Fortress hits long low-grades in Russia

Vancouver – Fortress Minerals (FST-V) has hit long low-grade copper-gold intercepts at the Malmyzh project in far eastern Russia in its first crack at the area.

The company reported results from four holes in the Flats target, a relatively unexplored area of the Malmyzh project. The four drill holes, covering an area about 400 metres by 200 metres, all encountered mineralization from the collar to the bottom of the hole.

Hole one returned 299 metres grading 0.29% copper and 0.17 gram gold per tonne, starting only a metre underground. South of the first collar, hole two cut 474.7 metres grading 0.26% copper and 0.29 gram gold per tonne, again starting at one metre and including 18.1 metres grading 0.43% copper and 1.49 grams gold.

To the east of holes one and two, hole three hit 254.2 metres averaging 0.2% copper and 0.07 gram gold starting at 5.8 metres. On the west side, hole four cut 260.6 metres grading 0.23% copper and 0.19 gram gold, starting at 11.3 metres.

The single earlier drill hole in the area, completed by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX-N) subsidiary Amur Minerals and located in the middle of the four new holes, hit 196.6 metres grading 0.39% copper and 0.29 grams gold.

The four drill holes totaling 1,311 metres are part of phase 1 drilling at the 74-sq. km project. Fortress plans to complete 5,200 metres of drilling in 26 holes over 10 large geophysical and geochemical targets for phase 1.

Fortress secured an interest in the project from Freeport-McMoRan by acquiring a 51% interest in a subsidiary of FMEC that controls 100% of four separate copper and copper-gold projects in eastern Russia. Fortress is required to fund and complete 12,000 metres of drilling to fulfill the terms of the deal.

Fortress has results pending for several other drill holes in the west, central and far northeast areas of the Malmyzh project.

Malmyzh is located 215 km northeast of the regional capital Khabarovsk City. The project is connected to the capital and to the seaport of Nikolaevsk by way of all-season roads.

Fortress also wholly owns the Svetloye gold deposit in the same area. The company continues to drill and explore the area and has expanded the known zone of mineralization over 8 km strike.

The company’s share price was up 3¢ on the day to close at 37¢. Fortress’ 52-week share price range is between 21¢ and 51¢; the company has 172 million shares outstanding.