Timmins Gold starts 5,000 metre drill program at San Onesimo project

Timmins Gold Corp. (TSE:TMM)(AMEX:TGD)(NYSE MKT:TGD) said Wednesday that it has started an initial 5,000 metre core drill program at its San Onesimo project in Zacatecas, Mexico.

The project consists of 5 claims covering a surface of roughly 6,400 hectares, and is located in a prolific mining district, the company said - just 16 kilometres northeast of Goldcorp's (TSE:G) Camino Rojo project and 80 kilometres southeast of the gold giant's Penasquito mine.

Drill targets were generated using a combination of prospecting, geochemical soil sampling, induced polarization (IP) and ground magnetics.

This led to the discovery of a "chargeability anomaly" located south of the geological contact interpreted by the magnetic data.

The anomaly coincides with a target identified by systematic soil sampling, the company said. The target area is around 2 kilometres long by 1 kilometre wide.
              
The drill program will include 11 holes at a planned depth of between 400 to 500 metres, designed to test the combined IP/magnetic/geochemical anomaly.
              
In addition to the San Onesimo project, Timmins Gold also owns the TIMM claims in Zacatecas, which consist of a 45,000 hectare claim package next to Goldcorp's Penasquito project.
              
Focused solely in Mexico, Timmins is in commercial gold production at its wholly owned San Francisco gold mine in Sonora, an open pit heap leach operation.

The company has forecast production at a rate in excess of 100,000 ounces of gold per year.

Earlier this month, Timmins reported record gold production in its second quarter, despite downtime for the calibration of a new and larger capacity tertiary crusher at its Mexican mine.

For the three months that ended June 30, the company posted gold production of 23,203 ounces, up more than 39 per cent from 16,676 ounces a year earlier.

The company also sold 23,499 gold ounces, representing an over 30 per cent increase from the year-ago quarter. It maintained its full year output guidance for 100,000 ounces.