West Kirkland confirms expanded gold mineralization at Nevada's TUG property

West Kirkland Mining (CVE:WKM) Thursday said recent assay results confirmed that mineralization at its TUG property in the Long Canyon Trend, Nevada extends beyond the historical resource boundaries of the asset.

The emerging gold explorer reported assay results of 2.89 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 112 g/t silver over 6.09 metres within 47.24 meters of  0.52 g/t gold and 18.17 g/t silver from hole WT11-007 at TUG.*

The hole confirms that the system is open for further expansion, the company said.

West Kirkland said that the mineralization expands beyond the area of the historic resource to the north and also extends beyond the typical host horizon of the TUG deposit and into structures adjacent and below the historic deposit host.

In January 2012, the company said it will target drilling at northeast structures parallel to the Long Canyon Trend at the north end of the deposit, beyond hole WT11-007.

The company said that the presence of high-grade silver near the surface indicates that the TUG system, which has a significant silver credit, may have multiple phases of mineralization.

These may include separate gold and silver mineralizing events, indicating a long-lived system.

Hole WT11-007 also cut a large scale structure thought to be parallel to the main Long Canyon Trend, which may be the conduit of mineralizing fluids. This will also be tested with further drilling, West Kirkland said.

The budget and scale of drilling at TUG will be integrated into West Kirkland's Nevada regional plans before the end of the year.

TUG is part of 1,020 square kilometres - 252,000 acres - of mineral rights in the Long Canyon Trend that the company has optioned through a transaction with Fronteer Gold, prior to its acquisition by Newmont Mining (TSE:NMC)(NYSE:NEM), and with Rubicon Minerals (TSE:RMX)(AMEX:RBY).

The combined Newmont and Rubicon option agreements give West Kirkland a dominant land position within the Long Canyon Trend, which will be a focus of the company's exploration efforts in Nevada.

Regional geophysics completed by Newmont and Rubicon, covering the company's land position in the Long Canyon Trend, is currently being compiled.

This work, combined with data from approximately 7,000 soil samples collected by the company, will be used to establish a regional multi-target drilling strategy and budget for Nevada, including the TUG property, for 2012.

Hole WT11-005 and WT11-006 were also drilled on TUG to test regional geophysical targets and did not return significant results, the company said.

Also in Nevada, West Kirkland is currently drilling its first hole on the Bullion Mountain project. The project is located in the Battle Mountain Trend, approximately 12 kilometres to the north of Barrick's (TSE:ABX)(NYSE:ABX) Pipeline mine, and roughly 30 kilometres northwest from Barrick's recently announced Red Hills and Goldrush discoveries.

West Kirkland has also consolidated significant mineral rights positions in the Kirkland Lake area of Ontario. The founders and management of the company have gold discovery, development and mine operations experience in both Ontario and Nevada over the past 40 years.

Friday morning, West Kirkland shares were unchanged at $1.11. Over the past six months, the stock is up 8.8 percent.

* Qualified Person

Michael G. Allen, Vice President of Exploration for West Kirkland, and a non-independent Qualified Person as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101, has verified the analytical data, including drill core samples, quoted in this article that are referenced from Company news releases previously disclosed by West Kirkland Mining.