Jan. 19, 2011 (Filing Services Canada) -- Santa Barbara Resources Limited (SBL - TSX Venture), is pleased to report gold intersections from an additional seven drill holes of the November, December 2010 drill program conducted at its Sancos Project in Peru. Results from the final six holes of the program drilled in January 2011 will be released when available.
Santa Barbara's President Christoph Lassl stated: "The Sancos Project continues to deliver very encouraging exploration results given that this is the initial drill program by Santa Barbara on the property. Specific areas of interest for a planned follow-up drill program in the future will be identified based on resultant geologic and geochemical vectors determined from this program. The initial drilling at Sancos Central, and also Sancos West, reveals mineralization over long intervals as well as over significant lateral dimensions, occurring within siliceous alteration zones. The host rock is typically oxidized to significant depths, and this is an important factor for potential leach recovery. The current drill program has been finished with an additional six drill holes. The follow-up drill program on Sancos will be planned after thorough evaluation of all new information being generated currently, and will expand on the initial success of the current program."
Drill Program Update
Of the seven reverse circulation drill holes reported in this release, three have targeted Sancos East, two Sancos Central and two Sancos West, for a total of 1,088 metres (m). The results of the first eleven holes of the November and December 2010 drill program were reported on January 5, 2011.
The holes drilled in Sancos West and Sancos Central returned wide intervals of gold mineralization hosted in granular silica, massive silica, vuggy silica and hydrothermal breccias whereas the holes in Sancos East did not intersect significant mineralization.
At Sancos Central, drill hole SARC 012 returned 136 m at an average grade of 0.20 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 18 m @ 0.47 g/t gold. The hole ends in mineralization. Other holes located within the same zone at Sancos Central include SARC 011 where 154 m was intersected at an average grade of 0.45 g/t gold, including 12 m @ 0.77 g/t gold and 56 m @ 0.61 g/t gold and SARC 010 intersected 232 m at 0.20 g/t gold, including 38 m @ 0.36 g/t gold. The gold intervals encountered in SARC 016, in the northern sector of Sancos Central, demonstrate the presence of mineralization at a significant distance from the previously described drill holes. The hole ends in mineralization with increasing values towards the bottom of the hole, finishing with 10 m @ 0.21 g/t gold.
Drill hole SARC 017 targeted a lower topographic level at Sancos West and was designed with the objective of penetrating the mineralized zone vertically, reporting 168 m @ 0.16 g/t gold in oxides, including 34 m @ 0.29 g/t gold, followed downhole by 36 m @ 0.12 g/t in sulphide mineralization. SARC 018, also located at Sancos West, contains 66 m @ 0.17 g/t gold starting from surface, including 30 m @ 0.25 g/t gold.
Plotting grade-thickness values of intersections with gold values greater than 0.10 g/t for each drill hole, Sancos Central combines three contiguous holes with significant values, SARC 011 with 68.8 gram-metres (g-m), SARC 010 with 45.7 g-m and SARC 012 with 27.2 g-m. All three holes end in mineralization. Sancos West also contains significant grade-thickness values of 31.2 g-m in SARC 017 and 20.9 g-m in SARC 001. Such values warrant a follow-up drill program in the future.
A summary of all drill holes reported is provided in the table below. A map of the drill hole locations and images of the ongoing drill program as well as some selected drill chip boxes can be viewed on the Company's web site at www.sbr-ltd.com.
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Sancos RC Drilling Summary
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Drill Hole From To Mineralized Grade Oxide /
Hole Length(m) (m) (m) Interval(m) (g/t) Sulphide
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SARC 012 184 48 184 136 0.20 Oxide
Including 82 100 18 0.47 Oxide
SARC 013 94 No significant intercepts
SARC 014 100 No significant intercepts
SARC 015 100 No significant intercepts
SARC 016 202 94 126 32 0.11 Oxide
And 192 202 10 0.21 Oxide
SARC 017 208 0 168 168 0.16 Oxide
Including 2 36 34 0.29 Oxide
And 166 202 36 0.12 Suphide
SARC 018 200 0 66 66 0.17 Oxide
Including 0 30 30 0.25 Oxide
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Sampling, Quality Control and Drill Intersection Grade Calculation
All of the Sancos drill chips were sampled in continuous two-metre intervals. Details of the sample procedure can be reviewed in Santa Barbara's press release dated December 20, 2010. The average grade of a drill interval is calculated by a weighted average of the contained sample results. Drill intervals containing greater than 0.1 g/t gold are included in the calculation. Selective higher grade portions of the respective interval are reported within wider general mineralization. Drill intercepts presented above are drill intersection width and may not represent true widths of mineralization. Gold assays have not been subject to a top cut.
All sample preparation and analytical procedures are conducted by ALS Chemex Laboratories in Lima, Peru. Samples are fire assayed with AAS finish on a 50 g assay charge. Additionally, all samples are analyzed by a 35 element aqua regia ICP-AES method plus trace mercury detection by cold vapour-AAS methods.
ALS Chemex's quality control system complies with International Standards ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 17025. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material and replicate samples. As part of Santa Barbara's Quality Control and Quality Assurance program, certified reference materials, field duplicates and blank samples are inserted continuously into the sample stream.
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed by Stewart Wallis, P. Geo, a Qualified Person and consultant to the Company.
Sancos Project Summary
The Sancos Project hosts a large high sulphidation epithermal gold system where surface mineralization with a footprint of approximately 650 m x 160 m at Sancos West and 750 m x 200 m at Sancos Central. The mineralization is hosted in massive silica, granular silica, vuggy silica and hydrothermal beccias, extending vertically over 70 m to 200 m in outcrops and drill intersections. The host rock is a slightly northward dipping sequence of andesitic breccias, tuffs and domes with large phreatomagmatic breccias and hydrothermal breccias.
Santa Barbara, subject to certain option requirements and back-in rights, has the right to acquire a 100 % interest in the 6,200 hectare Sancos Project from Barrick Gold Corporation's Peruvian subsidiary.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Christoph Lassl"
_______________________________
Christoph Lassl, President and
Chief Executive Officer
Please visit the Company's web site: www.sbr-ltd.com. For further information, please contact Christoph Lassl, President and Chief Executive Officer. Telephone: 593-2-2904164, Fax: 593-2-2556204 or email: christoph@sbr-ltd.com
Address: Edificio In-Luxor - Oficina 102, Camilo Destruge N24-633 y Francisco Salazar, P.O. Box 17-07-9719, Quito, Ecuador
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.
This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "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 Santa Barbara Resources Limited 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. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
Unit 1, 15782 Marine Drive
White Rock, British Columbia V4B 1E6
Web page: www.sbr-ltd.com
Source: Santa Barbara Resources Limited (TSX V SBL)
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