Inter-Citic Minerals hits 13.0 metres at 3.61 g/t gold at Dachang

Inter-Citic Minerals (TSE:ICI) (OTCQX:ICMTF) unveiled Tuesday the fifth and final set of drill results from 26 holes that formed part of the 2011 exploration program at its Dachang gold project in China.

Tuesday's results are all from the 861 Zone at Dachang, which now appears to be related to the same structure hosting the previously-reported XP Zone, Inter-Citic said.

This mineralized fault structure has now been delineated by the company through both drilling and trenching over a strike length of 2.8 kilometres, with the eastern and western extensions remaining open.

The company said additional drilling will be required in the central portion of the fault structure to fully test its potential.

In a statement Tuesday, Inter-Citic said: "It is the company's belief that the 861/XP Zone could be the basis for a potential second shallow open pit at Dachang in addition to the already defined Dachang Main Zone resource area."

Indeed, highlights of the latest results from the 861 Zone included hole CJV-1268, which intersected 6.0 metres with an average grade of 3.20 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, and hole CJV-1270, which returned 3.0 metres at an average of 3.21 g/t gold.

Moreover, hole CJV-1278 encountered an interval of 13.0 metres at an average grade of 3.61 g/t gold, while hole CJV-1280 reported 4.5 metres of 4.16 g/t gold.

The 861/XP fault system was a main focus of Inter-Citic's 2011 exploration program, as both the 861 and XP zones showed "consistent gold-bearing sulfides" within steeply south dipping faults, the company said, originally thought to be 1,800 metres apart.

However, drilling last year led management to believe that this is now likely a "single continuous mineralized fault structure" with a total strike length of approximately 2.8 kilometres.

Inter-Citic said that the mineralization on this long fault structure is "characteristically similar" to that found in the Dachang Main Zone at the project, as gold mineralization occurs within a few metres of surface and continues to depth along a steeply south-dipping shear zone to at least around 125 metres - the current limit of the company's drill testing.

Other notable results reported Tuesday included 12.0 metres with an average grade of 2.09 g/t gold in hole CJV-1314 on the 861 Zone, and 12.0 metres at an average grade of 3.50 g/t gold in hole CJV-1315.

Earlier this month, Inter-Citic reported 2011 drill results from the Acadia Zone, the Placer Valley Zone (PVZ), and the South East Area at Dachang.

Highlights included hole CJV-1173 on the Acadia Zone, which returned multiple intercepts, including an interval of 4.2 metres with an average grade of 3.70 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, and another of 4.3 metres at an average grade of 2.63 g/t gold.

The Dachang Gold project is a 279 square kilometre property in the Qinghai Province of Western China. It is a newly-discovered and extensive sediment-hosted system of at-surface gold mineralization in an under-explored district.

The currently defined NI 43-101 compliant resource at Dachang, calculated in June 2011, consists of an estimated measured and indicated inventory of 1.88 million ounces of contained gold - 17.2 million tonnes gold grading 3.41 g/t - plus a further inferred mineral resource of 1.93 million ounces contained gold  - 21.3 million tonnes grading 2.83 g/t.

A new NI 43-101 compliant preliminary economic assessment for Dachang is due in 2012.