VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – July 4, 2011 – New Pacific Metals Corp. (TSX-V: NUX) (the “Company”) is pleased to report progress on its exploration activities on the Tagish Lake Gold Project, Yukon, Canada over the last two months since the Company’s news release dated April 20, 2011.
Camp expansion
Expansion of the camp from 25 to 50 persons has been completed with the installation of services, including power, water, and communications. Refurbishment of the 6,000 square feet geological office and core logging facility is also complete. With establishment of an excellent living and working environment, the Company is ready to embark on its aggressive exploration program as announced in the news release dated May 24, 2011.
Exploration and priority drilling targets
1. Raca and Chieftain Hill Surface drilling sites: The Raca site is located along the northeast structural extension of the Skukum Creek mineralization zones (Rainbow zone) and the Chieftain-Hill site is located at the further northeast extension of the Raca. An access road to the Raca site, with further extension to Chieftain Hill, has been completed such that the drilling program will start. The Company carried out geological mapping and soil sample surveys at the Raca and Chieftain Hill sites in May and June, 2011.
Surface drilling at Raca is to test the extension of known historical drilling where a drill hole, Raca 97-1, intercepted 3.6 metres grading 2.66 g/t gold and 561 g/t silver, and to test at least four parallel mineralized structures that have been mapped out by the Company’s geologists. A surface drill rig has arrived at the Raca Site on June 25, 2011 and drilling commenced on June 28.
At Chieftain Hill, soil gold anomalies outlined by a previous owner (all associated with anomalously high values of silver and base metals) extend over a corridor two kilometres long and ~500 metres wide along a northeast structure hosting rhyolite dikes, with peak values of up to 1,000 parts per billion gold (1 g/t). These soil gold anomalies have recently been confirmed by the Company’s geologists soil sampling program which recorded soil gold anomalies up to 0.3 g/t gold associated with lead and zinc contents up to 0.4%. Drilling tests of these anomalies has been planned for mid-August, 2011.
2. Skukum Creek Underground and surface drilling: Underground drilling at Skukum Creek is planned to target depth extensions of four mineralized zones where historical drilling has only focused on limited sectors of the four mineralized zones, and only to about 300 metres from the surface. Surface drilling has also been planned for the Skukum Creek area to test up dip extension of previous underground drilling.
De-icing at the Skukum Creek tunnel is completed and the tunnel is at very stable conditions: it will be prepared for underground in-fill and step-out drilling to start in one week. The first underground drill rig has arrived on-site already and once the drill crew arrives on July 15, 2011, drilling will commence.
3. Goddell Underground and Surface drilling: Drilling at the Goddell project is to test an area of 1,000 metres long and 600 metres down or up dip of the PD Zone and the Merged Zone, where previous drilling, such as Drill hole 97-41, intercepted 64.69 metres grading 5.75 g/t Au (please refer to January 13, 2011 press release).
Underground drilling from the existing Goddell tunnel will substantially reduce the amount of drilling that would have been necessary from surface, and can be carried out year round: accordingly, the Company has placed emphasis on de-watering the tunnel to take advantage of the underground drilling strategy. However, the de-watering and rehabilitation of this tunnel has experienced some delay and difficulty as faults with widths of 2 to 3 metres have caused unstable ground conditions and require extensive steel framework support. The Company has successfully crossed the first fault and is currently underway to support the second fault zone. Once de-watering is successfully completed at the Goddell by the mid-August, a second underground rig will be brought to the site for drilling.
As a contingency plan, the Company has repaired and advanced the old surface drill road and a second surface drill rig will arrive on site on July 6, 2011 to carry out some of the drilling that was initially planned for the tunnel.
4. Staking: As at June 28, 2011, the Company expanded its land holding by completing staking in the surrounding area.
Photo slide information of the progress as set out above has been posted on the Company’s website at https://www.newpacificmetals.com.
Application for listing on the TSX
The Company has applied for graduation to the TSX and is currently awaiting regulatory review of its initial application documents. Any graduation is subject to regulatory approval.
The Company’s Unaudited Interim Consolidated Financial Statements and Management’s Discussion and Analysis are available for review on our website at www.newpacificmetals.com and through SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
About New Pacific Metals Corp.
New Pacific Metals Corp. is engaged in the exploration and development of mineral resources in Canada. The Company’s strategy is to focus on projects which it believes can be developed in a relatively short time frame into high-margin operations with reasonable development capital profiles. Its goal is to get a project into production with sufficient initial resources, but before the full resource potential of the property is defined, so that further exploration and potential development costs can be funded by cash flows generated from early operations.
For Further Information:
New Pacific Metals Corp.
Investor Relations
Phone: +1 (604) 633-1368
Fax: +1 (604) 669-9387
Email: info@newpacificmetals.com
Website: www.newpacificmetals.com
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