TORONTO, Oct. 27, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Silver Dragon Resources Inc. (OTCBB:SDRG) today announced that a comprehensive work program has begun on the Tierra Blanca property located in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Durango, Mexico. Silver Dragon recently signed a joint venture agreement with Linear Gold Corp. (TSE:LRR) whereby Silver Dragon has been granted the option to acquire 55% of Linear's interest in and rights to any revenues derived as a result of the exploration, evaluation and development of the Tierra Blanca property.
The planned work program consists of reconnaissance geological mapping at a scale of 1:2000, detailed reconnaissance stream sediment and rock chip sampling covering the total area of 515 hectares. Included in this program will be the acquisition of high resolution satellite imagery and structural and hydrothermal alteration interpretation, and on the ground verification using bands that will enhance clay alteration, silicification and iron staining.
All mine dumps and prospect pits will also be located and sampled as will any quartz veining. Samples collected will be submitted to Chemex Labs for analysis of gold, silver, base metals and 30 other elements including copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, and antimony. Results of geochemical analysis will be plotted by element over a geologic and structural base map and overlays. This data will be combined with existing Linear Gold Corp. data and information available from published sources including the geologic survey of Mexico. Results from previous soil sampling in the concession show 18 out of 62 samples containing in excess of 100 ppb gold reaching a maximum of 1370 ppb gold (1.37 g/tonne of gold). The distribution of the soil gold anomaly occurs over an area of 500 metres by 350 metres which is open in three directions and associated with a zone of granodioritic to dacitic intrusions penetrating Cretaceous-aged siltstones. The anomaly zone is marked by extensive silicification which is also present in other areas of the concession yet to be sampled.
An initial rock-chip sampling program, consisting of 35 samples, contains four samples with gold in excess of 1.0 g/tonne. Gold grades ranged from 1.39 to 17.6 g/tonne. Silver assayed high, greater than 100 g/tonne, in eight samples ranging from 282 to 2060 g/tonne and averaging 1118 g/tonne (36 oz/tonne).
A second phase of rock-chip sampling also has confirmed the zone of gold mineralization with 5 out of 30 samples containing in excess of 1.0 g/tonne of gold reaching a high of 2.73 g/tonne of gold. In addition, 5 out of 30 samples also contain in excess of 40 g/tonne of silver reaching a high of 179 g/tonne of silver.
Results of this program will be announced over the course of the fall and winter exploration season.
Silver Dragon is a mining and metal company focused on acquiring and developing a portfolio of silver properties in proven silver districts globally. Silver Dragon's objective is to acquire silver mining assets that contain promising exploration targets, have highly leveraged, out-of-the-money silver deposits and former producing properties with significant untapped exploration potential.
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