Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, January 30th, 2012. Columbus Gold Corporation (CGT: TSX-V) ("Columbus Gold") is pleased to announce that Phase II drilling has commenced at its Overland Pass gold project, located north of Barrick Gold's Bald Mountain gold mine, on the southern extension of the Carlin Trend. Sniper Resources Ltd., can earn an initial 51% interest in Overland Pass by undertaking staged annual exploration expenditures. Sniper plans to drill 25 RC holes from 20 drill sites totalling 3,048 metres (10,000 feet). Sniper reports that the current program is designed to follow-up on the encouraging Phase I drill results of 2007 and also to test additional areas of favorable geology that were not tested in Phase I, some of which yielded high-grade-gold surface sampling results.
The overall geological setting at Overland Pass is very similar to that of the Alligator Ridge and Rain gold deposits, both of which produced in excess of one million ounces of gold.
Sampling at Overland Pass has yielded gold from silicified zones and breccia in the Pilot Shale and Joana Limestone. The favorable Pilot/Joana stratigraphic sequence is present for approximately 3 km (2 miles) of strike length on the claim block. Gold values range from anomalous to 15.5 g/t (0.45 opt) gold in surface sampling, with nine samples exceeding 3 g/t (0.10 opt) gold.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control
All scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Douglas McGibbon, Director, and Vice-President, Exploration, of Sniper Resources Ltd., who is a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101.
About Columbus Gold
Columbus Gold is a gold exploration and development company operating in French Guiana and Nevada. In French Guiana, Columbus Gold recently acquired an option to earn a 100% interest in the Paul Isnard gold project, which has a 43-101 compliant 1.9 million ounce inferred gold resource and substantial expansion potential. In Nevada, Columbus is a prolific project generator focused on advancing projects either through joint-venture with industry partners or on its own where exploration risk is minimized and potential is particularly promising. Columbus Gold's president, Andy Wallace has a long and successful history of gold discovery and mine development. The company currently has 11 of its 25 strategically located gold projects in Nevada joint-ventured to major and junior mining companies.
About Sniper Resources
Sniper Resources Ltd. is engaged in the identification, acquisition and exploration of gold properties in the State of Nevada, USA. Sniper owns a 100% interest in the ReHot project and is currently earning a controlling interest in four strategically located Nevada gold projects, namely, Guild, Overland Pass, Weepah, and Laura. The founder and President of Sniper Resources Ltd. is Scott Baxter, who was also the founder and President of Tone Resources Ltd., a company acquired by Robert McEwen's US Gold Corp in 2007.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,
Robert Giustra
Chairman & CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For more information contact:
Investor Relations
604 634-0970 or
1 888 818-1364
info@columbusgoldcorp.com