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Rubicon Minerals Corporation – Steady progress at the Phoenix Gold Project

Published: 21:14 29 Jul 2009 BST

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No wonder Toronto and American Stock Exchange listed Rubicon Minerals Corporation (TSX: RMX, AMEX: RBY) has been able to attract investor attention. Despite economic woes and market meltdowns the company has continued its development programmes which have more often than not yielded excellent drill results. In an indication of the management’s commitment to add shareholder value through development activities, Rubicon has provided an update on its drilling and shaft sinking activities at its 100%-controlled Phoenix Gold Project, located in the heart of the prolific Red Lake Gold District of Ontario.

Rubicon controls over 65,000 acres of prime exploration ground in the prolific Red Lake gold camp of Ontario, Canada, which hosts Goldcorp's high-grade, world class Red Lake Mine. Rubicon’s Phoenix Gold Project is located in the heart of this producing camp. For the readers who are not familiar with the Red Lake Mine, it is Canada’s largest gold mine which in 2007 produced 700,600 oz.

Five drill rigs are currently in operation on the project, three on surface and two from underground on the 122-metre level as part of the ongoing 80,000-metre drill programme, which is designed to expand the known extent of the F2 Zone system. The planned drilling will test a 1200 metre by 1600 metre target area, with two deep master holes to test target areas 7 and 8. Although the two master holes have not yet reached their designed target depth, both have encountered gold mineralization at shallower levels.

For instance, one hole (F2-66) has intersected 0.30 oz/ton gold over 16.4 feet including 0.98 oz/ton gold over 3.3 feet at a vertical depth of 3,776 feet (1151 metres) below surface (10.2 g/t gold over 5.0 metres including 33.7 g/t gold over 1.0 metre) and 0.66 oz/ton gold over 3.3 feet including 1.19 oz/ton over 1.6 feet at a vertical depth of 3,386 feet (1032 metres) below surface (22.6 g/t gold over 1.0 metre including 40.9 g/t gold over 0.5 m) in target areas 5 and 8. These intercepts confirm that gold is present at depth and extends the strike length of the F2 Zone by a further 262 feet (80 metres) to a total of 2,559 feet (780 metres). Hole F2-65 intersected 22.9 g/t gold over 0.5 metre and 12.2 g/t gold over 1.0 metre at a vertical depth of 1,342 feet (409 metres) below surface. A third deep master hole to test target area 9, has commenced.

Rubicon plans to drill up to an additional 20,000 metres testing a number of priority targets within the Phoenix project that are outside of the F2 Zone. The first target area is approximately one kilometre to the southwest which has returned encouraging gold values including 0.46 oz/ton gold over 1.6 feet (15.7 g/t gold over 0.5 metres). These results demonstrate the gold mineralizing system is developed well to the southwest of the F2 Zone, in an area with no previous drilling and suggest a high potential for further gold mineralization in the southern part of the property. The expanded regional drill program will test a number of priority targets elsewhere on the property as well.

According to David Adamson, President and CEO latest results continue to demonstrate that the large F2 gold system is growing both laterally and to depth. Drilling to the southwest of the core F2 Zone provides further encouragement that the gold system is present well beyond our current area of focused drilling. Adamson also stated that the property as a whole has a striking number of high-grade gold occurrences which have generally been explored to only shallow depths, which explained the increased the scope of our drilling programme.

Rubicon has also announced that shaft sinking has commenced June 28th. The shaft is currently at a depth of 142 metres below surface and is planned to extend to between 300 metres and 350 metres below surface where a 300-400 metre cross drift is planned from which further diamond drilling will be carried out.

About Rubicon Minerals Corporation
Rubicon Minerals Corporation is a well-funded exploration and development company with a treasury of approximately $63 million, focused on exploring for gold in politically safe jurisdictions with high geological potential. Rubicon controls over 65,000 acres of prime exploration ground in the prolific Red Lake gold district of Ontario which hosts Goldcorp's high-grade, world class Red Lake Mine. In addition to its Red Lake holdings, Rubicon also controls over 380,000 acres surrounding the Pogo Mine in Alaska as well as 225,000 acres in northeast Nevada. Rob McEwen, President and CEO of McEwen Capital and former Chairman and CEO of Goldcorp, owns 23.8% of the issued shares of the Company.

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