MONTREAL, QUEBEC–(Marketwired – March 12, 2017) – Aurvista Gold Corporation (“Aurvista” or the “Company“) (TSX VENTURE:AVA)(OTCQB:ARVSF)(FRANKFURT:AV2) has been asked by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (the “AMF”), the Province of Quebec’s financial markets regulator, to issue a clarifying news release to the Company’s news release issued on February 28, 2017, to disclose an Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate contained within a conceptual pit (the “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate) at the Douay Gold Project (“Douay”). The Company’s estimate completed by Riverbend in 2012 and described below (the “2012 Riverbend Estimate”), was not constrained by a conceptual pit, and Aurvista’s February 28, 2017, announcement of global inferred ounces was intended to compare and contrast total mineralization outlined at the Douay Gold Project (“Douay”) with the previous 2012 Riverbend Estimate.
The AMF has requested that the Company apply economic extraction parameters in estimating the Mineral Resources for Douay in accordance with the CIM Definition Standards adopted by the CIM Council in 2014. The Company is therefore providing a current “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate, which replaces the mineral resource estimate disclosed in the February 28, 2017, news release. Investors are advised to rely only on the “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate. Micon International Limited (“Micon”) has produced an “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate for Douay at various cut-off grades that are summarized in the following table:
| “IN-PIT” INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE* |
CUT-OFF GRADE (G/T AU) |
TONNES | GOLD GRADE (G/T) |
GOLD METAL (OUNCES) |
||||
| 5.0 | 588,000 | 7.38 | 139,000 | |||||
| 3.0 | 2,143,000 | 4.73 | 326,000 | |||||
| 1.0 | 27,519,000 | 1.79 | 1,585,000 | |||||
| 0.7 | 49,700,000 | 1.36 | 2,177,000 | |||||
| 0.5 | 83,327,000 | 1.05 | 2,813,000 | |||||
| 0.3 | 143,566,000 | 0.77 | 3,567,000 |
| *A Mineral Resource is a concentration or occurrence of metals in such form and quantity and of such a grade or quality that it has reasonable prospects for economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade, geological characteristics and continuity of a Mineral Resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge. Reasonable prospects for economic extraction implies a judgment by a Qualified Person in respect of the technical and economic factors likely to influence the prospect of economic extraction. An Inferred Mineral Resource is that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade or quality are estimated on the basis of limited geological evidence and sampling. Geological evidence is sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade or quality continuity. “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate is an inventory of mineralization under an open pit scenario that under realistically assumed and justifiable technical and economic conditions might become economically extractable. They have been prepared without reference to surface rights or the presence of overlying public infrastructure. |
At a 0.5 g/t gold cut-off grade, within the conceptual pit shell, there are 83 million tonnes at a grade of 1.05 g/t gold for 2.8 million ounces of gold. Investors are advised that the additional ounces contemplated in the February 28, 2017, news release, or the information disclosed therein, are not to be relied upon until such time that further exploration and drilling can demonstrate reasonable prospects for future economic extraction for the deeper portion of the mineralization outlined at Douay.
Aurvista’s President and CEO, Jean Lafleur, stated: “The In-Pit Mineral Resource Estimate is an early stage glimpse at the potential for a conceptual open-pit with the known information to date. The Douay Project is host to significant known gold occurrences and these are early days in terms of outlining the Douay Project’s ultimate resource and mining potential. We look forward to completing up to 30,000 meters of additional drilling this year, growing the resource and advancing the Douay Project.”
Additional Details for Conceptual “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate
The “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate’s mineralized envelopes were modeled using Leapfrog Geo at a 0.3 g/t cut-off with the inclusion of lower grade material for modeling purposes, and are contained in eight separate zones: 10, 20, 531, Central, Douay West, North-West, Porphyry and Main, and may consist of a number of sub-parallel or parallel lenses. Bulk densities used: 2.88 – Douay West, 2.81 – Porphyry, 2.94 – 10, 2.67 – 20, 2.78 – North-West, 2.77 – Main, and the Central Zone and Waste used the global average of 2.82 as no test work was conducted for these areas. The overburden was assigned a bulk density of 1.5.
Only the mineral resources for the Douay West, Porphyry and 531 zones were estimated using Ordinary Kriging with the remaining zones estimated using Inverse Distance Cubed, due to the number of data points for each zone. A block size of 10 m x 2 m x 5m was used. The search ellipses ranged from 50 m to 300 m and used three passes to fill the blocks within the model. The figures have been rounded to reflect that they are estimates. The multiple open pits used to constrain the “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate are comprised of the ultimate breakeven pit-shell cones, which do not consider pit design or minimum mining widths.
The open pit parameters used to construct the optimization are: gold price of US $1,400 per ounce, an exchange rate (CAN$/US$) of 1.32:1, overburden stripping cost of CAN$2.50/t, open pit mining cost of CAN$2.78/t, processing cost of CAN$8.14/t, and G&A cost of CAN$2.47/t. Gold recoveries per zone are: Douay West – 85%, North-West – 52.5%, Porphyry – 94%, 20 – 92%, 10 – 88%, Central – 94%, 531- 93% and Main – 83%. Pit slope angles are: 55° for the foot wall; 52° for the hanging wall and 25° for the overburden.
The effective date of the “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate is February 15, 2017.
Micon is currently completing the National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report supporting the Mineral Resources Estimates and Near-Surface Mineral Resource Estimates which will be filed within 45 days of the original news release dated February 28, 2017 on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Comparison between the Previous 2012 Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate and the “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate
In 2012, Aurvista filed a Technical Report on the updated Mineral Resource estimates for Douay titled “Douay Deposit, National Instrument 43-101 Compliant Technical Report” dated August 10, 2012, which was prepared by Cliff Duke, P. Eng., of Riverbend Geological Services Inc. (“Riverbend”), under Aurvista Gold Corp., at www.sedar.com, now considered the “2012 Riverbend Estimate”.
The “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate and overall geologic model for Douay benefitted from the new interpretation based on the re-logging, re-description and assaying of previously un-assayed mineralized intervals of drill core from Douay. This work showed a greater lateral and vertical continuity of rock units, structural trends and gold mineralization, which were non-existent in 2012 Riverbend Estimate. It is important to note that the 2012 Riverbend Estimate was not constrained by a conceptual pit, making direct comparisons more challenging.
Please refer to SEDAR at www.sedar.com for more information.
About Micon International Limited
Micon International Limited (Micon), mineral industry consultants, is an independent firm of senior geological, mining, metallurgical and environmental consultants. The firm operates from integrated offices in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada and Norwich and Cornwall, United Kingdom. The professionals of Micon have extensive experience in the mining industry with both mining companies and leading consultancy firms.
Douay Gold Project and Company Profile
Aurvista Gold Corporation is a junior gold exploration and development Company advancing the Douay Gold Project in Quebec. The Company has 134,034,900 shares outstanding trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and OTCQB in the US. Aurvista’s Douay Gold Project consists of a 100% owned interest in 250 contiguous claims totaling 133.1 km2, plus a 90% interest in 5 contiguous claims totaling 0.2 km2 and a 75% interest (25% held by SOQUEM) in 32 contiguous claims totaling 11.9 km2. In total, there are 287 claims covering 145.3 km2 located along a 20 km segment of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone in the prolific Abitibi Belt of northern Quebec. Douay is located 40 km SW of the Matagami Base Metal Camp and 150 km N of the Val-d’Or-Malartic Gold Camp (both in Quebec). For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.aurvistagold.com.
Qualified Persons
The technical contents in this news release have been reviewed and approved by Mr. Jean Lafleur, M. Sc., P. Geo., President and CEO for Aurvista Gold Corporation, and Mr. William Lewis, B.Sc., P. Geo., of Micon, who is independent of Aurvista and who is responsible for the “In-Pit” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate. Both individuals are Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43-101.
NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements, including the mineral resource estimate and the assumptions used to prepare such estimate, that are based on assumptions, uncertainties and management’s best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company’s expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. When used herein, words such as “anticipate”, “will”, “intend” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Aurvista Gold Corporation’s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company’s website at www.aurvistagold.com.
Mr. Jean Lafleur, P. Geo.
President and CEO, Director
Cell: +1 514 927 3633
Aurvista Gold Corporation
Mr. Keith C Minty, P. Eng., MBA
Chief Operating Officer
+1 416 682 2671