Trading
Symbol:
SLI
(TSX Venture Exchange)
U.S.
Clearing Symbol: SELSF
News Release
2007-09
March 27, 2007
NEWS RELEASE
TESORO GOLD PROJECT
,
PERU
Underground
Exploration Discovers High-Grade Gold at Zona Central
Lori McClenahan, President of St. Elias
Mines Ltd. (the “Company”), is pleased to announce the discovery of
high-grade gold on the A-4 Vein System within the Zona Central area of the
Tesoro Gold Project {the “Property”) located in southwestern Peru
..
Channel sample results from the 12-m
level of the A-4 shaft include 1.0m of 71.6g/t Au (2.08 oz/t) and 60cm of
33.2g/t Au (0.97 oz/t).
The
discovery was made as a result of cleaning out a short, rubble-filled
shaft.
The Company has subsequently
deepened this shaft from approximately 7m to 35m (115 feet).
Zona Central
Zona Central is located approximately 750m
southeast of the ZCV#1 Vein.
A map
showing the location of the Zones within the Property can be viewed at http://www.steliasmines.com/properties/PeruFig3.pdf
..
Zona Central, located within the
northern area of the Property, is one of five gold-bearing zones identified to
date on the Property.
The A-4 Vein System, comprised of two know
veins, is part of eight other main veins (or vein swarms) with an aggregate
length of approximately 3,000m, within an area measuring 1,000m x 1,200m, that
comprise Zona Central.
On surface,
the A-4 Vein System extends for at least 650 meters, has a northwesterly strike
and varies in width between 25cm and 43cm.
The A-4 shaft was originally sunk by
informal miners to follow a single quartz vein hosted within a shear zone.
Much to Company’s delight, at the 8-m
level, a second vein was encountered that is up to 1.0 meter wide and commonly
contains coarse visible gold.
The
two veins are separated by a sheared andesite dyke that is generally 40cm in
width.
Both the original vein and
the new vein have been traced continuously to the current base of the A-4 shaft
(35-m level).
These two veins are
now referred to as the East Vein (original vein) and the West Vein (new vein),
and the overall structure is referred to as the A-4 Vein System.
So far, the A-4 shaft has been completed
utilizing a 75kg hoist system.
A
500kg capacity hoist system is enroute to the project for installation at the
A-4 shaft.
Additional channel samples collected from
the 12-m level returned 60cm of 28.9g/t Au (0.84 oz/t) from the West Vein and
33cm of 14.85g/t (0.43 oz/t) from the East Vein.
In addition to gold occurring within the
quartz veins, samples collected at the 12-m level revealed that gold also
occurs within the sheared granodiorite foot-wall of the West Vein (55cm grading
8.45g/t Au (0.25 oz/t) and in the sheared andesite hanging-wall of the West
Vein (40cm grading 3.19g/t (0.09 oz/t) with 0.86% Copper.
Zona Canchete
At Zona Canchete, the ZCV#1 shaft has been
deepened to 60 meters and a drift is being developed on this level.
Three vein samples have been collected to
date from the shaft between the 40-m and 60-m levels.
These returned 13.8g/t gold (0.39 oz/t)
across 10cm, 35.2g/t (1.03 oz/t) across 14cm, and 43.3g/t (1.26 oz/t) across
15cm.
To
date, a total of 233.3 tonnes of bulk sample material from the ZCV#1 Vein has been
processed at the Dynacor milling facility.
The average gold grade of the bulk
samples was 0.98 opt and 90% gold recovery was reported by the mill.
Sample preparation
and analytical work was undertaken at
ALS Chemex SA laboratory (an ISO
certified 9002 facility)
in Lima
,
Peru
using
standard industry practice fire assay with AA finish.
Samples believed to contain higher gold
grades are assayed by process Au-SR21 (Screen Coarse Metallics).
All technical work is being supervised by,
and the contents of this news release have been verified by, John Brophy,
P.Geo, a Canadian geologist residing in Peru
, who is an independent
qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of
Disclosure for Mineral Properties.
The Tesoro Gold Property is 100% owned by
the Company with no underlying royalties.
The Property, located in the prolific 300km x 30km Nazca-Ocoña
gold belt of southwestern Peru
,
hosts multiple epithermal gold-bearing veins which have been traced for a
strike length of over 6.5km.
To
date, more than 70 gold deposits have been exploited in this region.
The Property is located between two gold
deposits/mining camps.
Dynacor
Mines Ltd. (T-DYN) , the owner of the claims located immediately northwest of
the Property, published a gold resource of +606,611 oz at 16.4g/t (on only 3 of
10 veins discovered to date) and has subsequently announced the discovery of
additional veins carrying comparable gold grades.
For additional information on St. Elias
and its projects, please visit us at www.steliasmines.com or call
1-888-895-5522 (toll free US and Canada
).
ST. ELIAS MINES LTD.
(signed “Lori McClenahan”)
Lori McClenahan,
President
The TSX Venture
Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy
or the accuracy of the contents of this document.
This news release contains
forward-looking statements regarding the ongoing and upcoming exploration work
and expected geometry of geological formations and structures.
Actual results may differ materially
from those currently anticipated in such statements.