VANCOUVER, BC, AUGUST 5, 2009 -- GoldQuest Mining Corp. ("GoldQuest" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a purchase agreement (the "Purchase Agreement") with Gold Fields Dominican Republic BVI Limited ("Gold Fields") to regain full ownership of its large gold-focused portfolio in the Dominican Republic.
HIGHLIGHTS
- GoldQuest to acquire 100% ownership of Dominican portfolio in proven mineralised belt;
- GoldQuest to issue 8.6M shares, subject to regulatory approval, and grant a 1.25% royalty interest to Gold Fields in exchange for its 60% undivided interest in the projects; and
- GoldQuest to aggressively review and explore newly prioritised gold targets, following more than 12,900 meters of drilling and expenditures exceeding CDN$6 Million by Gold Fields.
As consideration for Gold Fields' 60% interest in the joint venture projects and subject to regulatory approval, GoldQuest will issue Gold Fields 8.6 million GoldQuest common shares and grant a 1.25% royalty on the net smelter returns on the claims being purchased by the Company. The Purchase Agreement also terminates Gold Fields' right of first refusal on the Company's projects excluded from the joint venture.
The common shares of GoldQuest issuable under the Purchase Agreement will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day in accordance with securities legislation. The Purchase Agreement also provides, among other things, that Gold Fields will have an entitlement to participate in any future equity financings carried out by the Company.
Alistair Waddell, President & CEO of GoldQuest, commented, "We are delighted to regain full ownership and management control of this exploration portfolio. Based on our extensive geological knowledge of the region, we believe that the work completed under the Gold Fields joint venture provides GoldQuest the opportunity to significantly move the exploration portfolio forward and advance several projects to drill stage. The exploration strategies of major and junior mining companies often differ and we thank Gold Fields for its investment in our joint venture and continued support of GoldQuest's development of the projects as the Company's largest shareholder. As GoldQuest supplied the majority of the personnel during the joint venture period the Company anticipates a seamless transition to continue the various exploration programmes. GoldQuest is currently integrating the joint venture data into its extensive database which has been built over the last eight years and now contains over 31,100 rock, soil and stream sediment samples. We are currently using the expanded database to explore and define priority gold targets which are now 100% owned for expedited exploration".
Gold Fields has invested over CDN$6 Million in the Dominican projects and completed in excess of 12,900 meters of exploration drilling on seven different projects. GoldQuest believes the Gold Fields exploration programme has provided a solid first pass test of a number of the projects although many targets remain to be explored in detail.
Recent analysis of the joint venture data by GoldQuest has identified a number of principal exploration areas which host a range of different targets that require further exploration. The principal 100% owned projects in the Dominican Republic now comprise the following:
Las Tres Palmas: The project extends over approximately 3.6 kilometres containing a number of different mineralized zones. Drilling from the centre of the property in an area called Escandelosa intercepted a sub-horizontal zone of intermediate sulphidation replacement style mineralization. The best drill intercept from this zone (LTP-07) returned 63 meters grading 2.09 g/t Au (including 18 meters grading 6.52 g/t Au) and surface trenching nearby (ESC-12E) returned 48 meters grading 5.24 g/t Au. The source or feeder has yet to be discovered and the Company is investigating the possibility of further drilling. Surface trenching from a second zone called Hondo Valle located 1.6 kilometres north of Escandelosa returned 42 meters grading 1.43 g/t Au and 36 meters grading 2.66 g/t Au from intensely silicified volcanics. Drilling from this zone (LTP-02) intercepted 42 meters from surface grading 1.67 g/t Au including 20 meters grading 2.65 g/t Au. The same hole also intercepted 156 meters grading 0.49% Zn from 16 to 172 meters. Drill results from Las Tres Palmas were described in news releases dated May 2, May 30, July 26, 2006 and March 23, 2007.
Jengibre: Located at the south-eastern end of the San Juan belt, the Gold Fields joint venture identified and geologically mapped five principal zones of outcropping epithermal mineralisation, four of which are located over a horizontal distance of approximately 1,000 meters. Gold Fields recently completed a short drill programme (1,313 meters) with one drill hole (JNG- 2) intercepting 54 meters grading 1.03 g/t Au, including 22 meters grading 1.97 g/t Au. The gold values from this drill hole are associated with zones of pervasive silicification with hydrothermal breccias cut by later quartz and quartz-barite veinlets carrying pyrite, sphalerite and traces of chalcopyrite. The Company intends to complete further exploration on the project as the majority of the joint venture drilling was completed on two targets. There are a number of targets that remain to be tested. Details of the Jengibre project were noted in news releases dated March 5 and September 16, 2008.
Loma Viejo Pedro: Rock chip and soil sampling has defined a gold anomaly approximately three kilometres long. The target is a structurally controlled, poly-metallic, intermediate sulphidation, gold system with mineralization characterized by argillic and silicic alteration with disseminated pyrite and traces of chalcopyrite and barite. Gold Fields completed seven drill holes totalling 1,558 meters which intercepted several zones of alteration and anomalous gold. The company intends to complete more detailed work on the project including follow up of some highly anomalous stream sediment and boulder float samples that were not investigated by Gold Fields. The project was described in a news release dated September 16, 2008.
Piedra Imán: Piedra Imán is strategically located approximately three kilometres west of Barrick Gold's and Gold Corp's Pueblo Viejo project which is currently under construction at a reported cost of $2.7 billion and reserves of 22.4 Million Oz Au. The GoldQuest claim covers approximately 8 km² of massive silicification considered part of the extensive Pueblo Viejo district lithocap. The Company believes the massive silicification has the potential to cap blind high sulphidation style mineralisation similar to that occurring at Pueblo Viejo. Gold Fields completed 3,644 meters of drilling on two targets which greatly assisted with the geological understanding of the property. The Company believes the project still requires further exploration on other target areas. The project was described in news releases dated October 18, 2007 and March 8, 2008.
Cerro Dorado: A mineralised diorite intrusion with a quartz veinlet stockwork was discovered while exploring for the source of a boulder float sample of silica-pyrite that returned 491 g/t Au and 7.6% Cu. The company channel sampled the diorite which returned several encouraging intervals including 20 meters grading 6.17 g/t Au and 41 meters grading 1.40 g/t Au. These channel samples were followed up with drilling that intercepted 22.86 meters grading 2.91 g/t Au from surface, including 12 meters grading 5.29 g/t Au (CD-1) and 46 meters from 4 meters below surface grading 1.34 g/t Au (CD-4). The mineralized diorite intercepted in the drill holes appears to have has been cut off by a low angle fault and further work is required to better understand the project geology. The drill results were summarized in a news release dated January 30, 2006.
Los Comios: To date 330 rock and float samples have been taken from the project with 118 returning values >0.1% copper including 59 >1 % copper and 6 >10% copper with a maximum value of 34.6%. Rock float samples have returned values up to 17.0 g/t gold and 1.3 % zinc. The strongest mineralized samples originate from either side of a large topographic high which is coincidental with a strong positive airborne magnetic anomaly. The Gold Fields joint venture completed only minor follow-up work on the project so the Company intends to explore for the source of the mineralisation.
Las Animas: The project comprises of a massive sulphide body with a NI 43-101 complaint indicated mineral resource of 1.00 million tonnes grading 2.95 g/t Au, 2.70% Cu, 3.36% Zn and 58.6 g/t Ag and an additional inferred mineral resource of 0.62 million tonnes grading 1.66 g/t Au, 3.32% Cu, 3.99% Zn and 31.4 g/t Ag. The principal massive sulphide body is still open at depth and there are a number of additional targets on the property and in the district that remain to be drill tested including a zone of recently discovered gossan that has been claimed and is still under application.
El Toro: The project comprises of multiple mesothermal quartz veins defined over approximately 2.6 kilometres strike length. The zone is locally up to 1,000 meters wide and comprises of several individual veins of up to two metres width, hosted in andesitic tuffs. Of 219 rock samples taken from the project 64 have returned values between 1 and 20 g/t Au and 8 have returned gold values in excess of 20 g/t Au with a maximum value of 35.19 g/t Au.
Santa Ana: The project covers a zone of mesothermal quartz veins similar to that discovered at El Toro located approximately six kilometres to the west. Of the 157 preliminary rock samples taken from the project 19 have returned values between 1 and 10 g/t Au and 2 have returned gold values of 10.2 and 14.2 g/t Au. The Company intends to complete more detailed fieldwork on the property to better define the vein system.
Additional projects: Aside from the projects mentioned above the Company also has a strong pipeline of earlier stage properties which it continues to explore. GoldQuest is presently waiting on title for several claims covering recently discovered targets.
About GoldQuest
GoldQuest is a Vancouver based exploration company traded on the TSX-V under the symbol GQC.V and in Frankfurt / Berlin with symbol M1W.
Mr. Alistair H. Waddell, an employee and the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 (a "QP") and has reviewed the contents of this news release. Mr Nathan Brewer, an employee of Gold Fields is the QP who has verified the technical information noted in this news release relating to the former joint venture properties Loma Viejo Pedro and Jengibre. Dr. Stewart D. Redwood, FIMMM, Consulting Geologist, who is a QP prepared the Las Animas resource estimate quoted in this news release. The resource estimate is summarised in GoldQuest's news release dated May 7, 2009 and in a technical report entitled "Mineral Resource Estimate for the Las Animas Project, Province of La Vega, Dominican Republic" dated May 4, 2009 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Preparation and geochemical analyses of all samples were carried out by either ALS Chemex in Vancouver or Acme Labs in Maimon, Santiago and Vancouver. Standards, blanks and duplicates are routinely inserted into all sample batches for quality assurance and quality control.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Alistair H. Waddell
President & Chief Executive Officer
For further information please contact:
Dan Maarsman
Investor Relations -- Vancouver, Canada
Tel: +1-604-632 4333
www.goldquestcorp.com
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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.
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. 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.