Millrock Resources increases size of Estelle property

Millrock Resources (CVE:MRO) said Wednesday that it has expanded its Estelle gold property in Alaska through the staking of additional claims.

The project is under option to Teck American, a subsidiary of Teck Resources, and the new claims have been included under the agreement, which allows Teck to buy up to 65% of the Estelle property, Millrock said.

The additional claims were staked by Millrock following geological and geochemical surveys carried out last year, using funding from a strategic alliance with Altius Resources.

Millrock said the expansion covers ground that hosts "very strong" historic drill core and surface chip sample values, including a drill intersection of 3.0 g/t gold over 29.6 metres and a chip sample grading 18.0 g/t gold over 9./9 metres.

The company plans to drill a hole near this location, as part of the 2011 exploration program, the plans for which have now been finalized, with field work expected to begin in July.

Millrock will act as the manger of the drill campaign, for which US$3.5 million has been budgeted.

“The addition of the new claims increases the chances of Millrock making a significant gold discovery at Estelle," said president and CEO Gregory Beischer.

"We see potential for both very large, porphyry-style gold deposits and high-grade structurally controlled deposits.

"We have a strong budget and a great chance of making a discovery this year."

At Estelle, four main zones of large-scale anomalous gold geochemistry have been identified over the past two years, including Shoeshine, Oxide Ridge, RPM and Stoney.

Located approximately 160 km northwest of Anchorage, Alaska, the property is adjacent to Kiska Metals' Whistler copper-gold deposit.

Separately, Millrock also announced today that Teck has exercised all of the warrants it held in the company early, increasing Teck's ownership.

A total of 1.4 million warrants were exercised at a price of $0.53 for proceeds of $0.72 million. The warrants were initially issued in May 2010, when Teck initially took a state in Millrock through a private placement financing.