Clifton Star reports first 2012 Duparquet drill results, hits 18 metres of 3.16 g/t gold

Clifton Star Resources (CVE:CFO) unveiled Wednesday the first assay results from its 2012 drill program at its Duparquet project in Quebec, which the company said continued to show "excellent continuity" at depth in one area.
Drilling was focused on the North Zone of the Beattie and Donchester properties at the project, targeting deeper levels. Clifton currently has two drills working on the asset.
From January to mid-March this year, diamond drilling by Clifton yielded seven completed holes for 4,905 metres - all targeting the North Zone - with six drill hole extensions and one new hole.
Results reported Wednesday are from the first five holes. Highlights included 18 metres of 3.16 grams per tonne (g/t) gold in hole BD10-160 ext, and 7 metres of 2.37 g/t gold in hole BD10-172 ext.
In addition, hole BD12-01 returned 8.3 metres  of 2.69 g/t gold, while hole DON10-44 ext, on the Donchester property, hit 11.1 metres of 1.55 g/t gold and hole DON10-52 ext intersected 12.5 metres of 1.35 g/t gold.
Clifton Star said the North Zone on Beattie and Donchester continues to be the focus of the drilling program for the first part of this year.
The company said the area continues to show "excellent continuity, with significant gold mineralization, at depth". The mineralized envelope of the North Zone can be up to 80 metres wide, and has been traced along strike for 2.6 kilometres thus far.
Recent work has defined several higher-grade lenses within the North Zone, the company said, with future drilling to test these lenses at depth.
"The results of the 2012 drill program continue to be very encouraging, as can be seen from the assay data that is listed," Clifton Star said in a statement.
All 2011 and prior drill hole information, as well as the available results of the 2012 drill hole program, will be included into an NI 43-101 compliant resource report on the Duparquet project, which includes the Beattie, Donchester, Dumico and Central Duparquet properties, as well as the Beattie tailings.
The report is being prepared by mining consulting firm InnovExplo, and is expected for release in late April. This will form the basis of a preliminary economic assessment at the project.
Until the end of the year, the main focus of drilling at Duparquet will be the continued exploration of the various zones at the Beattie, Donchester, Dumico and Central Duparquet properties. Work will be done to better define the limits of the known mineralization between 400 to 600 metres below surface, as well as to identify the limits of higher grade sections within the known zones.
After almost eight months of hiatus, Clifton Star Resources started fresh in March, as the company resumed trading earlier this month with president and CEO, Michel F. Bouchard at the helm, who took over from former chief executive Harry Miller in November.
In February, the company filed an updated NI 43-101 resource report for its Donchester property at Duparquet, which is located along the prolific Destor-Porcupine fault in the Abitibi region of Quebec.
A previous technical report on Donchester from June 2011 was deemed non-compliant with the requirements of NI 43-101 by the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC), prompting a cease trade order on Clifton Star's stock.
But as a result of the new estimate, the cease trade order was revoked on Monday, March 5, with the stock now trading after the TSX Venture Exchange gave its approval.
The latest NI 43-101 compliant report for Donchester gave an inferred resource of 11.01 million tonnes with an average grade of 3.06 grams of gold per tonne for 1.05 million contained gold ounces, at a cut-off grade of 1.5 grams of gold per tonne, and using a top-cut of 8.0 grams per tonne.
CEO Bouchard says the new NI 43-101 compliant resource report for the entire Duparquet project will move the Beattie and Donchester estimates under the same criteria and allow for one data bank for the whole deposit.
The Beattie area of the Duparquet project is currently estimated to contain 1.72 million inferred gold ounces at a cut-off of 0.67 g/t gold, all in pit resources, as opposed to the current cut-off of 1.5 g/t gold used in the NI 43-101 report for Donchester.
Clifton also unveiled "excellent" metallurgical results from the project last month, with the overall average gold recovery from six metallurgical samples at 93 percent. Six metallurgical samples, with head grades ranging from 1.25 grams per tonne (g/t) gold to 3.58 g/t gold, were provided to SGS Lakefield Research for gold recovery testing.
In the first half of 2012, the company is focused on expanding resources and identifying new targets at Duparquet, and plans to spend roughly $2 million on exploration, with most of it allocated toward 15,000 metres of drilling, using two rigs.