New Tech Minerals Corp. announced that a maiden drill program has commenced at its La Escondida Silver and Gold project in Sonora, Mexico. The program is being carried out by Layne de Mexico, and will consist of approximately 2,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling (20 holes), and will test along the known strike of the Centre and Southern veins which extend for 800 and 600 metres, respectively, with exposed widths of 1.5 to 3.0 metres. A rock-chip sampling program conducted earlier this year returned high silver values, up to 1,150 g/t silver, broadly distributed over the entire lengths of both the Central and Southern structures. Drilling has been designed to test down-dip from exposures that returned the best silver values. The La Escondida Project is comprised of three contiguous concessions, (total 4,178 hectares), located approximately 140 kilometers northeast of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Historical and recent descriptions of the veins are consistent with a silver-rich epithermal origin, however the project is located within a region of orogenic gold deposits that include La Herradura, Noche Buena, El Chanate and San Francisco mines. Numerous small artisanal workings are present along the east-west La Escondida trend for over 1,500 metres. Historical rock-chip sampling along the veins and structures returned values of up to 1,893 g/t Ag and up to 5.4 g/t Au.