VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Oct. 30, 2012) - Goldstrike Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:GSR)(PINKSHEETS:APRAF)(FRANKFURT:KCG1) is pleased to report that it has reduced its Yukon holdings to its core properties and will focus on the newly discovered VG and Goldbank zones along the Yellow Giant Trend on its flagship Plateau South property. The planned upcoming 2013 exploration program will be primarily focused on diamond drilling. During late August, the Company made a new discovery of high grade gold mineralization outcropping over a strike of 11 kilometres within a newly identified district-scale deformation zone that was not previously known. The VG and Goldbank zones will be the first areas within that deformation zone to be drill tested, and they will be the Company's priority targets for 2013. Gold assay results from outcrop and subcrop samples taken in those zones were reported in the Company's news releases dated September 18 and October 10, 2012. The 25 kilometre Yellow Giant Trend that contains the VG, Goldbank and Goldstack zones remains open.
The Company also intends to carry out follow-up drilling in the Goldstack zone of the Yellow Giant Trend, where encouraging drill results were returned from scout drilling in 2012. Drilling has also been recommended on the Lucky Strike and Summit properties, which returned high grade gold assays from bedrock during the 2012 exploration season.
To permit it to focus on its five most prospective targets next year, in particular the VG and Goldbank zones, the Company has dropped its options on sixteen properties and has negotiated reduced payments and extensions of the time for making future option payments on four other properties it desires to maintain in its portfolio. Specifically, it has arranged to have the November 1, 2013 option payments and all subsequent option payments extended by two years in respect of the following projects, and has arranged for the following reductions in the 2012 option payments on those properties:
- The cash portion of the 2012 option payment on the "Big One" claims has been eliminated.
- The cash portion of the 2012 option payment on each of the "Little Jimmy", "Klaza" and "Gull" claim blocks has been eliminated, and the number of shares to be issued in respect of each claim block has been reduced from 500,000 to 100,000 shares.
The referenced extensions effectively give the Company three more exploration seasons to more fully determine the merits of these projects before deciding whether further option payments are warranted. In addition to reducing the Company's 2012 option payments by $400,000 and 1,200,000 shares, all future exploration commitments have been eliminated. However, the optionors will have the right in each case to reduce the time permitted to make the next option payment to 30 days in the event that they receive a bona fide offer from a third party to option the subject property on terms which they are prepared to accept. The Company announced the renegotiated terms of the BRC option on October 10, 2012. The original option terms for all of these properties were described in the Company's March 24, 2011 news release.
The Company will make the option payment due on the Summit property on October 31, 2012. Subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company will issue 192,308 shares in lieu of the $100,000 cash portion of that option payment. The original option terms for the Summit property were described in the Company's March 17, 2011 news release. Those terms have not been amended.
The Company has made its 2012 option payment on the Lucky Strike property and will make the 2012 option payment on the Plateau property, due on November 1, 2012. The option terms for those properties were described in the Company's November March 24, 2011 news release. Those terms have not been amended.
For more detailed new information and maps on the Plateau, Summit and Lucky Strike properties, see Goldstrike's website at GoldstrikeResources.com.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Terrence E. King, President and Chief Executive Officer
For further information, please visit Goldstrike's website at GoldstrikeResources.com, and follow the Company's tweets at Twitter.com/GoldstrikeRes.
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.
Contact Information:
Jeff Stuart
Investor Relations
(604) 805-0375
jstuart@kingjamescapital.com