Canarc Resource Corp. (the “Company” or “Canarc”) (TSX: CCM, OTC-BB: CRCUF, Frankfurt: CAN) is pleased to announce that it has acquired a new gold exploration project in northwestern Nevada through the staking of 92 mining claims covering 742 hectares.  Canarc owns the project 100% with no underlying royalties. 

The new project, called Corral Canyon, contains significant, volcanic-hosted, epithermal, disseminated and vein gold mineralization evidenced by previous drilling.  The project lies along a regionally productive gold trend that includes the past producing high-grade Sleeper gold mine (3.1 million oz gold past production), located 72 km south of Corral Canyon.

Mr. Scott Eldridge, Canarc’s CEO, stated: “The addition of the Corral Canyon project to our Nevada portfolio at very low cost demonstrates Canarc’s new strategy to acquire and explore gold exploration projects that have potential for high impact discoveries.  We are encouraged by the presence of high grades at Corral Canyon in the same type of gold system that has yielded significant discoveries elsewhere within the Great Basin. Our immediate goal will be mapping and sampling, so we can re-interpret previous exploration results and identify high priority drill targets as quickly as possible.”

Location and Description

Corral Canyon lies 35 km west of the town of McDermitt in Humboldt County along the western flank of the McDermitt caldera complex, an area of volcanic rocks that hosts significant lithium and uranium mineralization in addition to gold.

The project also lies along a regional, north-trending structural zone, informally termed the western Nevada rift, which localizes a series of significant gold deposits to the south, including Sleeper (Paramount Gold, NYSE: PZG), Sandman (Newmont Mining, NYSE: NEM) and Goldbanks (Premier Gold Mines, TSX: PG).  These deposits contain high-grade veins as well as disseminated mineralization within volcanic rocks similar to those at Corral Canyon.

Geologically, Corral Canyon is part of a productive class of gold deposits, termed low-sulfidation epithermal, that formed during middle Miocene (14-17 Ma) time in the northwestern Great Basin and includes the Sleeper (Paramount Gold, NYSE: PZG), Midas (Hecla Mining, NYSE: HL) and Fire Creek mines (Hecla Mining, NYSE: HL).  Characteristics of Corral Canyon consistent with this deposit class include finely-banded, colloform-textured gold-bearing quartz veins; a middle Miocene bimodal (basalt-rhyolite) host volcanic package; high Au-Ag ratio with very low base-metal contents; and localization along a regional structure.

Historic Exploration Highlights and Next Steps

Historic exploration data covering the property includes drilling, geophysics, geology and surface rock-chip and soil sampling.  The property has been dormant since 2011.  Historic drilling intersected gold mineralization at shallow depths that remains open at depth and along strike within a mineral system at least 2.5 km long. 

Selected historic drill results are shown in Table 1. Thick intervals of low-grade mineralization (e.g., 0.36 g/t over 43 m) commonly contain higher-grade internal zones reaching up to 15.2 g/t over 1.5 m.

Canarc plans to evaluate the historical data and conduct its own field work in order to identify new high priority exploration targets to expand the known mineralization and, in particular, focus on identifying structures which could host high-grade mineralization.  The Company has secured access to drill core from the 2008-2011 drilling programs, and examination of the core will be an important part of the evaluation program.

Table 1.           Selected Historic Drilling Composites*

* Composites were calculated using a nominal 0.200 g/t Au cutoff with internal high-grade intervals mostly using a 1.000 g/t cutoff; composite intervals are not necessarily true width; 2008 and 2009 drilling by Western Uranium Corporation, Mr. John Rice was the Qualified Person, assays by American Assay Laboratories; 1981 drilling by Chevron Resources Company, reported by Western Uranium Corporation; drill hole 2008-14 was within 5 m and a twin of hole 1981-14.

Canarc considers these results to be historical, it has not yet completed sufficient work to independently verify these historic results, and therefore they should not be relied upon.

Qualified Person

Dr. Jacob Margolis is a qualified person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101, and has approved the technical information in this news release.  Dr. Margolis is engaged as a consultant to Canarc Resource Corp as Vice President of Exploration.

“Scott Eldridge”