RENO, NV–( July 28, 2009) – General Metals Corporation (the “Company”) (OTCBB: GNMT) (FRANKFURT: GMQ) is pleased to announce that, further to is News Release dated June 3, 2009, the Company has received 275 assays from the historic (1985-1987) Noranda Minerals drilling in the Independence Gold Skarn target on the Company’s Independence Mine Property. The results are in excellent agreement with the original results and, subject to QA/QC analysis, are now 43-101 compliant.
These are the original samples that were assayed during the original 25,000 ft Noranda core drilling campaign. The Company submitted all contained mineralized intercepts for a 100% check assay program together with standards and certified reference materials which upgrade QA/QC for the data to current best industry practices and assures compliance with modern regulatory regimes while validating the historic database. This work is essential to calculation of a resource to be included in the Company’s current Canadian NI 43-101 format independent technical report which is anticipated to include resources for both the Surface Oxide mineralization and the high grade Independence Gold Skarn system.
The Great Basin Drilling reassays are due back this week or early next week and will go thru the same evaluation, QA/QA process to qualify for inclusion in the report.
The Independence Gold Skarn is situated directly below the Independence Surface deposit on the Independence property, and is hosted in the same “lower plate” rocks that hosted the nearby 2.2 million ounce Fortitude deposit located approximately 4,000 feet to the northeast which contained 10 million tons with an average grade of 0.22 ounces (6.42 grams) gold per ton was mined by Battle Mountain Gold Corp. from 1985 through 1990. The Company has been advised that the inclusion of this data for the Independence Gold Skarn will not delay the completion of the independent technical report the Company’s consultants are now working on.
The Company’s consultants continue to model both the surface mineralization and the gold skarn. The Company is highly encouraged by these modeling efforts. Significantly the metallurgy of the Independence Gold Skarn will be similar to the relatively simple metallurgy which was found in the nearby 2.2 million ounce Fortitude gold skarn deposit mined by Battle Mountain Gold in the late 1980s. Thin and polished sections of core from the skarn identify grains of free gold ranging from 20 to 100 microns in size uniformly occurring in late stage open fractures. Gold is found as microscopic grains deposited in these late stage fractures on top of all other mineral species. This relationship indicates that gold mineralization was the last mineral event to occur. Such late stage gold mineralization minimizes the chances of the gold being “encapsulated” or refractory in nature and is likely to result in relatively simple metallurgical processes, comparatively low costs and high recovery rates. Due to the high grade nature of the mineralization in the skarn it is highly likely that a conventional milling circuit would be employed to recover the gold content of the skarn.
When taken together, the Noranda and Great Basin Gold drilling in the Independence Gold Skarn system identify a target more than half a mile wide and three quarters of a mile long which contains three highly prospective structural / stratigraphic zones, all of which have been demonstrated to host significant levels of gold mineralization. This target is found in the same favorable sedimentary rocks below the Golconda thrust which hosted the 2.2 million ounce Fortitude Gold Skarn deposit mined by Battle Mountain Gold and which host a significant portion of the giant Phoenix gold deposit which is contiguous with the Independence Property.
General Metal’s consultants have been rigorously modeling and re-examining the core from these programs, and are of the opinion that significant intervals of favorably altered and mineralized rock was not sampled in several of the historic core holes. The Company intends to relog and validate the integrity of this unsampled core, and anticipates sampling and assaying this core as warranted in the future.
To date more than 25,000 feet of core in eight holes have been drilled to test mineralization in the Independence Gold Skarn. At current costs for drilling, assaying and supervision, it is estimated this work has a replacement value in excess of $3,800,000(US). Virtually every hole which has targeted the gold skarn to date has intersected significant gold mineralization over an area which is more than three quarters of a mile long and half a mile wide, with most holes containing multiple mineralized horizons.
The highest grade portion of the Independence Gold Skarn occurs in favorable carbonate rich rocks below the Golconda Thrust, and directly beneath the Surface Oxide Mineralization which was the subject of General Metals 2007 – 2008 Reverse Circulation Drilling program. It is highly likely that the sub-vertical structural system which controls the surface oxide mineralization acted as a conduit, permitting mineralizing fluids circulating in the gold skarn to migrate to the near surface, depositing the gold and silver that form the Surface Oxide portion of the Independence System as the “fingerprint” of the deeper gold skarn. Surface “leakage” halos or fingerprints related to deeper mineralization form the basis for modern geochemical prospecting, and many such features related to deeper high grade mineralization are known along the Battle Mountain gold trend, including the Cove – McCoy system to the south and the Ivanhoe – Hollister system to the north where high grade underground ore bodies exhibited surface geochemical halos that were in themselves economically viable mines.
General Metals believes the combined Independence Surface Oxide and Gold Skarn represents a world class target in the world class Battle Mountain Mining District along an indisputable world class gold trend.
During 2009 the Company has undertaken an aggressive permitting and engineering program to rapidly move the Independence project toward production. The company has commissioned necessary studies and permits to allow it to proceed to production in the near term. To further expedite the planned near term production, the Company has contracted Dyer Engineering of Reno, Nevada to organize and initiate environmental, archeological and other studies required by the permitting process necessary to place the Independence Mine into commercial production.
A detailed description of the Company’s permitting activities leading to near term production is available on the Company’s web site www.gnmtlive.com
About General Metals Corporation: General Metals Corporation is an aggressive junior minerals exploration and development company, based in Reno, Nevada. The Company is actively exploring its 100% controlled Independence property strategically located in the prolific and highly prospective Battle Mountain Mining District, Nevada. Permitting and Engineering for heap leach production is underway at the Independence Mine. The Company recently entered into an agreement to sell its 150 sq. km. mining concession for gold, diamonds and base metals in Ghana, West Africa for $1,000,000 in cash and stock and retains a royalty.
Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains “forward-looking statements,” as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, that the proceeds from the recent private placement will allow the Company to proceed with permitting at its Independence Mine in Nevada or any shallow mining production later this year, that any estimated ounces of gold or silver are contained in the mineralized material in the “Shallow Target,” and is proposed to be mined and loaded onto a cyanide heap leach pad, or any future financings that the Company may enter into.
Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration. We are not in control of metals prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-KSB for the 2008 fiscal year, our quarterly reports on Form 10-QSB and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
