Virgin Metals Inc. Provides Update on Summer Work Programs


TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 27, 2011) - Virgin Metals Inc. (TSX VENTURE:VGM) today released details regarding ongoing work at their projects located in Sonora Mexico. In addition to this year's review of the Los Verdes Pre-Feasibility Study, preliminary surveillance efforts have been initiated at the company's two precious metal projects, El Cobre and Alamos.

"Our team is currently focused on reviewing the engineering requirements of the Los Verdes Study based now on the resource estimate and metallurgical work released earlier this year," said Chris Frostad, President and Chief Executive Officer. "With less work in the field, we have taken the opportunity to become better acquainted with two of Virgin's legacy projects."

Highlights
Field sampling and mapping was initiated at the El Cobre and Alamos projects;
At El Cobre, rock samples taken near the locations of small historic mine workings confirmed the presence of gold-copper breccia systems with values of up to 5% copper and 5.3 g/t gold;
Sampling of the diorite intrusive at the El Cobre property returned gold values up to 0.9 g/t opening up the potential for the discovery of a larger low-grade disseminated gold system;
The company's Alamos project hosts the site of the historic La Campana mine where a series of underground adits were mined for gold in the 1930's and 1940's. Sample results from this survey will be returned shortly;
At Los Verdes, the company has now received the final results from its Phase 2 testwork verifying the performance and stability of the new process flowsheet with a metallurgical report pending in October 2011;
The site of the Los Verdes plant has now been resurveyed with the cooperation of the local community in order to determine the land packages required and complete the surface rights agreements;

El Cobre

The El Cobre property is located in Sonora approximately 100km SE of Hermosillo. The concession is 777 hectares and contains a number of small historic mine workings generally referred to as the San Juan mining area. The property consists of sedimentary and volcanic rocks with small intrusions in the form of dykes.

In the San Juan mine area there are showings of chalcopyrite and pyrite as well as the oxides of these minerals. Chip samples near the mine assayed up to 1.4 g/t gold along with 50 g/t silver and 0.60% copper. A sample of the dump material from the old mine workings assayed 7.7 g/t gold, 97 g/t silver and 5.9% copper. Chip samples from the Yaqui mine area assayed up to 5.3 g/t Au and 0.4% Cu. Samples in the Cierro Prieto area assayed up to 1.3 g/t gold and 5% copper.

The property warrants a more detailed regional investigation to determine whether it is possible for the mapped breccias/intrusions to be of large size or limited to small "vein style" systems.

Los Verdes

The company expects to receive the final metallurgical report later this month outlining the results of Phases 1 and 2 of its testwork program. A process flowsheet has been demonstrated with the potential for copper, molybdenum and silver recoveries approaching 90%. The ability of the new flowsheet to consistently produce high value concentrates remedies many of the processing issues identified in the 2008 pre-feasibility study. The robust nature of the new flowsheet has also been demonstrated through a series of variability tests that examined the impacts on the process performance when treating samples of ore from the extreme ranges of the resource.

During the summer months, site reviews isolated the most appropriate locations for the Los Verdes plant and operations. With the assistance of the local community, the area was properly mapped and surveyed and will become the foundation for engineering work now underway as well as the pending surface rights agreement.

The company has received confirmation that the Los Verdes environmental assessment remains valid as previously issued. Once the surface rights agreement is finalized, this permit can be updated to reflect the new area of coverage.

The Los Verdes property is a historic molybdenum producer, which was extensively drilled in the 1970s. Repetition and expansion of that drilling by Virgin in 2006 and 2007 resulted in the completion of a pre-feasibility study in 2008. That pre-feasibility study demonstrated, in considerable detail, a robust project based on molybdenum and copper recovery only; upside exists in tungsten and silver recovery as well as in improved molybdenum recovery.

The Los Verdes project is made up of 15 contiguous titled exploration concessions, covering 5,559 hectares. It lies within what could be considered the southerly extension of the Basin and Range province of the southwestern USA, near the boundary with the Sierra Madre Occidental province.

The Los Verdes resource comprises a modest sized, compact zone of molybdenum, copper and tungsten mineralization located at the crest of a steep ridge. The geometry of the deposit is ideal for low cost open pit mining. During 2007, the Company consolidated the mineral rights of the deposit by acquiring a single isolated claim known as the Bacanora claim. Until this point, the Company's drilling and subsequent resource estimation had been limited to the area east of the Bacanora.

About Virgin Metals

Virgin Metals is a junior exploration and development company; its projects include two copper-molybdenum porphyry properties in Sonora, northern Mexico. One of these, Los Verdes, is currently the subject of a pre-feasibility study while the other, Cuatro Hermanos, is the focus of ongoing exploration efforts.

Darren Koningen, P. Eng., is the Qualified Person responsible for technical content of this release.

THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Contact Information:

Virgin Metals Inc.
Chris Frostad
(416) 306-0990
www.virginmetals.com