Kootenay Gold and Copper Creek To Start Exploration At Santa Lucia Property

Mineral companies Kootenay Gold(TSX-V: KTN) and Copper Creek Gold (TSX-V: CPV) jointly announced today exploration at the Santa Lucia property in Sonora, Mexico, will start in early February 2011.

The initial exploration will consist of trenching, sampling and detailed geological mapping with a focus on the La Fortuna zone, where high grade gold and silver samples were taken from surface outcrop.

Following the sampling exploration, a 2200m 10-hole drill program at the La Fortuna zone will test the zone at depth, the company said.

The drilling will also penetrate untested resistivity anomalies along the zone's 4km strike length.

In late November 2010, six grab samples collected by Copper Creek at the Santa Lucia North area confirmed the existence of a gold-silver mineralization. The samples had gold values ranging from 31 parts per billion (ppb) to 1670 ppb and silver values ranging from less than 5 parts per million (ppm) to 64.9 ppm.

Under their option agreement, Copper Creek may earn a 60% interest in the Santa Lucia Property from Kootenay Gold by spending $2 million for exploration and paying $0.8 million cash and 0.8 million Copper Creek shares over a four year period.