Vancouver, January 13, 2010 - Scorpio Gold Corporation (TSX-V: SGN) is pleased to announce additional surface reverse circulation ("RC") drill results on the Mineral Ridge Gold Property, Nevada. Scorpio Gold recently announced the execution of a joint venture agreement with Golden Phoenix Minerals Inc. ("Golden Phoenix"), providing for Scorpio Gold to acquire an initial 70% interest in the Mineral Ridge property (see news release of January 5, 2010 for more details).

 

Peter J. Hawley, CEO, Director reports; “We are very pleased with drill results to date, which exceed expected grades and widths and offer the potential for quickly expanding the resource base with an aggressive surface drill program this summer. Any mineralization reporting 0.3 g/t gold or greater is considered of potential economic interest to the Company. Of particular interest is drill hole MR-09-024, which targeted the central portion of the Mary Liz pit and returned a high-grade intersection of 31.39 g/t gold over 10.67 metres. The presence of high-grade lenses within wide-spread, lower-grade mineralization could allow for selective mining should gold prices warrant. All information collected to date from surface sampling, mapping and RC and core drilling, as well as re-evaluation of the previous operator’s data, supports Scorpio Gold’s theory that the majority of the mineralization is confined to the Mary Limestone unit. Management believes there is considerable potential for discovering other mineralized bodies within the Mary unit outside of the known deposit areas.”

 

The RC drill holes presented in Table 1 were drilled to confirm the existing Golden Phoenix resource block model and test existing boundaries for potential extension of the known mineralization. Holes MR-09-23, 25 and 26 (not reported) were drilled to confirm sterile ground for the location of future pit waste rock. Assay results from core diamond drilling of holes MR-09-31 to 34 have just been received and will be released once compiled into the drill database.

 

Of particular note are the exploration drill holes designed to determine if mineralization extends outside of the current defined pits. Hole MR-09-021, drilled at the south pit wall of the Mary LC deposit, returned 6.10 metres grading 1.45 g/t gold and will be followed up this summer to potentially expand the pit in a southerly direction. Hole MR-09-28 targeted the northwest pit wall of the Drinkwater deposit and reported 10.67 metres grading 0.51 g/t gold. This will also be followed up to potentially expand the northwest mineral trend of the pit. Hole MR-09-030, targeting the mineralization trend of the Brodie pit, returned an impressive 13.71 metres grading 2.98 g/t gold. Follow up drilling as well as a compilation of drill results by previous operators in this area will also be conducted in summer 2010 for possible expansion of the overall resource base. The Company notes that the exploration holes drilled only represent a small portion of the mineralized unit and as such the actual mineralized unit appears greater in extent than intersected.

 

 

 

 

 

The Mineral Ridge project, a former producer, is located about 30 miles west of Tonopah, Nevada and has historically produced almost 575,000 ounces of gold, including ~170,000 ounces from open pit and ~405,000 ounces from underground mining operations. The property is currently bonded and has been permitted for heap leach gold processing and production, and was in production as recently as 2005. The mine project hosts multiple gold bearing structures, veins and bodies. It features a well-developed infrastructure consisting of roadways, power grid, heap leach pad, crushing circuit, ADR plant, water supply, maintenance shop, refuelling and storage facilities and administrative buildings. The dry climate and non-acid generating character of the rock should offer favourable conditions for mining and reclamation operations.

 

Mineral Ridge has had a clean operating history and no environmental, permitting, legal, taxation, marketing or political factors are known that could impact future operations. A mineral resource estimate and related NI 43-101 compliant technical report are under preparation, intended to be followed by a full feasibility study. Completion of the joint venture transaction with Golden Phoenix remains subject to regulatory approval and financing.

 

All RC holes presented in the above table were drilled at 90º vertical dip; true width is estimated at ~90% downhole width. Analytical results were performed by American Assay Laboratory Inc., an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory, in Sparks, Nevada, USA. Samples were fire assayed with an AA finish at one assay ton (30 grams). Results of 0.29 opt (10 ppm) and greater were repeated with a gravimetric (weighed) finish. Standard Quality control procedures were followed which included random insertion of certified standards and blanks in the sample stream as well as routine duplicate sample analysis. Check assays were completed by ALS Chemex, an ISO 9001:2000 accredited laboratory, on ~5% of the gold bearing assays.

 

For additional information please see the Company’s website at www.scorpiogold.com

 

CEO, Mr. Peter J. Hawley, PGeo, is the Company’s Qualified Person for the various Company projects. Mr. Hawley is responsible for the current exploration and development programs and has reviewed the content of this release.

 

 

Chief Executive Officer and Director

 

For further information contact:

Jag Sandhu, JNS Capital Corp. Tel : (604) 306-1950

Email: jagsandhu@telus.net