Northern Empire Resources Corp. and Sonoro Metals Corp. Aug. 10 said the initial phase of exploration at the Hilltop project has confirmed and expanded the known gold footprint on this property located just north of the paved Richardson Highway about 45 miles east of Fairbanks.

Highlights from the program include channel samples returning up to 19.45 grams per metric ton gold and rock grab samples grading as high as 26.55 g/t gold.

The program included 61 soil samples to verify previous sampling.

The companies said this work confirms a gold-in-soil anomaly that covers an area 400 meters wide and more than 1,000 meters long in an east-west direction.

Of the 61 due diligence samples collected, 27 rank at or above the 85th percentile (grading 13 to 480 parts per billion gold) and four additional samples rank at or above the 95th percentile.

The companies also collected 336 soil samples to expand the anomalous gold footprint.

This work expanded the anomalous footprint by another 400 meters to the west and outlined a 2,400- by 2,400-meter "zone of interest".

The phase-1 program also included eight trenches.

The best one-meter sample ran 19.45 g/t gold.

Trench HT15-003 returned seven meters at 1.41 g/t gold and trench HT15-005 returned 10 meters at 2.29 g/t gold.

In addition to sampling, the phase-1 program included improvements to 6.5 miles of road on existing trails and trap lines at the Hilltop project, providing ATV access from the paved Richardson Highway.

The companies said further work will allow for four-wheel-drive access to key points within Hilltop in the future.

The field component of the phase-1 program at Hilltop was completed the first week of June.

On July 28, Northern Empire and Sonoro announced plans for a C$100,000 extension to the program.

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Shane Lasley, Publisher

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