FFGO

19.12.2007 18:52:00

Fortress Financial Group, Inc. - Transaction on Remaining Gold Mining Companies

Fortress Financial Group, Inc. (PINKSHEETS:FFGO) confirms that it now disposing of its remaining interests in its “Bouse” and “Copperstone” Gold Mining & Exploration properties.



These interests are being disposed of to a USA quoted Gold Mining Company. Fortress Financial Group, Inc. will not seek nor will it appoint any representatives to that Company’s Board of Directors. This Company has an established and very experienced Mining Team, in place.

Fortress Financial Group, Inc. and other eligible stockholders in Bouse Mining Holdings plc and in Copperstone Mining Holdings plc will receive shares in the quoted Gold Mining Company.

The “eligible stockholders” are stockholders of Fortress Financial Group, Inc. (formerly Great West Gold, Inc.) who received Stock Dividends, as follows :-

Bouse Mining Holdings, Inc. on November 7, 2005; and

Copperstone Mining Holdings plc on December 2, 2005

These eligible stockholders will receive “free trading” stock in this quoted Gold Mining Company as they have held their stock for a period in excess of two years.

It is expected that this transaction will be completed by January 15, 2008.

It is expected that Fortress Financial Group, Inc. and its eligible stockholders will receive an amount of circa US$1 billion in shares in this quoted Gold Company, primarily based upon the valuation of the “Bouse” Gold Mining & Exploration project.

This is in additional to the 407,250,000 shares of Hunt Gold Corporation (PINKSHEETS:HGLC) Common Stock, representing 41% of the outstanding shares in Hunt Gold Corporation being issued, by the Transfer Agent to Hunt Gold Corporation; to Fortress Financial Group, Inc. (formerly Great West Gold, Inc.) eligible stockholders.

In addition to this transaction, Fortress Financial Group, Inc. has received an amount of 483,750,099 shares of Hunt Gold Corporation Common Stock, representing 48% of the outstanding stock in Hunt Gold Corporation.

Fortress Financial Group, Inc. does not intend to retain all of its stock in Hunt Gold Corporation and intends to distribute the majority of its stockholding in that Company, to Fortress Financial Group, Inc. stockholders, as a special Stock Dividend, in the near future. Fortress Financial Group, Inc. intends to do the same, in respect of this transaction. Stockholders will be advised accordingly.

Peter J Bezzano, the Chairman of Fortress Financial Group, Inc. commented that “he was extremely satisfied that the Company had delivered upon its promises to its stockholders and managed to achieve the long promised unlocking of stockholder value. He added that the completion of this transaction, coupled with the stock received in Hunt Gold Corporation, has placed the Company in a very strong financial position and will allow Management to focus on its planned rapid growth of its prepaid Debit Card business. He added that the stock in respect of this transaction and in Hunt Gold Corporation being distributed to our loyal and long standing stockholders would now be in excess of US$1.6 billion, excluding future planned Stock Dividend distributions.”

Details on “Bouse” Gold Mining and Exploration Project:-

Dr Wayne P Colliston prepared this report, in August, 2004 on the 1,300 acre Bouse gold (silver – copper) property situated in the La Paz area of western Arizona, USA, near the California border. At the gold price of approximately US$400/oz (in August 2004), this provides a value estimate for the deposit in the range of up to $600 million. This estimated gold resource is for the little Butte area only, and does not include any potential from the remainder of the property. At the current Gold price of circa US$800/oz, the revised and updated valuation report , will be significantly higher.

Dr Colliston reports that the mineralising event at Bouse was a mid-Tertiary epithermal event, causing complex mineralization of gold, fluorite, barite, and associated metals into previous copper-specularite mineralization. The prime cause was regional crustal extension along the Plomosa Fault, just north of the Plomosa Mountains, which has now been identified as a detachment fault. The “detachment fault” style of deposit is best seen at Copperstone, the biggest gold discovery in Arizona in the past 50 years, where 500,000 oz of gold was profitably by Cyprus Gold in the open pit there. The Mesquite mine is another of this type.

Mineralization at Bouse is located primarily below the fault trace, in the lower plate, in pre-Cambrian rocks older than 1 billion years. Mineralization is found both in steeply dipping quartz veins and in laterally extensive breccia zones. The nature of these structures and associated mineralization over almost all of the 1,300 acres suggest further potential for major detachment fault gold deposits, and other deposits associated with this style of mineralization.

The Bouse area is an historic gold producer, with the Little Butte open pit and underground mines as known producers. Importantly, the historical grade recovered here averaged over 0.4 oz/ton. Around 2/3 of this production was from the Little Butte Mine, where the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources has recorded that the results of a 16-hold drilling programme showed about 5 million tons of inferred ore grading between 0.05 and 0.30 oz/ton.

Others areas of interest within the Company’s 1,300 acres are the Brindle Claims, the high grade Arrastre Mine, the Blue Slate Mine and the Flat Fault Mine.

Located just north of the Plomosa Fault, The Bouse Property includes 3 historical mines and almost 1’300 acres of project area, with significant inferred reserves of Gold, Silver and Copper. The Burnt Well Property also includes an historical mine within the project area which covers 640 acres which includes inferred reserves of Gold, Silver and Copper.

Local Geology

BOUSE PROPERTY, a Mid-Tertiary system of epithermal mineralization was introduced into a stacked sequence of lithotectonic units that are located on the northern side of the Plomosa Detachment Fault. Complex epithermal gold, barite and fluorite mineralization is superimposed on earlier copper-specularite mineralization. Gold occurs in laterally extensive breccias and in steeply dipping amethystine-quartz veins. Past district production (over 2/3 of which was from the Little Butte Mine) averaged over .4 oz/T gold. Strong likelihood of a major detachment fault associated gold / copper deposit, similar to the proven and mined Copperstone and Mesquite deposits. Past drilling by Tenneco, US Borax and Homestake found significant gold bearing intervals in both the breccias and high angle structures.

BURNT WELL PROPERTY, the regional geological setting is a major detachment fault (called the “Bullard Detachment Fault”) separating an upper plate of Tertiary siltstone / sandstone and conglomerate from a lower plate of Precambrian mylonitic gneiss. In the vicinity of the Silver Lining Mine, the upper plate is intensely altered and shattered. The sedimentary rocks on the mine dump contain hematite, chrysacolla, calcite and sparse manganese oxides. Gold, Silver and Copper mineralization is found in the altered sedimentary rocks. The principal outcrop at the Silver Lining Mine is approximately 40 to 80 meters from the detachment fault. There is a strong likelihood of a major Gold / Copper deposit, similar to the proven and mined Copperstone and Mesquite deposits. The Burnt Well is a “grass roots” project that has been overlooked by numerous major mining companies during the most recent exploration boom in La Paz County.

Project Summary

The Bouse Project involves an important new type of Arizona gold deposit, called a “detachment fault” deposit. Detachment fault deposits were first recognized as a separate form of gold deposit in the 1980’s. Enclosed within this pack is an article by noted Arizona geologist Joe Wilkins Sr., which describes the leading theory about how they formed. The best example of an Arizona detachment gold deposit is Copperstone, which is about 20 miles from Bouse. It was the biggest gold discovery in Arizona in at least 50 years. Cyprus Gold profitably mined the 500,000 oz open pit resource during the 1980’s. American Bonanza is presently doing underground drilling. It looks like the underground high grade resource is even larger. Enclosed are some materials on the Copperstone for your general information on its history and American Bonanza’s present activities there, which are the major news in Arizona gold exploration at this time. Unlike Copperstone, Bouse is an historic gold producer. 5,000 ounces were produced from high grade ore early in the 20th century. It was also worked as an underground copper mine. Most of this production was from the Little Butte Mine, which is the centerpiece of our land position.

Starting in the 1980’s there has been a lot of exploration work at Bouse. Per Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources records, prior to 1983 a 16 hole drill program blocked out 5,000,000 tons of material ranging from .05 to .30 ounces gold per ton. These drill-holes were in the immediate vicinity of the Little Butte underground mine and the Little Butte open pit. The drill hole locations are indicated as drill holes of an “Unknown” exploration company on the enclosed Homestake Mining map.

Next, Fischer Watt exploration, a well regarded company based in Butte, Montana, leased the Little Butte mine. They estimated the resource more conservatively, at 2,000,000 tons of .07 ounce per ton rock. They drilled exactly one 290 foot hole near the Little Butte underground mine and encountered 7 gold bearing intervals.

Tenneco then took over the project. They drilled 17 holes and found gold bearing intervals in 10 of them. Not only did Tenneco find gold at the Little Butte underground mine and open pit, but they also found gold at the Arrastre Mine, the Blue Slate Mine and the Flat Fault Mine, all of which are included in our project.

During 1984 US Borax drilled 18 holes in the pediment to the west of the historic mining district along the inferred course of the Plomosa detachment fault. Three of these holes met with success. We have a lot of material from this project, and it is included for your review. These are the packets and maps from Corn & Ahearn and PCMI. While we have not viewed this area as a high priority, some of it has been included in our present land position.

Starting in 1987, Homestake Mining leased the central part of the district (called the Brindle claims – these are the core of our present land position) and acquired an option to purchase the smaller patented group to the west called the Paradise Mine, which is not included in our project. Homestake drilled over 50 holes over a 4 year period. They found significant gold mineralization everywhere that Tenneco did at the Little Butte mine and open pit, the Blue Slate Mine and the Flat Fault Mine. They also put down seven drill holes in the vicinity of the detachment fault. Enclosed is a pack which we obtained from Barrick which includes all of Homestake’s drill logs and assay results. The map at the rear section entitled “Alteration, Mineralization and Drill Holes” includes all of the drill information for the previous work by Fischer Watt, US Borax and Tenneco.

What does the future hold for this gold deposit? While a gold deposit this big will take a substantial amount of work to turn into a large proven reserve, this should be a simple and straight forward effort if the drill programs focus on the core deposit, rather than concentrating on peripheral areas. The core deposit may be visualized as an inverted “V” with the Little Butte underground mine near the apex, the Little Butte open pit, Flat Fault mine and Blue Slate mine along the left leg, and the Airfield deposit at the bottom of the right leg. If, as we believe, the entire area of the inverted “V” turns out to be a mineable open pit resource this would be a far larger gold deposit than the 1,000,000 +/- oz Copperstone, and may be closer to the 10,000,000 oz size of the Mesquite mine, which is another detachment fault deposit in California.

Another high priority area is the granite block located within the confines of the inverted “V.” There is high grade gold mineralization at the Arrastre Mine, which is near the southern end of the granite block about 4,000 feet south of the Little Butte underground mine. Homestake did not even bother to map this area in detail, which is surprising given the extensive surface shows of copper oxide and the abundant quartz.

Also included are the two major geological reports on the district. (1) The Jemmett report, from 1966, is included because it gives some good descriptions of the individual mines. While Jemmett is not very enthusiastic about the mineral possibilities of the district, his report predates the discovery of the detachment fault model of gold mineralization, which turned Western Arizona into a “hot” area for mineral exploration. (2) The second report by Duncan was funded by Homestake. An important conclusion (p.37) is that the high gold and copper values are in a NE / SW band corresponding to the left leg of the inverted “V” referred to above.

Included with the projects is the Burnt Well property, also located in La Paz County. We have acquired about 640 acres along the Bullard detachment fault in the vicinity of the Silver Lining Mine, and plan to add at least another 480 acres. While Cominco drilled the Bullard deposit to the east along this fault, Burnt Well escaped the attention of the majors during the 1980’s gold exploration boom. A limited amount of material is included from the Arizona Geological Survey and the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Preliminary surface sampling shows similar grade (approximately .1 oz gold per ton) as the open pit resource at Copperstone. There is no recorded production for this district. However, from the size of the dumps, it is obvious that there must have been substantial production in the past.

Details on “Copperstone” Gold Mining & Exploration Property:-

The Gold and Silver Mining Exploration Projects controlled by Copperstone Mining Limited are situated in La Paz County, Arizona and extend to an area of 5,760 acres. The claims consist of 1 Lode and 36 Placer sites. There are no workings to date and the Project was first opened in the 1970’s. There are no Reserves proven or inferred at this time.

GEOLOGY:-

The regional geological setting is dominated by detachment faults of Tertiary age, as well as younger high angle normal faults. Gold mineralization at the existing Copperstone mine (presently owned by American Bonanza) occurs in northwest-striking, moderate-to-shallow dipping fault zones within a package of Triassic sediments and Jurassic quartz latite volcanics. Most of the known Copperstone gold mineralization occurs in a breccia zone related to the fault.

The South Copperstone claim block is immediately south of the Copperstone property, which it adjoins. Searchlight Exploration’s claim block is largely covered by a thin veneer of alluvium. The western edge has exposed bedrock consisting of banded quartz latite flows intruded by granite.

POTENTIAL:-

The potential is another Copperstone deposit, which had a 500,000T OP resource of .09 oz/T gold that was mined by Cyprus Gold in the 1980’s. A reportedly larger high grade underground resource is presently being developed by American Bonanza with support by GoldCorp. Initial drilling by Callahan Mining at South Copperstone found anomalous gold (approx .02 oz T) hosted by quartz and altered quartz latite. This is consistent with Cyprus drill results from immediately north of the claim block. However drilling was not deep enough to penetrate the breccia unit. Initial IP work found anomalous chargeability values to the south of Callahan’s claim block (roughly in the middle of Searchlight’s claim block and on trend with the historic Valenzuela mine, which is located on the Indian Reservation immediately west of the claim block). There is no evidence that these findings were followed up.

Detailed Reports and Mining Data in respect of these two companies are available and will be placed on the Company’s corporate web site, which is being completed at this time.

About Fortress Financial Group, Inc.

Fortress Financial Group, Inc. (formerly Great West Gold, Inc.), was a gold mining exploration stage company, engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mining properties in the United States. The Company retained these Gold Mining Exploration interests as portfolio assets; as it intended to extract value from these assets through a future “spin off” or a sale. The Company has disposed of its interests in the “Ambassador”, “Golden Eagle” and “Mockingbird” Gold Mining Exploration properties to Hunt Gold Corporation (PINKSHEETS : HGLC); and holds approximately 48% of Hunt Gold Corporation shares of outstanding Common Stock, as an investment.

The Company retains it interest in the “South Copperstone”, and “Bouse” Gold Mining Exploration properties, at this time.

Fortress Financial Group, Inc. is now primarily engaged in the issuing and marketing of prepaid debit and credit card and related payment solution activities.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a companies' annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the SEC.


Fortress Financial Group, Inc.
Stephen Lumb, +1-914-462-3475
investor@fortfinancegroup.com