Southwestern releases first drill results from Boka project

Vancouver — Southwestern Resources (SWG-T) has tabled encouraging assay results from the first drill hole at its Boka gold project in the Yunnan province of China.

Drill hole B02-01 was drilled in the Boka-1 North area and returned 2.9 grams gold over 116.45 metres, starting form a down-hole depth of 39 metres. This included a 25.6-metre interval that averaged 4.2 grams gold-starting 39 metres down-hole as well as an 8.34-metre interval that averaged 3.7 grams gold starting 70.96 metres down-hole and a 27.05-metre section that averaged 3.1 grams gold starting 128.4 metres down-hole.

Southwestern reports that the entire mineralized intersection was in oxide material and is 80 metres down-dip of the existing tunnels. Mineralization is dipping at about 30 degrees to the east and the intersection from drill hole B02-01 is believed to represent the true width.

"From what I’ve seen of the drill holes, I think these results will be the worst," said John Paterson, President of Southwestern Resources.

Gold mineralization at Boka is associated with quartz-carbonate stockworks and heavy sulphide breccia zones that are hosted in carbonaceous sediments and in some places, gabbro.

These sulphide breccia zones have been observed in tunnels XG-13 and XG-15. At Tunnel XG-15, check samples that were analyzed by screen fire assay methods at ALS Chemex returned values as high as 111.0 grams gold over 2.5 metres, 149.0 grams gold over 2.0 metres and 605 grams gold over 3.0 metres. Southwestern states that the same sulphide breccia material has been intersected in drill holes B03-02A and B03-04.

Drill holes B02-02 and B03-03 have been logged and sampled and core samples are presently being prepared at Langfang Laboratories, China. The pulps will be sent to ALS Chemex in Vancouver for screen fire assay.

Hole B02-02 was collared 226 metres to the north of hole B02-01. Southwestern states that it intersected mineralization characterized by heavy stockwork at 67.05 metres down-hole and was mineralized to the bottom of the hole which was terminated at 270 metres owing to recovery problems. In addition, visible gold as well as electrum were identified in the core. Hole B03-02A was set up to twin hole B02-02 and intersected the same mineralized zone at 56.8 metres. Visible gold was observed at 60.55 metres and electrum was identified in a number of intervals within the drill section.

Three drill rigs are currently spinning at the project coring holes B03-02A, B03-04 and B03-05. Southwestern plans to add another two rigs since broken ground related to the intense deformation and brecciation slows down the drilling process.

Boka 1 North is part of an extensive gold mineralization system that extends for 5.5 km from the Boka 11 prospect in the north to Boka 7 prospect in the south. It is defined by a strong gold-in-soil anomaly and in excess of 200 tunnels that have been excavated at various levels along the trend. A second gold-in-soil anomaly that extends for and additional 20 km has been defined further south and southwest.

The most extensive tunnelling can be seen at Boka 1 North and South over a strike length of 1.8 km. The present 5,000 metre drill campaign is testing the continuity along strike and down dip of the Boka 1 gold mineralization at a drill spacings of 200 metres.

Results from the drilling indicate that the gold mineralization at Boka dips shallowly to the east and trends north-south. Mineralization is believed to be stratabound, confined to a highly sheared carbonaceous slate unit.

Further assay results are pending. Southwestern states that it is looking into options to speed up the sample processing procedures, including having an independent qualified prep lab on site at Boka.

In addition to drilling, the company is also collecting two 500-kg samples of both oxide and sulphide material which will be shipped to Lakefield Research in Ontario for preliminary metallurgical studies. The oxide material is being sourced from tunnel KD24-13 which is 270 metres long and has intersected oxide mineralization 300 metres below surface.

The Boka project is a Sino-Foreign cooperative joint venture between Southwestern and Team 209 of the Nuclear Industry of Yunnan Province. Southwestern stands to earn a 90% interest by spending US$ 4 million over 4 years and making a payment of US$ 1.7 million.