of 10 g/t or higher.