NORTH COUNTRY IDENTIFIES EMERALD OCCURRENCE AT ANURI
Research Initiated to Evaluate Potential of new Emerald Discovery
October 16, 2012, Edmonton, Alberta – North Country Gold Corp. (NCG: TSX-V; NCGDF: OTCQX) (“North Country” or the “Company”) today announces that it has identified emerald mineralization within drill core at the Anuri prospect within its 100% owned Committee Bay Greenstone Belt Property. The occurrence will be the focus of a research project at the University of British Columbia under the direction of Professor Lee Groat, which will investigate the origin of the emeralds and will form the basis of an exploration strategy to fully assess the potential for discovery of economic emerald mineralization in the Committee Bay greenstone belt.
“The discovery of emeralds at Anuri is only the fourth documented occurrence in Canada”, stated John Williamson, President and CEO of North Country Gold, “North Country is pleased to have one of the world’s foremost emerald experts, Professor Lee Groat, initiate research on the emerald mineralization in the Committee Bay Greenstone Belt and we are intrigued by the implications of further exploration and the potential for more discoveries of economic deposits.”
Professor Lee Groat of the University of British Columbia comments “The discovery of emerald mineralization at North Country Gold's Anuri property is exciting for a number of reasons. Emerald is extremely rare because it requires unusual geologic and geochemical conditions to form, and evaluating these conditions will provide important clues to the genesis of the Anuri prospect as a whole. We at UBC are excited to be working with North Country Gold on characterizing the world's most recently discovered emerald occurrence.”
Emerald crystals were initially noted by a North Country Gold geologist when investigating highly elevated beryllium values contained within potassic altered Prince Albert Group komatiites from drill core at the Anuri prospect which North Country was evaluating as a gold target. Preliminary evaluation of the crystals by Professor Lee Groat utilizing X-ray diffraction and electron microprobe have confirmed that the crystals are beryl and that the dominant chromophore is chromium with essentially no vanadium.
The Anuri occurrence is highly prospective for gold-silver mineralization and is characterized by a 0.5km-wide by 1.5km-long zone of intensely altered and sulphidized mafic and ultramafic volcanic float boulders. Sampling of this boulder train has produced high-grade gold and silver values up to 291.2 g/t Au and 1,769.5 g/t Ag, 20.68 g/t Au and 333.0 g/t Ag, and 14.44 g/t Au and 394.0 g/t Au. Initial drill testing intersected gold and silver mineralization, with elevated copper, bismuth, lead, zinc and cadmium values with hole 06AR007B intersecting 3.75 g/t Au, 63.7 g/t Ag, 0.75% Cu and 158.2 ppm Bi over 10.21 metres. Strong to intense potassic alteration along with silicification and sulphidation was encountered in the mafic and ultramafic stratigraphy.
The distribution of Prince Albert Group komatiites in the Committee Bay greenstone belt is extensive forming a 25 kilometre by 10 kilometre belt in the southwest portion of the area. Potassic alteration has been identified throughout the area in association with broad zones of shearing and emplacement of late granitoid intrusions, which has implications for the widespread occurrence of emerald mineralization in the area.
The results of the research into the genesis of the emeralds will provide key information to develop an exploration model to fully evaluate the potential of this exciting new discovery in the Committee Bay Greenstone Belt.
Three Bluffs Gold Deposit
The Three Bluffs gold project is a structurally controlled lode gold system hosted within oxide facies iron formation and greywackes. The deposit currently hosts a NI43-101 compliant resource of 4.30 Mt at 4.90 g/t gold for 678,000 ounces gold (indicated) and 4.53Mt at 5.69 g/t gold for 829,600 ounces gold (inferred). To date, gold mineralization has been drill tested at shallow levels along a strike length of 4.1 kilometres. The deposit has been most extensively drilled over the eastern 1.3 kilometres of the trend where drilling up to 2011 reached depths of 300 metres below surface. In the spring of 2012, North Country completed 7,005 metres of diamond core drilling in twelve holes to depth in the eastern part of the deposit, which extended the mineralized envelope to depths of 500 metres below surface with mineralization remaining strong and open to depth. This new drilling is expected to result in an increase in the underground inferred resource of the deposit.
Geological modeling of the Three Bluffs gold system has identified several controls on high-grade mineralization including steep east plunging shoots and shallow east plunging fold hinges within the iron formation. In 2010, North Country Gold completed a Quantec Titan 24 geophysical survey over the Three Bluffs project, which indicated that known gold zones at shallow to intermediate depths display an excellent correlation with DC-resistivity lows. These resistivity lows extend to least 500 metres depth over much of the surveyed area, and the correlation of gold mineralization with the resistivity lows to depth has been confirmed by high grade intersections to these depths within the 2012 drill program.
The Three Bluffs Gold Deposit was ranked number 31 of 250 undeveloped gold deposits globally by grade, which contain greater than one million ounces of gold in a recent compilation by Natural Resource Holdings. From an initial list of 1,896 companies, Natural Resource Holdings was able to identify 212 entities (Public, Private and Government Sponsored Corporations) that own 439 gold deposits hosting over 1,000,000 ounces in all categories representing a total of 3,015,542,164 ounces of gold. Please click here to go to the direct site.
About North Country Gold Corp.
North Country Gold Corp. controls one of the largest under-explored greenstone belts in Canada with numerous drill-ready high-grade gold targets. The gold-rich Committee Bay Greenstone Belt is located 180km northeast of the of Agnico Eagle’s Meadowbank gold mine. The Three Bluffs deposit is geologically comparable, with similar grades, type of mineralization and age as Meadowbank and Meliadine Gold Deposits. The Company now holds 100% interest in 550,101 acres along the 300km long belt and has identified 5 distinct mineral development centers, focusing in on the Three Bluffs deposit. North Country Gold Corp. maintains an extensive quality control program in the preparation, shipping and checking of all samples from the property. The program is supervised by Peter Kleespies, M.Sc., P.Geol. who is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. A detailed description of North Country Gold Corp.’s QA/QC program is provided on the Company’s website at www.northcountrygold.com.
On behalf of the Board
North Country Gold.
/s/"John Williamson"
For more information on North Country Gold, please visit the company’s website: www.northcountrygold.com or contact:
Brian Budd
Corporate Secretary & VP of Corporate Development
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 604-697-2861
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the company expects are forward-looking statements. Although the company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, changes in government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com
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