LONGUEUIL, QUEBEC, Nov. 3, 2009 (Marketwire) --
LONGUEUIL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwire) -- 11/03/09 -- Bear Lake Gold Ltd. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: BLG) announced that, further to its press releases dated July 21, 2009 and July 24, 2009, Scott Wilson Roscoe Postle Associates ("Scott Wilson RPA") has substantially completed its technical investigation into the exploration data in respect of the Company's Larder Lake Property.
Scott Wilson RPA issued a report to the Company and its Board of Directors dated November 2, 2009 (the "Report"). The Report confirms that there were inconsistencies regarding the Company's exploration data that compromise certain of the Company's prior reporting of certain exploration results in respect of the Bear Lake area of the Company's Larder Lake Property. The inconsistencies affect certain data disclosed during the period from November 27, 2008 to July 14, 2009, and also include three additional inconsistencies (hole NFX07-16, initially disclosed on December 20, 2007; hole NFX08-38, initially disclosed on June 4, 2008; and hole NFX08-49, initially disclosed September 4, 2008) identified in the Report.
The Company has determined that Mr. Bernard Boily, the Company's then Vice President Exploration and the "qualified person" (as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101) who prepared and supervised the preparation of all relevant data and technical disclosure, altered certain assay certificates by manually changing the assay results prior to entering such results in the Company's exploration database in respect of the Bear Lake area of the Larder Lake Property (the "Database"). The Company has further determined that, in certain instances, Mr. Boily used certain assay results selectively at his discretion, when calculating the drill hole intercept averages resulting in a bias toward higher grades being disclosed in the press releases than were supported by all of the data in the original laboratory assay certificates. Based upon the Report, the Company has determined that the manipulation of Database data by Mr. Boily dates back to around November 27, 2008, and it is possible that it may also account for the three prior inconsistencies referred to above (hole NFX07-16, hole NFX08-38, and hole NFX08-49) but the Company cannot currently make a determinative statement on this. The Company has also determined that Mr. Boily acted alone and there is no evidence of anyone else having been involved, based on the completed investigation. As reported on July 21, 2009, the Company had suspended Mr. Boily pending the finalization/outcome of the Company's internal investigation. On November 3, 2009, immediately subsequent to making the determinations above, the Company sent to Mr. Boily a letter of termination in respect of his employment.
Restatement and Interpretation of Restated Exploration Results
The attached Table 1 (http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/BearLake_table.pdf), from the Report, shows the restated intercepts for the Bear Lake area of the Company's Larder Lake Property as at November 2, 2009 (the "Restated Exploration Results") and includes a comparison to the intercepts as originally released (all of which original results were previously withdrawn by the Company and should not be relied upon). The revised longitudinal sections, dated as at November 2, 2009, reflect the Restated Exploration Results. As indicated in Table 1, in some cases the Restated Exploration Results confirm the original results and, in other cases, they update and supersede the original and withdrawn results. Information in any way inconsistent with the Restated Exploration Results issued by the Company in any form, including, without limitation, in any of the Company's public disclosure documents, with respect to the Company's original exploration results and/or any information interpreting, relating to, or derived from any such original results, should not be relied upon.
The Restated Exploration Results in Table 1 include a total of 58 intercepts (excluding hole NFX08-49, which remains unresolved) within the Bear Lake area of the Larder Lake property. In summary of the 58 intercepts, 24 intercepts (41%) are affected by the unsupported assays while 34 intercepts (59%) are unaffected or have only minor changes and corrections. Of the 24 intercepts affected by unsupported assays, 7 retain a significant intercept after using verified data.
The Restated Exploration Results are based upon the original assay certificates from the Polymet Assay Laboratory in Cobalt, Ontario and the Laboratoire Expert Inc., in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. The Company has concluded that the original assay certificates are accurate.
As indicated in the Restated Exploration Results, the Bear Lake area of the Larder Lake Property clearly contains gold. The gold occurs within two types of mineralization, "Carbonate-type" mineralization and "Flow-type" mineralization.
"Carbonate-type" mineralization is characterized by extensive carbonate-silica alteration zones containing quartz and quartz-carbonate stockwork veining, minor sulfides and occasionally visible native gold. The presence of fuschite (green mica) is frequently observed in the core. The Carbonate-type mineralization and related alteration starts at 400m below surface and, based on corrected drill information to date, extends continuously to 1,200m below surface where the deepest intersection is recorded. The strike length of the mineralization and alteration varies from 135m at 400m below surface to over 400m at 1200m below surface, where it is still open to the east. The mineralization and alteration is still open at depth and to the east at depth.
