Vancouver, BC, December 20, 2010 -- GoldQuest Mining Corp. (GQC-TSX.V) ("GoldQuest" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the start of a Phase II drilling program at its 100% owned La Escandalosa project in the Dominican Republic. The Company has deployed a rig to the project and planned a program of approximately 30 to 40 holes totalling approximately 2,500 to 3,500 metres. The Phase II program is focused on upgrading the current NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate at La Escandalosa and to test potential extensions along strike to the north and south.
Anna Stylianides, GoldQuest's President and CEO, commented, "Now that all the necessary licenses and permits are in place, we are pleased to be in a position to start the next phase of drilling with the objective of upgrading and expanding on our recent resource estimate. We have had some excellent results from La Escandalosa and are confident that further drilling will continue to show strong mineralization and expand the resource Area. We expect a small number of holes to be completed in December and drilling activity to accelerate from the beginning of January. Assay results will be announced upon their receipt and analysis by the Company."
The present inferred mineral resource at La Escandalosa is 4,862,835 tonnes grading 2.596 g/t gold at a nominal cut-off of 0.3 g/t of gold containing 405,924 ounces of gold and has a strike length of about 600 metres (refer to news release dated November 16, 2010). To date, the number of holes drilled at La Escandalosa is 25 drill holes with a total length of 3,291 metres.
As previously reported, the Company believes that there is exploration potential for the discovery of additional mineralization in structural feeder zones or possibly related to porphyry copper-gold type mineralization. The La Escandalosa property contains stratiform gold mineralization with copper, silver and zinc of intermediate sulfidation epithermal style. Alteration and mineralization has been traced for 2,200 metres from Hondo Valle to La Hilguera.
A map of the location of the drill holes at La Escondalosa is available on the Company's website at www.goldquestcorp.com, under the heading "Las Tres Palmas", the former name of the La Escandalosa property.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Anna Stylianides
President & Chief Executive Officer
For further information please contact:
Dan Maarsman Jr.
Investor Relations -- Vancouver, Canada
Tel: +1-604-632-4333
www.goldquestcorp.com
About GoldQuest
GoldQuest is a Vancouver-based exploration company with projects in the Dominican Republic and Spain, and is traded on the TSX-V under the symbol GQC.V and in Frankfurt / Berlin with symbol M1W. Dr. Stewart D. Redwood, PhD, FIMMM, Consulting Geologist for the Company, is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and has supervised the preparation of the information used in this news release.
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 news release.
Forward-looking statements:
This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that GoldQuest expects to occur, are forward looking statements.
This news release contains "forward-looking information" that is based on the Company's expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates which those statements were made. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements about the exploration permit of the concession containing both La Escandalosa and Hondo Valle and exploration potential of the La Escandalosa property. Although GoldQuest believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration success, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of GoldQuest's management on the date the statements are made. GoldQuest undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.