First Point picks up Rio Luna (January 15, 2003)

Vancouver — With a 2,000-metre drill program under way on its Cacamuya gold-silver project in southwest Honduras, First Point Minerals (FPX-V) has inked a deal to acquire the Rio Luna gold property in neighbouring Nicaragua.

Situated 10 km north of the town of Boaco, the 126-sq.-km project hosts four low-sulphidation epithermal quartz veins that occur over 7 sq. km. The main mineralized structure has been traced for 4.4 km along strike and has widths of 2-10 metres. Chip sampling has returned up to 18 grams gold per tonne over 2 metres in Tertiary andesitic volcanics.

First Point plans to complete stream-sediment sampling, mapping and rock sampling over the property.

The junior can acquire a 100% interest in the property by paying Inversiones de Terra Nova US$15,000, issuing 75,000 shares over three years, and spending US$10,000 on exploration.

At the Cacamuya property, a 2,000-metre drill program is testing the D4-D5 and Cerro Chachagua targets. Previous diamond drill results from the same area included 19.1 grams gold over 4 metres in hole D4. Recent trenching defined several gold-bearing zones over a 500-by-500-metre area. Mineralization is hosted in quartz veins, stockworks and altered rocks, with values ranging up to 50 grams gold per tonne over 0.4 metre. First Point aims to drill about 800 metres into this area.

Moving to the south, the Cerro Chachagua target has already been tested by 10 holes with previous intercepts ranging up to 104.7 grams gold and 743 grams silver over 6.2 metres. Some 500-1,000 metres of infill and stepout drilling are planned for this area.

Meanwhile, drill results from the Mann platinum-palladium project near Timmins, Ont., have prompted First Point to return the ground to East West Resource (EWR-V).

The junior sunk two holes into an outcrop of clinopyroxenite that carried 0.56 gram combined platinum-palladium over 7.5 metres. The first hole cut 0.47 gram combined platinum-palladium over 16 metres, while the second, collared 85 metres to the west, failed to return any significant values.