Mountain Lake announces continued expansion of Leprechaun deposit

Mountain Lake Resources (CVE:MOA) announced Thursday that the latest drilling results from its joint venture Valentine Lake project in central Newfoundland have continued to expand the gold resource at the Leprechaun deposit.
Step-out drill holes in the southwest area of Leprechaun, termed "Heart of Gold", returned wide, high-grade intervals of mineralization, including 3.70 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold over 9.0 metres, with 10.59 g/t gold over 3.0 metres and a whopping 32.24 g/t gold over 3.0 metres in hole VL-11-324.
This hole also included a bonanza grade interval, with 94.2 g/t gold over 1.0 metre.
In addition, hole VL-11-325 intersected 2.31 g/t gold over 16.2 metres, including 11.67 g/t gold over 2.90 metres; and hole VL-11-320 found 1.93 g/t gold over 17.1 metres, with 4.21 g/t gold over 4.8 metres.
The Valentine Lake property is an equally split joint venture between Marathon Gold (TSE:MOZ) and Mountain Lake, with the Leprechaun deposit situated at the south-western end of a 23 kilometre long gold-bearing mineralized corridor.
Marathon is the operator of the project, with the two companies jointly funding a $7.1 million resource expansion budget for 2011.
So far this year, a total of 116 holes have been drilled for a total of close to 20,000 metres of the 25,000 metres planned for this campaign. The balance of 2011 drilling is expected to be completed in October, the miners said, with assay results being released into the fall, and an updated resource estimate for Leprechaun scheduled before year-end.
In the northeast area of the property, step-out holes also returned solid results, with up to 1.10 g/t gold over 10.4 metres, including 3.35 g/t gold over 2.40 metres and 10.16 g/t gold over 2.4 metres, as well as a high 29.9 g/t gold over 0.8 metres in hole VL-11-321.
These latest results confirm the continuity of mineralization both along strike, and down dip at Leprechaun, the mining explorers said.
The Valentine Lake project also includes, aside from the Leprechaun deposit, the Sprite Zone and the Valentine East Zone, located 700 metres and 13 kilometres along strike to the northeast of Leprechaun, respectively.
As of December last year, Leprechaun alone had NI 43-101 compliant measured and indicated resources of 277,000 ounces of gold, and an inferred resource of 285,000 ounces of gold. The 2010 resource was estimated using a 0.5 g/t gold minimum cut-off over a 3 metre minimum width.
The deposit remains open at depth and along strike, with 74% of the current measured and indicated ounces occurring within 150 metres of surface.