TerraX drills 14.70 m @ 0.67 g/t Au at Roy Zone and 5.63 m of 0.98 g/t Au at AL198 Zone on Sunbeam-Pettigrew property, Atikokan, Ontario; 2 km long alteration zone confirmed

VANCOUVER, April 12 /PRNewswire/ - TerraX Minerals Inc. (TSXV: TXR) (Frankfurt: TX0) has received assay results from the final five holes of its February/March 2011 drilling campaign on the AL198 and Roy zones within its wholly-owned Sunbeam-Pettigrew gold property near Atikokan, Ontario.  All holes intersected coherent alteration zones with anomalous gold.   Hole SP11-12 at the Roy Zone had an interval of 14.70 m @ 0.67 g/t Au, including a higher grade interval of 1.85 m @ 4.01 g/t Au, at a vertical depth of 35 m.  Hole SP11-11 at the AL198 Zone intercepted 5.63 m of 0.98 g/t Au, including 0.8 m of 6.12 g/t Au, at a vertical depth of 45 meters.

The Sunbeam-Pettigrew property consists of thirty-six claims totaling 425 claim units (~67 sq km) within the Archean Marmion Batholith, in a similar geological environment to the nearby Hammond Reef gold deposit, presently being explored by Osisko Mining Corporation.

The Roy Zone occurs along the Roy lineament defined by TerraX in 2009, and known to contain anomalous gold intermittently over a strike length of at least 8.5 km.  The Roy Zone contains several historical shafts.  TerraX drilled two holes 70 m apart proximal to the shafts.  Both holes passed through a 12 to 14 m wide zone of moderately sericitized and chloritized tonalite, with thin mafic dikes and quartz ± ankerite veins up to 50 cm across.  The veins locally contain pyrite, galena, and fine-grained visible gold.  In hole SP11-12, this zone ran 14.70 m @ 0.67 g/t Au, including a higher grade interval of 1.85 m @ 4.01 g/t Au (see Table 1).  In hole SP11-13, the Roy Zone assayed 12.28 m @ 0.43 g/t Au, with a core of 3.78 m @ 1.05 g/t Au.

The AL198 Zone occurs on the Sunbeam lineament defined by TerraX in 2009, which contains the past-producing Sunbeam gold deposit, and is known to be intermittently mineralized over at least 5 km.  The zone contains anomalous gold in grab samples over a 220 m strike length, with a high value of 16.2 g/t Au. TerraX drilled three holes totaling 336.0 m at AL 198, testing a 150 m strike length of the zone.  Each hole intersected the same 6 to 10 m wide alteration zone, consisting of moderately sericitized rock with hematite, quartz-ankerite veining, pyrite and minor amounts of fuchsite and pyrrhotite.  In hole SP11-11, this zone contained an intersection of 5.63 m of 0.98 g/t Au, including 0.8 m of 6.12 g/t Au.  The alteration zone in hole SP11-10 ran 10.25 m @ 303 ppb Au, and in hole SP11-09 it ran 6.16 m @ 70 ppb Au (Table 1). These three holes collectively provide the first information on the shallow portion of a coherent alteration zone that, at least locally, contains mineralization of similar grade to the resource at Hammond Reef.  The intersection in hole SP11-11 is at a higher grade than the average grade at Hammond Reef.

The alteration zone intersected at AL198 is visually identical to that intersected at the Road Zone, 2 km to the northeast (see map on web site).  Combining results from the two areas, TerraX thus interprets the existence of a coherent northeast-trending alteration zone at least 2 km long, from AL198 in the southwest to the Road Zone in the northeast.  The Road Zone features a TerraX intersection of 13.90 m @ 1.11 g/t Au (Table 1; see our press release of March 16, 2011).  The extended alteration zone has been tested by six TerraX drill holes, all of which intersected at least 5 m intervals of anomalous gold.  The central part of the alteration zone has supported underground mining on the Sunbeam patent, wherein at least 1,000 ounces of gold were mined in the early 1900's.  The alteration zone is open along strike in all directions as well as down-dip.  Approximately 800 m of untested strike length occur between TerraX drilling at AL198 and the Sunbeam patent; no outcrops occur in this area.  Likewise, 450 m of strike length occur between TerraX drilling at the Road Zone and the Sunbeam patent.  Intermittent drilling along this part of the zone by Nahanni Mines in 1982 was mostly ineffective due to a combination of drill placement and core recovery issues, although the one hole to definitively intersect the alteration zone produced an intersection of 8.5 m @ 4.8 g/t Au.

Table 1:  Significant Intersections from February/March 2011 Drilling

TerraX is encouraged by the three alteration/mineralization zones intersected by the 2011 drilling.  All zones are open along strike and down-dip, and drill testing to date of these zones has been restricted to the upper 60 vertical m; it is worth noting that mineralization at Hammond Reef tends to improve with depth.  TerraX's drilling has provided firm information on the location of the prospective alteration zones, so as to enable more effective prospecting and drilling in the future.  All three zones merit further drilling consisting of step-out holes to trace and assess the known alteration zones.  In addition, stripping and drilling should be conducted along the 2 km strike length between the Road and AL198 zones.  This work is planned for the summer/fall of 2011.

All drill core from the 2011 drill program was logged, split and sampled at a secure core facility in Atikokan. Samples were delivered by TerraX personnel to the Activation Laboratories ("Actlabs") facility in Thunder Bay.  Actlabs is an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited analytical laboratory.  Analysis was by fire assay with AA finish. Samples with visible gold were assayed by the metallic screen with fire assay process.  Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored at the laboratory by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material and replicate samples. Quality control is further assured by the use of international and in-house standards. TerraX routinely inserted blanks and certified standards into the sample stream in order to independently assess analytical accuracy.

The technical information contained in this news release has been verified by Dr. Tom Setterfield, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person as defined in "National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties."

About TerraX Minerals

TerraX Minerals Inc. is one of the major landholders of prospective ground in the burgeoning Marmion Batholith gold district near Atikokan, Ontario, host to Osisko Mining Corporation's (TSX-V: OSK) Hammond Reef gold deposit which contains a National Instrument 43-101-compliant inferred resource of 259.4 million tonnes at 0.8 grams per tonne Au. The Brett Resources Technical Report on this project is available on SEDAR. TerraX is actively exploring three wholly-owned gold exploration projects, the Sunbeam-Pettigrew, Blackfly and Central Canada properties, all of which are located within 20 km of the town of Atikokan, 180 km west of Thunder Bay, and are within 19 km of the Hammond Reef gold deposit.

TerraX is also actively exploring the 60.5 sq km Stewart property in the Burin Peninsula, which is part of the Avalon terrane, a geologic structure which can be traced from eastern Newfoundland through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into New England, the Carolinas and northern Georgia. The Avalon terrane hosts several epithermal/porphyry gold-copper deposits, including the past-producing Hope Brook deposit in Newfoundland.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"JOSEPH CAMPBELL"

Joseph Campbell, P.Geo
President

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.

 

SOURCE TerraX Minerals Inc.