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Sabina
Gold & Silver Corp. (TSX:SBB - News) is pleased to outline the objectives
of its 2011exploration program and budget for its Nunavut projects. The Goose
Camp is now open and being provisioned with drilling scheduled to commence in
the next few weeks, approximately six weeks earlier than 2010. By the middle
of March, six core drills will be operating at the Goose property with an
additional two running at Hackett River by quarter end.
"We
are very excited about the aggressive program that we have planned for 2011
to follow up on the tremendous success we had in 2010," said Tony Walsh,
President & CEO. "While our resource calculations continue on the
new Llama and Umwelt discoveries as well as the
Goose deposit, our exploration team is ready to get started on our largest
campaign ever. The 2011 program will focus on extending our new gold
discoveries on the Goose claim block as well as applying our exploration tool
box to look for new gold discoveries on the other Back River and Wishbone
targets. Initial drilling should commence on or about March 1 at Goose. Once
the Goose camp becomes operational, efforts will shift to opening the Hackett
Camp."
Sabina
ended 2010 with a solid cash position of approximately $83 million. In 2011,
the Company plans to spend approximately $52 million on its exploration
programs and G&A.
Of
this, approximately $47 million has been slated for work on the Company's
Nunavut properties with the following allocations:
-- 70%
of the budget on Back River.
-- 70% of the work will focus on
advancing the existing Back River
deposits including resource updates and a Preliminary Economic
Assessment.
-- 30% of the work will focus on
looking for new gold discoveries.
-- 25%
of the budget on Hackett River.
-- 70% of the work will focus on
enhancing economics by conversion of
material and increasing resources in the current pit shells.
-- 30% of the work will focus on
looking for new discoveries outside of
existing deposits to increase project through put.
-- 5% of
the budget will be focussed on looking for new gold
discoveries on
the Wishbone
Greenstone Belt.
Final
programs and budgets are being compiled and are still subject to board
approval.
Camps
at Goose and Hackett River will be provisioned with additional consumables to
enable aggressive follow-up drilling on positive results. Two new diamond
drills will be mobilized to the properties to bring the total to eight
drills, with an eventual six drills testing existing discoveries and new gold
targets at Back River and two drills at Hackett River. During the summer, one
of the Hackett River drills will be mobilized to the south end of the
Wishbone Greenstone belt to test for gold targets there.
In
addition, to capitalize on the synergies these projects offer during the
exploration phase, a 100km long winter road is currently being constructed to
connect the Goose Lake camp with the Hackett River camp through George Lake.
A permanent airstrip at Goose is also being permitted to facilitate larger
aircraft, expedite mobilization going forward and potentially extend the
drilling season by an additional six weeks.
Back
River
The
Company's 100% owned Back River gold project was acquired in 2009 and
contains National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") compliant
indicated resource of 3.4 million tonnes at 10.9 g/t
Au for 1.19 million ounces gold and an additional inferred resource of 3.6
million tonnes at 10.2 g/t Au for 1.16 million
ounces gold. These resources were calculated in 2007 and are split
approximately evenly between the George claim block to the north and the
Goose claim block to the south.
Back
River offers the opportunity for Sabina to become a mid-tier gold producer.
The Company has been targeting a notional minimum gold production profile of
200,000 ounces per year for a minimum of 10 years.
Prior
to moving towards scoping or economic studies, the Company's 2010 objective
was to increase the global resource at Back River by an additional 700,000
ounces. With this target in mind, the Company's primary focus at Back River
has been at the Goose claims block where gold is hosted within wide units of
folded iron formation resulting in thick, shallow gold targets, potentially
amenable to open pit extraction.
To
assess these targets, Sabina's exploration team has developed an exploration
"tool box". This tool box is based on (among other things)
interpreting geological and geophysical signatures used to identify areas on
the iron formation that have been altered by high temperature geological
events.
This
set of exploration assumptions worked well for the team in 2009 and 2010.
Within six months of field work, three new gold discoveries were made on the
Goose block, two of which are significant: Llama and Umwelt.
These two deposits remain open and are priority targets for further drilling
in 2011.
Sabina's
internal work on the Llama and Umwelt deposits has
been generated and delivered to Scott Wilson / Roscoe Postle
Associates (SW / RPA) to generate NI 43-101 compliant resources.
Once
SW / RPA have completed the resource work on Llama and Umwelt,
they will begin work transitioning the Goose deposit model and resource from
underground to open pit. The Company has been by advised by SW / RPA that all
three studies should be complete in early Q2 of 2011.
The
success of the 2010 campaign has led management to believe that the
additional resources from the new deposits at Llama and Umwelt
as well as the remodelling of the Goose deposit
will exceed the 2010 goal of adding 700,000 ounces of gold to the global
resource.
Results
will be announced as soon as they are complete at which point the Company
will move to a scoping study on the project in H2 2011.
2011
Back River Work Program and Exploration Drilling
The
objectives at Back River for 2011 are:
-- To
complete a NI 43-101 resource calculation on Llama, Umwelt
& Goose in
the first half of
2011 and to continue to expand resources at Llama,
Umwelt,
Goose and possibly Echo.
-- To
increase and expand resources at Llama and Umwelt
by completing
aggressive step out
drilling.
-- To commence and complete a
Preliminary Economic Assessment on Back River
incorporating
resources from Llama, Umwelt, Goose George and
possibly
Echo during the
second half of 2011.
-- To
utilize the newly developed "toolbox" to test priority new
exploration targets on
the Goose property as well as test similar
targets on the four
other Back River claim groups with emphasis on the
George claim group
which contains an existing indicated resource of 1.8
million tonnes grading 10.0 g/t Au for a total of 590,000 ounces
and an
inferred resource of
2.6 million tonnes grading 10.5 g/t Au for a total
of 866,000 ounces.
A
68,000 metre drill program has been designed to
facilitate these objectives. Six drills will be operational at Back River and
drilling at Goose will commence in the next few weeks with first results
anticipated in early April, 2011.
Hackett
River
Hackett
River is one of the largest undeveloped deposits of its type in the world.
The Preliminary Economic Assessment completed in 2009 envisions a large scale
project producing three concentrates that would be trucked 70 km to a deep
water port and shipped out through the Northwest Passage during the 16 week
summer shipping season.
The
goal of the 2010 drill program at Hackett River was twofold. The first goal
was to investigate and quantify targets which could significantly improve the
early years of the project economics by identifying high value mineralization
(copper/silver/gold stringer mineralization) located near or within the
current open pit shells and reducing the currently contemplated strip ratio.
The second objective for 2010 is to identify additional mineralization which
could provide Sabina an opportunity to increase project throughput and/or
further defer the capital associated with the development of the underground
mine at Boot.
During
the 2010 work program, Sabina continued to quantify and improve the resources
within the pits by converting undrilled material classified as zero grade in the resource model, to potentially economic mineralization
as well as adding resources through a new discovery at East Cleaver.
As
previously announced, the Company has engaged BMO Capital Markets to solicit
investors or partners on the project and to advise the Company in its pursuit
of strategic alternatives to accelerate the development of the Project. As
part of this initiative, the Company is currently creating new internal
geological models for these deposits as well as internal resource
calculations to determine the impact of these new discoveries. Once
generated, and if material, internal studies will be forwarded to a third
party for NI 43-101 validation.
The
Objectives for the 2011 work program at Hackett River are:
-- To
complete an internal resource assessment of the 2009 and 2010 in-pit
drilling starting
with the Main and East Cleaver deposits.
-- To
continue to infill drill in the proposed pits in order to convert
unclassified
material to classified material and in addition to expand
the deposits by
drilling proximal to the existing pit shells.
-- To
make new discoveries within the Hackett River claim block outside of
the known deposit
area.
Approximately
15,000 metres has been planned for drilling at
Hackett River with 70% of that drilling focused on enhancing and expanding
the existing deposits and 30% focused on looking for new discoveries.
Preparations to open Hackett River Camp will begin in mid-February. All plans
for Hackett are contingent on the results of the Company's search for a
strategic partner on the project.
Wishbone
Objectives
for the 2011 program at Wishbone include a shift in focus from VMS targets
proximal to the Hackett deposits at the north end of the belt, to iron
formation hosted gold targets along the eastern side of the belt where we
will begin to apply the knowledge that we have gained at Goose on this
extensive area of iron formation.
The
Company plans to drill approximately 7,500 meters on the Wishbone property
with a budget of approximately $3 million. The 2011 program will also include
a significant field component consisting of mapping, prospecting and ground
geophysics targeting both gold and higher priority VMS type targets.
Quality
Assurance
Mr.
Peter Manojlovic, PGeo,
and Vice President Exploration of Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. is a
Qualified Person under the terms of NI 43-101 and has reviewed the technical
content of this press release and approved its dissemination.
Mineral
resources for Goose Lake and George Lake were generated by RSG Global
Consulting Pty Ltd (Coffey Mining) in September 2007.
The
mineral resource estimate for Hackett River was prepared as part of the
Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) update by Gordon Zurowski,
P.Eng., Principal Mine Engineer of PEG Mining
Consultants Inc, and can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Gordon Zurowski is a qualified person as defined by National
Instrument (NI) 43-101. CIM Definition Standards (2005) have been used in
defining the mineral resource categories.
Project
Management of the PEA study was conducted by Eric Harkonen,
P.Eng. and Principal
Project Manager/Mine Engineer of PEG Mining Consultants Inc. He is a
qualified person as defined by NI43-101.
All
technical reports have been filed on www.sedar.com.
Forward
Looking Statements
Statements
relating to future operations at the Hackett River Project, the Back River
Project and the Wishbone Greenstone belt and the expected results of this
work are forward-looking statements within the meaning of securities
legislation of certain Provinces in Canada. Forward looking statements are
statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always,
identified by the words "expects", "plans",
"anticipates", "believes", "intends",
"estimates", 'projects", "potential" and similar
expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would",
"may", "could" or "should" occur. Information
inferred from the interpretation of drilling results may also be deemed to be
forward looking statements, as it constitutes a prediction of what might be
found to be present when and if a project is actually developed. These
forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties
which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those
reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation:
risks related to fluctuations in metal prices; uncertainties related to
raising sufficient financing to fund the planned work in a timely manner and
on acceptable terms; changes in planned work resulting from weather,
logistical, technical or other factors; the possibility that results of work
will not fulfill expectations and realize the perceived potential of the
Company's properties; risk of accidents, equipment breakdowns and labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties or
interruptions; the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated expenses in
the work program; the risk of environmental contamination or damage resulting
from Sabina's operations and other risks and uncertainties, including those
described in Sabina's Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2009.
Forward-looking
statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Sabina's
management on the date the statements are made. Sabina undertakes no
obligation to update these forward-looking statements should management's
beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
This
news release has been authorized by the undersigned on behalf of Sabina Gold
& Silver Corp.
Tony
Walsh, President & CEO
To
view the maps accompanying this press release please visit the following
link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/sabmaps23.pdf
Contact:
Contacts:
Sabina Gold & Silver Corp.
Nicole Hoeller
Director, IR
1 888 648-4218
nhoeller@sabinagoldsilver.com
Sabina Gold & Silver Corp.
Tony Walsh
President & CEO
604 998-4175 or 1 888 668-4216
604 998-1051 (FAX)
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