Andover Mining Corp.: Chief Consolidated Mining Company Receives Kennecott Report on Big Hill LLC
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/23/12 -- Andover Mining Corp. (formerly 'Andover Ventures Inc.') ('Andover' or the 'Company') (TSX VENTURE: AOX)(OTCBB: AOVTF)(FRANKFURT: R2X) is pleased to announce that Chief Consolidated Mining Company ('Chief'), approximately 78.5% owned by Andover, has received a report from Kennecott Exploration Company, (Kennecott), entitled 'Summary of Exploration Activities' summarizing exploration activities conducted by Kennecott Exploration over the period ending December 2011. During the fourth quarter ending December 31st 2011, $1,855,071 US was spent on exploration activities at the Big Hill Project, located on Chief's lands in the East Tintic Mining District, Utah.
Under the terms of the agreement, Kennecott may earn a 51% interest in the Big Hill project by completing a Pre-feasibility Study or incurring $20,000,000 in expenditures, whichever occurs first, and an additional 4% interest by funding all project costs until delivery of a Feasibility Study accepted by Rio Tinto plc. Chief is carried on 45% interest until the completion of the Feasibility Study.
Since signing of the joint venture agreement with Chief on August 20, 2010, Kennecott has contracted and completed an airborne magnetic survey, magnetotelluric and IP surveys. Deep porphyry targets are currently being tested with RC and diamond drilling.
The drilling at East Tintic was designed as a two-phase program started with RC drilling to pre-collar the holes followed by diamond core-drilling. Boart Longyear was contracted to complete the pre-collars using a D40 rotary drill rig. A total of 1,355 meters were RC drilled during the first phase and finished with HWT Casing. All holes had E-log down hole surveys completed by Century Wireline Services based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. West-Core Drilling of Elko, Nevada is currently core drilling to deepen the holes with diamond drilling.
The RC sampling was carried out by Kennecott Exploration geologists. All holes were sampled over 5 foot (approximately 1.5m) intervals using a wet splitter, or a shaker table when using flooded reverse drilling.
The core/RC log data includes:
Lithology
Alteration (confirmed using a NIR/SWIR spectrometer)
Mineralization
Rock Quality Description (for Core)
Magnetic susceptibility (for Core)
In addition, the drill core is photographed, sampled, and stored for future use.
Banks, duplicates and standards were inserted every 20 samples to maintain proper QA/QC. All RC samples were shipped to ALS Chemex in Elko, Nevada, USA for pulp preparation and subsequently shipped to ALS Chemex in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for analysis. For all elements except Au, the analytical procedure consists of a 4-acid digest (HF, HCIO4, HNO3, HCI) with analysis by ICP-AES). Concentrations with ore grade are analyzed with AAS. Gold is analyzed by conventional fire assay on 50g samples. Once the analyses are completed Kennecott stores all pulps for future checks and assays.
Further information on the project will be released as the data is received from Kennecott.
About Andover:
Andover Mining Corp. is a precious and base metal exploration and development company, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Andover's holdings are located in the polymetallic rich Ambler Mining District, located in Alaska, USA, and the historic East Tintic Mining District, Utah, USA.
For further information we invite you to visit us at www.andovermining.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 Mining Corp.
Richard Martens
Investor Relations
1-604-682-2168 or Int'l Toll Free: 1-800-266-4484
1-604-682-2169 (FAX)
rick@andovermining.com
www.andovermining.com