CAU Canyon Resources Corp

GOLDEN, Colo., July 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Canyon Resources Corporation (AMEX:CAU), a Colorado-based mining company announces that it has entered into a Mining Lease and Option to Purchase unpatented mining claims associated with the Suitcase and Mineral Hill gold deposits located in Inyo County, California. These claims are located in close proximity to the Company's Briggs Mine. The agreement was made with an individual who received 30,000 shares of restricted common stock in the Company with registration rights. In addition, the Company shall pay $135,000 in installments over ten years to purchase the property. This individual shall retain a 3% net smelter return position that may be reduced to 1% for $500,000 per point of reduction. "We are pleased to have completed this agreement," states James Hesketh, President & CEO. "These properties fit well into our strategy of building potential resource positions near our Briggs Mine to possibly extend the life of the operation. These properties will require additional drilling, feasibility studies and permitting before any mining activity can occur," he added. The Briggs Mine is currently a permitted operating facility. Facilities at the site include a mining equipment fleet, a 600 ton per hour three stage crushing plant, a carbon tower gold recovery plant, shops, offices and related infrastructure. Suitcase and Mineral Hill are two adjacent gold exploration properties located at middle elevations (3,500 to 5,000 feet) on the western flank of the Panamint Mountains between three and four miles north of Canyon's active Briggs gold mine. Both occurrences are hosted in Precambrian quartz-feldspar gneiss and amphibolite. Gold mineralization is strongly associated with intense silica-carbonate-hematite (after pyrite) alteration. Anomalous gold and hydrothermal alteration is controlled, in the case of Suitcase by a 25 to 30 foot-thick, low-angle detachment style normal fault, and at Mineral Hill by several parallel high-angle normal faults. The Mineral Hill gold-anomalous area is up to 300 feet wide and some 1,300 feet long. The faults are considered to be of Tertiary Age, as is the gold mineralization. Both areas have been actively explored by a number of mining companies since the early 1980's. In 1990, Pegasus Gold Corp conducted detailed helicopter supported exploration work, including an 8,033 foot RC drilling program. Cimarron Resources completed a 3,625 foot drill program on the Suitcase prospect in 1997. These programs confirmed both areas as having significant quantities of gold mineralization. Most holes averaged only 100 to 200 feet in vertical depth and the deeper potential of both prospects, particularly Mineral Hill with its steep structural controls on the gold mineralization, remains to be tested. For more information on the Company and its projects please visit our website at http://www.canyonresources.com/. This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, feasibility studies for the Briggs and Reward projects, mineralized material estimates, drilling capability and the potential reopening or expansion of the Briggs Mine. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include, among others: the volatility of gold prices; potential operating risks of mining, development and expansion; the uncertainty of estimates of mineralized material and gold deposits; and environmental and governmental regulations; availability of financing; the outcome of litigation, as well as judicial proceedings and force majeure events and other risk factors as described from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Most of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: James Hesketh, President and CEO (303) 278-8464 Valerie Kimball, Investor Relations (303) 278-8464 http://www.canyonresources.com/ DATASOURCE: Canyon Resources Corporation CONTACT: James Hesketh, President and CEO, or Investor Relations, Valerie Kimball, both of Canyon Resources Corporation, +1-303-278-8464 Web site: http://www.canyonresources.com/

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