VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Sept. 12, 2008) - Altair Ventures (TSX VENTURE:AVX) presents the results of a diamond drilling program on the San Antonio project in southern Chihuahua State, Mexico. The program comprised 1,585 metres in 8 holes and tested a district scale epithermal system that has been identified on the 11,946 hectare property. The San Antonio gold-copper project is under option to Altair Ventures, who is funding the program in order to earn a 70% interest from Great Panther Resources (TSX:GPR), who is the operator.
Previous exploration and drilling (2004 to 2006) by Great Panther on the San Antonio project led to the recognition of the district scale potential of the mineralization here. Exploration provided further details of a vertically-zoned, 12-kilometre long system of mineralization and alteration that appears to be gold-copper rich near the base, grading to silver-gold-lead-zinc in the upper portions. Mapping and sampling in 2007 identified five new areas of alteration / mineralization (see news release of November 13, 2007) and the focus of the diamond drilling program was to evaluate these five key areas on the project and determine how they are related to each other and to the Santo Nino gold system drill tested by Great Panther in 2006.
Highlights of the recent core drilling include SSA07-001 which intersected the La Gringa Norte vein 115 metres below surface and included 1.6 metres grading 1.02g/t gold, 45g/t silver, 1.28% lead, and 4.34% zinc, within a composite intersection of 2.35 metres grading 0.78g/t gold, 31g/t silver, 1.23% lead, and 3.12% zinc. Two holes were drilled from the same site into the San Cayetano vein. Hole SSA07-003 intersected the vein 52 metres below surface and returned 0.8 metres grading 0.2g/t gold, 421g/t silver, 3.36% lead, and 0.87% zinc within a composite intersection of 3.3 metres grading 0.30g/t gold, 142g/t silver, 1.15% lead, and 0.59% zinc. The second hole, SSA07-004, intersected the San Cayetano vein 99 metres below surface and included 0.65 metres grading 0.02g/t gold, 90g/t silver, 0.27% lead, and 1.7% zinc. Further details are given on the table below.
The three drill holes within the Gossan Breccia zone, noted as a potential high sulphidation gold system from geochemistry and PIMA alteration studies, returned no significant assay results and detected no deeper epithermal feeder structures. As such, it may be a remnant, thin (less than 50 metres thick) rhyolitic volcanic unit with incipient alteration.
The drilling demonstrated that there is excellent continuity of the high level structures and mineralization along strike and to depth, especially at San Cayetano, La Gringa, and La Gringa Norte. On surface these three vein / structures are continuous for approximately 400 metres each and they have been followed to depths of 100 - 140 metres. Due to the extreme topography in this part of the project, however, these intercepts appear to be still too high within the mineralizing system to determine if the lead-zinc-silver-gold veins progress into a copper-gold zone at depth. Deeper drilling to test this concept may be considered.
Highlights of drilling:
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True
From To Width Width Au Ag Pb Zn
Hole_ID Zone (m) (m) (m) (m) g/t g/t % %
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SSA07-001 La Gringa 156.30 158.65 2.35 2.00 0.78 31 1.23 3.12
Norte
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including 157.05 158.65 1.60 1.36 1.02 45 1.28 4.34
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SSA07-002 La Gringa 180.80 184.60 3.80 3.23 0.14 13 0.55 1.00
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including 180.80 181.15 0.35 0.30 0.07 14 1.53 2.36
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SSA07-003 San Cayetano 68.20 71.50 3.30 2.81 0.30 142 1.15 0.59
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including 69.40 70.20 0.80 0.68 0.2 421 3.36 0.87
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SSA07-004 San Cayetano 103.70 105.65 1.95 1.25 0.01 113 0.24 1.02
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including 105.00 105.65 0.65 0.42 0.02 90 0.27 1.71
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The San Antonio property is located in the Sierra Madre Belt, 80 kilometres NNW of the Guadalupe y Calvo Mining District, which has historically produced more than 2 million ounces of gold, and 80 kilometres SSE of the Batopilas area which hosts Goldcorp's El Sauzal Mine, (2006 proven & probable reserve of 1.7 million ounces gold). Great Panther and Altair Ventures are exploring a previously unrecognized, 3 by 17 kilometre "window" of Tertiary Lower Series volcanic rocks containing epithermal gold-copper-silver-lead-zinc mineralization that has never been explored by modern methods.
The drilling program was supervised in the field by Resource Geosciences Mexico of Hermosillo, Sonora. All rock samples are sent to SGS Labs in Durango for analyses. Core drilling was conducted by BDW Drilling of Guadalajara, Mexico. Robert F. Brown, P.Eng. and Vice-President of Exploration for Great Panther and its wholly owned subsidiary, Minera Mexicana El Rosario, S.A. de C.V., is designated as the Qualified Person for the San Antonio Project under the meaning of NI 43-101 and has reviewed this news release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Fayyaz Alimohamed, President & CEO
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this News Release.