West Kirkland Mining expands Nevada drill campaign to new targets in Long Canyon trend

West Kirkland Mining (CVE:WKM) unveiled Thursday plans for a new drill campaign beginning in March in the Long Canyon trend in Nevada.
The program will target two gold anomalies several kilometres long, defined by soil sampling undertaken by the company.
The gold anomalies correlate with major structural features in the emerging Long Canyon trend, West Kirkland said.
The Long Canyon deposit represents a new style of gold deposit for Nevada and the discovery culminated in the takeover of Fronteer Gold by Newmont (NYSE:NEM) in 2011.
West Kirkland completed a transaction with Fronteer just before the Newmont takeover, and has expanded in the trend to hold the dominant land position with a majority interest in over 1,000 square kilometres.
The company collected 9,012 soil samples covering selected sections of the Lewis Spring and Toano targets, which led to the identification of several 2012 drill targets, West Kirkland said.
On the Lewis Spring target, the initial dataset identified a 53 square kilometre gold-in-stream anomaly using a similar technique that led to the Long Canyon discovery.
This anomaly was followed-up with soil sampling that was highlighted by individual samples of up to 1.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold in soil, the company said.
Mapping has outlined two distinct target areas that will be drilled in 2012, with around 5,200 metres in 18 reverse circulation holes planned in the initial program.
Meanwhile, on the Toano target, soil sampling identified multiple Long Canyon Trend-parallel gold-in-soils anomalies, measuring up to eight kilometres long and coincident with pull-apart structures similar to Newmont's Long Canyon deposit. Rock samples as high as 1.625 g/t gold were collected in these areas, with West Kirkland planning on around 4,400 metres of drilling in ten reverse circulation drill holes.
On the Bandito target, the company identified areas of high priority targets for 2012 with several north and northeast-orientated structures. The junior miner will drill approximately 1,400 metres into the defined Bandito targets in four reverse circulation holes.
In addition, West Kirkland also plans to drill on its Gollaher property, located roughly 20 kilometres southeast of Jackpot, Nevada.  The property was previously drilled with approximately 80 holes by Freeport McMoran in the late 1980's.
At its TUG property at the north end of the Long Canyon trend at the Nevada/Utah border, the company has drilled 1,300 metres in four holes so far in 2012.  Hole WT12-009 returned 1.13 g/t gold and 5.43 g/t silver over 21.18 metres, starting 168.25 metres down the hole*. West Kirkland said this intercept confirms the potential for the deposit to expand, with drilling to continue.
The company anticipates the completion of the maiden NI 43-101 resource estimate on the TUG deposit by the end of the first quarter.
At its Bullion Mountain property on the Battle Mountain trend, the company said a hole intersected "favourable" stratigraphy at depth, similar to the nearby Pipeline Mine operated by Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX). No significant assays were received, however.
The company's Long Canyon projects will be the priority targets in 2012.
Separately, West Kirkland also said that its NI 43-101 technical report by Caracle Creek International Consulting for its Nevada properties has been filed, and validates its "enthusiasm for its Nevada portfolio".
Key conclusions of the report were that gold mineralization at TUG has been shown to be continuous in three dimensions at an "economically significant" gold grade. In addition, the company's Nevada land position has potential for structural and stratigraphic controlled gold mineralization, with an independent recommended budget of around $5 million for the portfolio.
The report also noted that West Kirkland's initial data appears to corroborate the historical data on the TUG property. A further verification and a resource calculation program was recommended, and is now in progress.
* Qualified Person, Verification, Quality Control and Assurance

Samples of drill core were saw cut, with half the cut core placed in individual sealed bags and half placed back in the original core box for permanent storage. Drill core samples were delivered directly by West Kirkland personnel to the ALS Chemex prep lab in Timmins. Prepared pulps were shipped by ALS Chemex to their North Vancouver lab where gold was determined by fire assay fusion with Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) Finish. ALS Chemex's North Vancouver Lab is ISO 9001:2008 certified and also is ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited by the Standards Council of Canada for the assay methods employed.

Michael G. Allen, Vice President of Exploration for West Kirkland, and a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed the information contained in this news release and has also verified the analytical data for drill core samples disclosed in this release by reviewing the blanks, duplicates and certified reference material that the Company inserted into the sample stream and confirming that they fall within limits as determined by acceptable industry practice. He is the non-independent qualified person for this new release and has verified the data.