Andover Ventures Announces Resource Estimate for Burgin Extension Deposit, East Tintic Mining District, Utah, USA
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 06/22/11 -- Andover Ventures Inc. (or the 'Company') (TSX VENTURE: AOX)(OTCBB: AOVTF)(FRANKFURT: R2X) is pleased to announce a completed Resource Estimate and progress on a Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Burgin Extension Deposit owned by Chief Consolidated Mining Company ('Chief') (in turn approximately 78.5% owned by Andover).
The Company engaged Mine Development Associates 'MDA' of Reno, NV to complete both a resource estimate in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 and a Preliminary Economic Assessment ('PEA') on the Burgin Extension Deposit located within the 16,000 acres of patented claims owned by Chief in the East Tintic Mining District of Utah. The PEA is expected to be completed before the end of the summer, 2011. The National Instrument 43-101 technical report will be posted on the Company's website at www.andoverventures.com and SEDAR at www.sedar.com within 45 days.
The Burgin Extension Deposit is established as a high grade silver-lead-zinc project located on Chief's sizable land holdings, and is part of a complex which includes other known deposits such as Zone A, 5340 Zone, Zone B, and the Ball Park Zone. None of these deposits are included in the reported Resource Estimate. Additionally, the Burgin Extension deposit is open on-strike and down dip. These carbonate replacement deposits or manto deposits are part of a large silver, gold, lead and zinc complex for which the East Tintic District is historically famous.
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Burgin Reported Resources - June 2011
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Cutoff oz
Class AgEq/ton Tons oz Ag/ton oz Ag oz Au/ton
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Indicated 5.0 920,000 7.28 6,694,000 0.025
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Inferred 5.0 1,357,000 8.71 11,823,000 0.013
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Burgin Reported Resources - June 2011
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Class oz Au % Pb lbs Pb % Zn lbs Zn
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Indicated 23,000 9.27 170,461,000 3.45 63,497,000
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Inferred 17,000 14.43 391,589,000 5.19 140,846,000
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Mr. Larry Segerstrom, COO of Andover, comments: 'We are excited about the confirmation of this emerging high grade silver deposit, and look forward to receiving the full PEA from MDA in the coming period. We emphasize that this resource calculation is based solely upon the Burgin Extension Deposit, and does not include any of the additional deposits within this promising complex. We thank all those who have worked diligently in the development of this Resource Estimate and believe that this marks the first step in developing this attractive high grade silver deposit.'
Qualified Person
The new Mineral Resource Estimate was completed by Paul Tietz, Senior Geologist at MDA, an independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Dr. Stewart Jackson., P Geol., a Director of Andover Ventures, is the Qualified Person responsible for the accuracy of this news release in compliance with National Instrument 43-101.
The mineral resource estimate was generated using the following parameters:
The stated resource is fully diluted to 10ft by 10ft by 10ft blocks and tabulated on silver-equivalent ('AgEq') grade cutoff of 5.0 oz AgEq/ton that is reasonable for deposits of this nature and for the expected mining conditions and methods. The AgEq grade is calculated using the individual silver, lead, and zinc grades of each block. The gold content in each block is not used in the AgEq calculation due to the uncertain metallurgy associated with this metal. Metal prices used in the calculation are $18.00 per ounce silver, $1.00 per pound lead and $1.00 per pound zinc. Metal recovery factors for silver and lead are both 90% while the zinc recovery is 60%.
The estimate is constrained by a 3-dimensional geologic model which includes the structurally-controlled basal dolomite contact, the primary structures which localize mineralization, and unique low- medium- and high-grade mineral domains for each metal. Length-weighted composites honoring all mineral domain contacts, and with a maximum length of 5 feet, were used in the estimate. Grade estimation is by Inverse Distance Cubed (ID3) with Ordinary Kriging (OK) and Nearest Neighbor (NN) estimates run as checks. Two search passes were used and the estimation within each mineral domain used only those composites coded to that respective domain.
Classification is based on the confidence in the underlying data along with the number of, and average distance to, the nearest samples. The Indicated classification sample and distance criteria are a minimum of two samples lying a maximum average distance of 75ft from the block to be estimated. All resource blocks associated with the pre-1990 drilling are considered Inferred due to the poor core recovery and inability to verify much of the pre-1990 drill data. Though mineralization was modeled into and through areas of known historic underground mining, none of the mineralized blocks above the 1300 level workings (the lowest known level of historic activity) were included in the resource due to uncertainty in the location and extent of the historic mining activity.
About Andover:
Andover Ventures is a precious and base metal exploration and development company, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Andover Ventures' holdings are located in the historic East Tintic Mining District, Utah, USA, and the polymetallic-rich Ambler Mining District, Alaska, USA.
For further information we invite you to visit us at www.andoverventures.com.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Gordon Blankstein, CEO and Chairman
Neither 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.
Contacts:
Andover Ventures Inc.
Richard Martens
Investor Relations
1-604-682-2168 or Int'l Toll Free: 1-800-266-4484
www.andoverventures.com