Beard Company Fails to Identify Commercial Quantities of Gold in Yakutat Forelands

JUNEAU, Alaska, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Beard Company, 25% owner of Geohedral LLC, reported in its second quarter 2010 Operating Results that recent assays have failed to indicate commercial quantities of gold and silver in any of its 64,000 acres of claims in Alaska's Yakutat Forelands. Assays have also found significantly less magnetite (iron ore) and ilmenite than was previously publicized.  

In September of 2009, Geohedral announced a significant deposit of gold and silver had been discovered in the Yakutat Forelands.  The Beard Company now reports that independent laboratories have not correlated with initial assays that led to Geohedral's announcement of a 34 million ounce gold discovery.  The 2009 discovery was initially met with some skepticism. Kerwin Krause, the mineral manager for the Division of Mining, Land and Water for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources described the 34 million ounce discovery in the Juneau Empire (Size of Company's Gold Mine Claim Questioned, Nov. 7, 2009) as "a screwy number."

The original announcement led to concern that placer mining could damage productive sport and commercial fisheries in the area. The rivers within Geohedral's claims, particularly the Situk and Alsek, support fisheries that are a major economic contributor to the nearby community of Yakutat.  The area also contains sacred and cultural sites important to local Native Alaskans.  Both the Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand Camp and the National Congress of American Indians have passed resolutions opposing mining in this area.

The results of the most recent assays are contained in Beard Company's second quarter and first half 2010 Operating Results available online at:  http://beardco.com/sites/default/files/brco%20082410_o.pdf

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SOURCE Southeast Alaska Conservation Council