• Magistral Central returns thickest, highest-grade zinc intersection to-date on the property (9 metres at 18.52% zinc) in a zone previously considered to be comprised of low-grade mineralization.

• Magistral South returns the highest-grade intercepts to date from the zone (10.85 metres at 10% zinc). The hole was testing a deposit plunge concept and occurs outside the presently defined resource envelope.

• Magistral North footwall zone continues to grow and expands upon the recently announced high-grade footwall intersections (see NR-10-2 for details). Predicted Magistral Central footwall 'feeder' mineralization also intersected.

• Latest drilling opens up the Magistral deposits in multiple directions: Magistral North remains open at depth and to east-northeast, Magistral Central remains open at depth, to the south and to the east, Magistral South remains open at depth and to the north, and to the southeast near surface.

• Numerous other high priority targets and prospects remain to be drill tested: the Puajanca South prospect and the Santander Pipe both remain open at depth. In addition, several high-priority targets containing out-cropping mineralization and/or extensive alteration remain to be drill-tested -- for example, the El Toro prospect where higher-level alteration, 'productive' gangue and trace base metal mineralization occur in a structurally controlled zone over 1 kilometre long and 150 metres wide -- a similar surface expression to the currently defined Magistral deposits.

Table 1: Summary assay results -- Magistral Deposits

DETAIL The aim of the current round of drilling has been four-fold: in-fill drilling to provide additional intercepts in areas of less well-defined mineralization; to expand known mineralization - in particular along predicted deposit plunges; to complete various condemnation and geotechnical holes to aid mine planning and detailed engineering by our partners Glencore; and, finally to prove up the known E-W trending footwall 'feeder' zones. In this regard, the results to-date have been extremely successful.

• Blasting and widening of switch-back corners.

• Installation and maintenance of a new road surface (asphalt and packed gravel respectively).

• Construction of permanent draining channels leading to improved surface water run-off during the wet season.

• Strengthening of pre-existing and construction of new bridges capable of facilitating heavy equipment in addition to concentrate transport vehicles.

• Installation of guard-rails for improved road safety.

• Latest results continue to return and build upon multiple zones of recently intersected thick, high-grade mineralization in the Magistral North deposit (see NR-10-01 for details).
• Ongoing high-grade silver intercepts (for the deposit type) from both near-surface and deeper levels are suggestive of excellent silver continuity. Silver values are remaining constant -- highly indicative of a large polymetallic system.
• Magistral North copper values are ranging from 0.14 to 0.3%. These results are not captured in the current resource estimate. Historically the former mining operation produced a saleable copper concentrate -- future studies will seek to assess this potential.
• Positive proof-of-concept of foot-wall target model. These results build upon and extend the multiple zones of footwall mineralization intersected by SAN-098 in early 2009 -- which included the following intervals (see NR-09-03 for details): 4.45 m @ 107.4 g/t (3.1 oz/t) Ag, 9.92% Pb, 10.3% Zn & 0.49% Cu 3.6 m @ 87 g/t (2.5 oz/t) Ag, 8.4% Pb, 8.96% Zn & 0.11% Cu
• Similar high-grade 'feeders' should be present in both the Magistral Central and South deposits thereby opening up the eastern extents of all three deposits.

• Latest results returning multiple zones of some of the thickest and highest-grade intercepts to date.
  
• Magistral North expansion at surface and depth clearly demonstrate good-to-excellent mineral continuity at very significant grades.
  
• Ongoing drilling at Puajanca South Zone further expands mineralization along strike and at depth, (SAN-111 intersected 6.7 metres at 81.9g/t (2.4oz/t) silver, 3.37% lead and 5.8% zinc).
  
• Additional Puajanca South Zone intercepts range from 1 to 19 metres thick and returned values ranging from 1 to 4.3 oz/t silver, 0.78 to 3.37% lead and 1.56 to 5.8% zinc. Mineralization is currently interpreted to plunge to the north towards the Puajanca North Zone and co-incident geophysical anomaly - representing significant upside potential.

Click to Enlarge

Figure 1: Summary geological map of Puajanca - Santander Mineral Fairway.

• Drilling of the Puajanca Zone has tested only 60 metres of the 420-metre strike extent (based on surface mapping) and only 260-metres vertical extent -- suggesting significant upside potential.
• Mineralization is presently defined in two core areas -- Puajanca North and Puajanca South. At Puajanca South, surface channel samples returned up to 24 metres at 83 g/t (2.4 oz/t) Ag, 6.22% Pb and 4.46% Zn. Puajanca North has been mapped over a 100-metre strike length, returning average values of 220 g/t (6.4 oz/t) Ag, 15.59% Pb and 7.18% Zn (22 samples). (see news release TRC-NR-09-16 for details).
• Mineralization is spatially associated with the southeastern margin of a very large geophysical anomaly (approximately 1km2) that may represent the hydrothermal system source at depth -- again positively reinforcing the strong exploration fundamentals of the Puajanca Zone.