Pershing Gold Drill Program Expands and Upgrades Ore Grade Mineralization at Relief Canyon Mine

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Pershing Gold Corporation
PGLCannounces
results from the first 12 holes of its Phase II 2012 drilling program. Pershing Gold drilled 23 core holes (approximately 14,700 feet) on lands at the Relief Canyon Mine properties, completing its Phase II 2012 drilling. These holes are located west of the current pit boundary on private lands that Pershing Gold leases from Newmont USA Limited, a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation
NEM
. A map of Pershing Gold's Phase II 2012 Drilling Program can be viewed with the official press release
here
. The company believes that the results from these 12 holes are significant, because they confirm the extension of the mineralized zone west of the Relief Canyon pit boundary and more than double the length of some of the gold intercepts in nearby reverse-circulation rotary holes drilled by previous operators. Results from the remaining 11 holes are expected later in the third quarter. Boart-Longyear, Ltd. and Ruen Drilling were the drilling contractors. "Pershing Gold's 2012 drilling program was designed to further two objectives. These results represent real progress toward our first goal to expand known mineralization and advance the Relief Canyon Mine towards production," said Stephen D. Alfers, Pershing Gold's Executive Chairman and CEO, and added, "Our second goal is to generate targets and drill new discoveries on our 25,000 acre land position in the Humboldt Gold and Silver Trend in Nevada. Earlier this year we drilled new targets generated by our exploration group. Those results are pending." The 12 core holes that Pershing Gold completed tested deeper zones than previously tested. Pershing Gold's deeper core holes, located near historic reverse circulation holes, have discovered gold zone intercepts thicker than the gold zone intercepts in the older reverse-circulation holes. A comparison of the results from RC12-017 with SPRC-140, which was drilled in 1984 by Southern Pacific Land Co., illustrates this point. SPRC-140 intercepted 100 feet of 0.44 grams per ton (gpt) (0.013 ounces per ton (opt) gold. RC12-017, which is roughly 35 feet west of SPRC-140, has intercepted 215 feet (from 220 to 435 feet) of 0.504 gpt (0.015 opt) gold. A cross section of Pershing Gold's Section 4551020N can be viewed with the official press release
here
. In 2010 Mine Development Associates completed a Technical Report under Canadian National Instrument 43-101 for Firstgold Corporation, the previous owner of Relief Canyon Mine, reporting resources attributable to lands now controlled by Pershing Gold and its subsidiary Gold Acquisition Corporation ("GAC"). Alfers added, "We expect to develop our own resource estimate in the coming months. This estimate will include the results of the core drilling program on the expanded land position we now control. We expect these results will significantly upgrade and expand the resource attributable to the Relief Canyon Mine project." A summary of gold intercepts from the Phase II 2012 drilling program at Relief Canyon, Pershing County, Nevada, can be viewed with the official press release
here
. In commenting on the significance of this recently completed core drilling program, Mr. Alfers stated, "This drilling program represents the first time the lands immediately west of the Relief Canyon Mine have been drilled in many years. A comparison of grades from the core holes with grades from nearby historic reverse circulation holes shows no obvious bias between gold grades from core drilling compared with grades from reverse circulation drilling." Alfers explained the significance of this finding as follows: "The 2010 resource estimate eliminated ounces due to concerns about down-hole contamination below the water table. These results suggest little or no down-hole contamination. We expect results from our core drilling will validate the results from previous reverse-circulation drilling. This should enable us to include in our new resource estimate this portion of the deposit as well as mineralization that Pershing Gold has discovered elsewhere on the property since acquiring the Relief Canyon Mine in August 2011." The main gold zone at Relief Canyon is a breccia zone developed along the contact of the Grass Valley and Cane Springs Formations.
Figure 2
is a cross-section through the open pit and shows the form of the breccia. Older drill holes shown on this section are primarily reverse circulation drill holes completed within the last 20 years. There are approximately 590 older drill holes in the database, and for simplicity of presentation, these older drill holes were not included in the plan map (see
Figure 1
).The thick zone of mineralization shown in
Figure 2
is open to the west. Previous drilling in the Phase I 2012 drill program by Pershing Gold Corp (see
Press Release from May 10, 2012
) focused on feeder structures and deeper stratigraphic targets north and south of the pit on wholly-owned claims. Recent pit mapping has defined several steeply dipping, north-trending feeders. The intercepts reported earlier are shown again for comparison. A summary of previously announced gold intercepts from the Phase I 2012 drill program at Relief Canyon, Pershing County, Nevada can be viewed with the official press release
here
. Reported width is not true width of interval. Results from all intercepts for which we have received and verified results will be posted on our website at
www.pershinggold.com
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. Mr. Alfers said, "The Phase II 2012 drilling program shows nearly 500 meters of ore grade mineralization east to west. Together with the Phase I drilling program completed earlier this year, our exploration group believes that the Phase II drilling program demonstrates that this mineralization is open to the west and to the north. Historic drilling also suggests the mineralization is open to the south of the existing pits."
About Pershing Gold Corporation

Pershing Gold Corporation is a new gold exploration and development company focusing on acquiring, exploring, and developing gold deposits in Pershing County and elsewhere in Nevada. The Relief Canyon Mine property in Pershing County is owned by its subsidiary, GAC.


Contact Information

Stephen D. Alfers, Executive Chairman, President and CEO

Phone Number: 720.974.7248

Email: Info@pershinggold.com

www.PershingGold.com

Source

GLOBE NEWSWIRE

Lakewood, Colorado

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=261932

For additional information and legal disclaimers, please view the official press release
here
.
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