Bayfield Discovers Multi-Gram Gold in New Far East Zone on Burns Block in Rainy River, NW Ontario

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Jan. 23, 2012) - Bayfield Ventures Corp. (TSX VENTURE:BYV.V - News) (FRANKFURT:B4N.F - News) (the "Company") is pleased to announce assay results from the early stage exploration of the eastern portion of its Burns Block. The Company's 100% owned Burns Block gold-silver project is located in the Rainy River District of north-western Ontario and is situated adjacent to the east and on strike to Rainy River Resources' (TSX: RR.TO - News) multi-million ounce gold deposit.

Rainy River gold properties claims map:

http://www.bayfieldventures.com/i/pdf/BYVRRArea.pdf

A wide shear zone is in the initial stages of exploration and this zone is the easterly strike extension of the main ODM17 Gold Zone which hosts Rainy River's deposit and Bayfield's high grade gold and silver zones 700+ metres to the west.

Drilling on the Burns Block property was halted for a break over the holiday season but has since resumed with the commencement of exploratory drilling of mineralization initially discovered at surface in 2010 on the eastern portion of the property. The assay results detailed in this news release conclusively show that structurally controlled gold-silver mineralization continues for at least 700 metres from west to east across the Burns Block property. Much more infill and definition drilling is planned along this strike length.

Highlights:                                                                 


--  Mineralization is being found within a 50 to 60 metre wide zone of

    shearing, sericite-silica alteration and poly-metallic base metal

    sulfide mineralization. 

--  The wall rocks to the mineralization are the same dacites volcanic

    package found in the western portion of the Burns Block. 

--  Initial wide spaced drilling in the eastern portion of the Burns Block

    is intercepting multi-gram gold assays including values up to 5.58 g/t

    Au and 32.87 g/t Ag over 1.9 metres. 

--  The drilling thus far on the eastern portion of the Burns Block has

    focused on the NE quadrant leaving the SE quadrant of the property

    unexplored; initial drilling of this area is forthcoming. 

--  Gold and silver values are getting richer at depth and approximately 500

    metres of down-plunge distance within the south-dipping shear zone is

    unexplored. 

--  Before the discovery of multi-ounce gold and silver mineralization on

    the western portion of the Burns Block, the initial assay results from

    the west side were nearly identical to what is currently being found in

    the first pass of exploration on the east side of the property. 

--  It is the opinion of Bayfield's exploration and management team that

    more detailed drilling in this area has an excellent chance of

    intercepting richer assay results once the key high-grade mineralized

    structures are indentified.


Eastern Burns Block Early Stage Exploration Discussion:                     

                                                                            

Initial reconnaissance exploration on the far-east side of the Burns Block  

started in late 2010 with surface mapping and sampling. Two key results of  

this work were:                                                             


1.  The recognition that the altered dacites host rock, found underneath the

    till cover on the western portion of the property, was widely exposed at

    surface in an outcrop on the eastern side of the Burns Block. 

2.  Rock chip samples of these exposed altered dacites volcanic rocks

    returned local gold anomalies in the range of 0.5 to 5 g/t Au. 

Based on this information and the obvious potential for the predominant W-NW to E-SE trending mineralized shear zone to continue into the eastern portion of the property, Bayfield initiated drilling of the area in the fall of 2011. The first significant mineralization was encountered within a 40 to 50 metre wide zone of shearing and alteration in hole RR11-192 where 19.50 metres of 0.72 g/t Au was intercepted starting at approximately 218 metres below surface (see December 12, 2011 news release).

Updated Burns Block drill hole location map:

http://www.bayfieldventures.com/i/maps/BYV_Burns_Block_Drill_Collar_Map_Nov_2011.jpg

The drill results presented in the table below are from continued drilling to the east and south of hole RR11-192. The results from these exploratory drill holes are beginning to outline a new area of gold-silver mineralization. Much like the western portion of the Burns Block, Bayfield is defining a lower grade envelope that could encompass much higher grade gold and silver zones. The potential for this is illustrated with hole RR11-205 which intercepted a 22.0 metre wide zone containing several distinct zones of gold mineralization in the range of 1.74 to 5.58 g/t Au along with silver values up to 34.30 g/t Ag.

Table 1: Gold and Silver Assay Results from the NE Portion of the Burns     

Block                                                                       

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Drill Hole        From          Interval     Au     Ag   AuEq               

                    (m)  To (m)       (m)  (g/t)  (g/t)  (g/t)      Location

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

RR11-202        139.60  142.50      2.90   0.29   4.24   0.38               

                404.00  405.50      1.50   0.37   2.90   0.43               

                427.90  431.00      3.10   0.51   9.27   0.70               

                447.90  448.80      0.90   0.51  20.40   0.92    NE Quadrant

                453.50  460.40      6.90   1.41   7.67   1.56               

including       453.50  456.50      3.00   2.56   9.00   2.74               

including       455.00  456.50      1.50   4.08   9.80   4.28               

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RR11-205        413.00  417.50      4.50   0.34   3.80   0.42               

                467.30  469.20      1.90   5.58  32.87   6.24               

                479.00  491.00     12.00   0.66   7.83   0.82    NE Quadrant

including       479.00  483.50      4.50   1.08  15.23   1.38               

including       479.00  480.50      1.50   1.74  34.30   2.43               

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Table 2: Additional Gold and Silver Assay Results from 2011                 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Drill Hole        From          Interval     Au     Ag   AuEq               

                    (m)  To (m)       (m)  (g/t)  (g/t)  (g/t)      Location

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

RR11-197        234.90  236.00      1.10   0.76   0.90   0.78               

                594.50  617.00     22.50   0.68  16.02   1.00    SW Quadrant

                623.00  624.50      1.50   0.40   3.90   0.48               

                629.00  638.00      9.00   1.06   7.25   1.21               

including       630.50  632.00      1.50   3.82  13.90   4.10               

                647.00  678.50     31.50   0.60   6.58   0.73               

including       663.50  666.50      3.00   1.16   8.70   1.33               

                668.00  669.50      1.50   1.07   7.30   1.22               

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

RR11-200        327.50  332.00      4.50   0.17  11.03   0.39    NW Quadrant

                345.50  353.00      7.50   0.20  12.22   0.44               

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(i) g/t = grams per metric tonne                                            

(i) The down hole interval lengths are estimated to be approximately 65%-95%

    of true width                                                           

(i) AuEq (gold equivalent) values calculated at a 50 to 1 (gold price vs.   

    silver price) ratio and metallurgical recoveries and net smelter returns

    are assumed to be 100%                                                  

(i) The intervals were determined using a 0.35 g/t gold equivalent cut-off  

    grade with a maximum gap of 3.0 metres between intervals below the cut- 

    off grade                                                               

(i) Holes RR11-199 & 201 assayed 0.21 g/t Au and 7.60 g/t Ag over 1.50m &   

    0.34 g/t Au and 8.30 g/t Ag over 1.50m respectively. Hole RR11-203 was  

    abandoned & Hole RR11-204 has not been completed.                       

The initially compiled results from the northeast portion of the Burns Block show a distinct trend of higher gold values at deeper levels within this newly discovered mineralized zone. This observation is highly encouraging as the initial intercepts from this new zone open up significant down-dip potential as the target altered structure dips to the south. There is over 300 metres of unexplored ground to the south towards the property boundary and the true untested down-plunge linear distance of the target shear zone is likely between 450 to 600 metres.

Notably, the mineralization intercepted in this far-east zone is very similar in character to that discovered by Bayfield in the western portion of the Burns property. Gold-silver mineralization is accompanied by abundant sphalerite and galena with local smears and crack fills of electrum. The Company's experience from its detailed drilling of the western Burns Block area indicates that the discovery of multi-gram gold so early on in the exploration of the eastern side is highly encouraging. Until discovery hole RR10-15 was drilled in the western Burns Block area, our early assays were nearly identical to what we are currently finding in this first pass of exploration on the east side of the property. It is the opinion of Bayfield's exploration and management team that more detailed and down-dip drilling has an excellent chance of intercepting richer assay results once the key high-grade mineralized structures are indentified.