VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Oct. 5, 2011) - New Pacific Metals Corp. (TSX VENTURE:NUX) (the "Company") is pleased to announce it has filed a new technical report for the Tagish Lake Gold project located in the Yukon Territory, Canada. This new technical report, which has been previously reviewed by the British Columbia Securities Commission (the "BCSC") was filed in response to the BCSC's concerns and direction which are set out in the Company's news release dated July 29, 2011 which is available for review on SEDAR and on the Company's website (www.newpacificmetals.com).
The newly filed technical report is titled "TAGISH LAKE GOLD PROPERTY WHITEHORSE MINING DISTRICT NI 43 101 REPORT" dated September 2, 2011; Brian O'Connor, of AMC Mining Consultants (Canada) is an independent Qualified Person, as defined by NI 43-101, authored the report. The report is available for review on SEDAR and on the Company's website.
The Tagish Lake Gold project is located within the Intermontane Belt of the Canadian Cordillera, and locally situated in a Tertiary subvolcanic to volcanic caldera system (Mt. Skukum Volcanic Caldera) which is underlain by a dome (or several dome) complexes. There are three known precious metal deposits on the Property: Mt. Skukum gold deposit, Skukum Creek gold-silver deposit and Goddell gold deposit. In addition, there are numerous mineral showings and geochemical anomalies within the claim block, such as the Charleston gold-silver showing, Becker-Cochran antimony mineralization, Porter-Antimony Creek silver antimony showing, and Raca gold-silver showing. The Mt. Skukum gold deposit is a high level, epithermal, auriferous, quartz-calcite, vein type gold deposit, and is hosted in open fractures in Tertiary andesitic volcanic rocks. Both grade and width of the auriferous veins change dramatically along strike and down dip with frequent swelling and pinch out. The Skukum Creek deposit is a mesothermal quartz sulphide vein type gold-silver deposit. In some documents it is also taken as the lower portion of an epithermal system. The quartz sulphide veins are hosted in Mesozoic intermediate to felsic intrusive rocks and emplaced along the contact of rhyolite/andesite dykes with intrusive rocks. The veins and dykes formed a unit which emplaced along shear zones and faults developed in intrusive rocks. Besides gold and silver, the veins contain varying amount of base metals.
Historical work on the property culminated with the discovery and resource definition of the three known deposits during the 1980s to 1990s. There are two years of gold production at the Mt. Skukum Gold Mine from 1986 to 1988 with total gold production of 77,790 ounces. Historical exploration consisted of surface geological surveys, geochemical surveys, ground and airborne geophysical surveys, trenching, and surface and underground drilling. Approximately 121,000m was drilled in more than 910 holes, and 7,630m of underground drifting and crosscutting were developed, mostly for the three deposits.
There are numerous historical estimates of resources and reserves of the deposits in Tagish completed by in-house professionals of numerous companies and third party consultants since late 1980s. The most recent estimates were made by MineTech in 2003 on the Skukum Creek deposit and Goddell deposit and a 2007 resource update on the Skukum Creek deposit. The Mt. Skukum gold deposit has a historical reserve estimate dated 1988. The following is a summary of the historical estimates. All of the following estimates are being treated as historical estimates by the Company. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates in this section as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. The 2003 estimates tabled are at a 3 g/t Au cutoff. The commodity prices used for the estimate were in US denomination $300 and $4.50 for Au and Ag respectively. The Au equivalent was calculated as follows: AuEq(g/t) = Au(g/t) + (Ag(g/t) X 4.50/300).
Table 1.0: 2003 Historical Resources Skukum Creek
| Measured | Indicated | Measured+Indicated | |||||||
| Zone | Tonnes | Au Grade (g/t) | Ag Grade (g/t) | Tonnes | Au Grade (g/t) | Ag Grade (g/t) | Tonnes | Au Grade (g/t) | Ag Grade (g/t) |
| Ridge | 60,000 | 5.14 | 145 | 60,000 | 5.14 | 145.00 | |||
| Kuhn | 51,000 | 10.88 | 95 | 260,000 | 5.19 | 127 | 310,000 | 6.12 | 122.00 |
| Rainbow | 165,000 | 3.79 | 266 | 550,000 | 6.05 | 198 | 710,000 | 5.53 | 214.00 |
| Subtotal | 220,000 | 5.46 | 226 | 870,000 | 5.73 | 173 | 1,080,000 | 5.68 | 184.00 |
Table 2.0: 2003 Inferred Historical Resources Skukum Creek
| Inferred | |||
| Zone | Tonnes | Au Grade (g/t) | Ag Grade (g/t) |
| Ridge | 68,000 | 5.56 | 157 |
| Kuhn | 39,000 | 4.02 | 129 |
| Rainbow | 43,000 | 5.53 | 225 |
| Subtotal | 150,000 | 5.15 | 169 |
Table 3.0: 2003 Historical Resources Goddell
| Indicated | Inferred | |||||
| Zone | Tonnes | Au Grade (g/t) | Metal (oz) | Tonnes | Au Grade (g/t) | Metal (oz) |
| PD | 400,000 | 9.55 | 123,000 | 350,000 | 8.11 | 91,000 |
Table 4.0: 2007 Historical Resource Summary Rainbow 2 and Berg Zones:
| Indicated | Inferred | |||||||||
| Cut-off (g/t AuEq) | Tonnes | Au Grade (g/t) | Ag Grade (g/t) | Au Metal (oz) | Ag Metal (oz) | Tonnes | Au Grade (g/t) | Ag Grade (g/t) | Au Metal (oz) | Ag Metal (oz) |
| 3.0 | 126,000 | 8.0 | 101 | 32,408 | 409,000 | 101,000 | 7.2 | 99 | 23,380 | 321,000 |
| 4.0 | 110,000 | 8.8 | 108 | 31,000 | 382,000 | 81,000 | 8.4 | 106 | 21,876 | 276,000 |
The AuEq for the 2007 estimate was calculated in a similar fashion as the 2003 estimate. The commodity prices used for the estimate were in US denomination $650 and $13 for Au and Ag respectively.
Brian O'Connor.P.Geo., an Independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and has given consent to this press release disclosing the resource and has confirmed that this press release fairly and accurately represents the information in the technical report.
About New Pacific Metals Corp.
New Pacific Metals Corp. is a Canadian near-term gold and silver production mining company engaged in the exploration and development of gold poly-metallic properties in the Yukon, Canada. The Company's current project is the Tagish Lake Gold Property in Yukon Territory. With experienced management and sufficient technical and financial resources, the Company is well positioned to build shareholder value through discovery, exploration and resource development.
For more information about New Pacific, visit New Pacific's website at www.newpacificmetals.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contact Information:
Maria Tang
CFO
(604) 669-9397
(604) 669-9387 (FAX)
New Pacific Metals Corp.
Investor Relations
(604) 633-1368
info@newpacificmetals.com
www.newpacificmetals.com