Solitario intersects 36.61% zinc & lead over 5.8 metres at Bongará

Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp. (TSE:SLR)(AMEX:XPL) Thursday announced "outstanding" drilling results on its high-grade Bongará zinc project in Peru.

In total, 17 out of the 19 newly reported drill holes intersected significant mineralization, the company said.

Amongst the highlights, drill hole V-245 intersected 36.61% zinc & lead (Zn+Pb) and 53.48 grams per tonne (gpt) silver over 5.8 meters, hole V-255 intersected 17.21% Zn+Pb and 41.94 gpt silver over 15.5 meters and drill hole V-257 which encountered 10.86% Zn+Pb and 31.4 gpt silver over 31.4 meters.

The underground drilling program began in the fourth quarter of 2011 and will continue through much of 2012, Solitario said. In total, 67 core holes are planned from eight different underground drill stations.

Solitario president and CEO Chris Herald said: "Bongará continues to deliver outstanding drilling results. Results are certainly demonstrating thick high-grade continuity in the San Jorge zone.

"Votorantim continues to aggressively advance the project on a number of fronts, including detailed reserve drilling, additional step-out drilling, road construction, new plans for underground tunneling, additional metallurgical testing, and other pre-feasibility related work."

The Bongará project hosts the high-grade Florida Canyon zinc deposit where zinc mineralization has been intersected over a four square kilometer area. Underground drill stations are situated about 40 meters apart and are designed to drill test in detail approximately 350 meters of strike length of the San Jorge zone, situated in the southwestern part of the Florida Canyon deposit.
Anywhere from 4 to 12 core holes will be fan-drilled from each drill station.

Surface drilling is focused on the Karen-Milagros zone located in the northeastern part of the Florida Canyon mineralized system.
Votorantim, Solitario's partner at Bongará, is planning a new tunnel to access the Karen-Milagros zone. Planning and permitting for the tunnel is in its initial stages and the start of construction will occur in 2013.

Upon completion of the new Karen-Milagros tunnel, detailed underground drilling will take place similar to the program currently being conducted on the San Jorge zone.

Solitario is a gold, silver, platinum-palladium, and base metal exploration and royalty company actively exploring in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.

Shares were up 4 percent to $1.45 Thursday afternoon.