TORONTO, ON–(Marketwired – May 16, 2016) – Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: VIT)
“Victoria” or the “Company” is pleased to announce the first metallurgical column test results and heap leach kinetics for the Shamrock Zone, Yukon.
The Shamrock Zone, now demonstrated to be contiguous with Olive and the subject of current Olive-Shamrock exploration efforts, established a strong initial metallurgical performance with a 96-hr bottle roll test of 93% recovery with a crush size of 75 micron (see News Release Feb 24, 2015).
The first column leach test work for Shamrock recently completed by Kappes Cassidy & Associates (“KCA”) resulted in a recovery of 88% gold at a crush size of P(100) 9.5mm and 83% gold recovery with a P(100) 75mm after only 43 days of leaching. Material for the column test was taken from a surface trench at Shamrock and represents oxide material.
“The Shamrock metallurgical column leach results are extremely encouraging and substantially higher than we have seen at Olive or Eagle” commented Mr. John McConnell, President and CEO of Victoria. “Along with exceptional recoveries, we are also seeing very fast leach kinetics”.
Drilling on Olive-Shamrock began on March 29 and 8,444 meters in 61 holes have been completed to date. Drilling started on Olive at the southwest end of the zone and has progressed along strike northeast to the Olive-Shamrock connection zone and into the Shamrock structure. The first Shamrock hole was collared on May 14, 2016 and a 4,800 meter, 30 drill hole program is planned. The entire Olive-Shamrock drill program is expected to be completed before the end of June.
About Olive-Shamrock
The Olive-Shamrock target lies 2 kilometers from the proposed infrastructure at the Eagle Gold Project, along the Potato Hills Trend. Drilling and surface trench results to date indicate the existence of near-surface, high-grade potential feed into Eagle operations. (see New Releases dated May 20, June 24, July 28, August 13, and Nov 4, 2014). Metallurgical testing completed in 2015 (see New Releases dated February 24, and August 7, 2015) has indicated that the high-grade Olive-Shamrock Zone is amenable to Eagle Project heap leach recovery at the same crush size as Eagle Project feed.
Olive-Shamrock is defined by a broad gold/arsenic in-soils geochemical anomaly and lies on the intrusive-sediment contact of the Potato Hills Trend (as does the Eagle Deposit) and is punctuated by several historically exploited high-grade sulphide veins. The Olive area was mined on a small scale from shallow shafts and adits in the early 1900’s and via placer mining in creeks draining the area. The Olive vein system is located near the top of Olive Gulch and consists of gold-bearing quartz-scorodite-arsenopyrite vein material centralized in a shear zone structure. More detail and a current summary of all Olive-Shamrock Zone exploration can be found on the Company’s website.
About the Dublin Gulch Project
Victoria Gold’s 100%-owned Dublin Gulch gold property is situated in the central Yukon Territory, Canada, approximately 375 kilometers north of the capital city of Whitehorse, and approximately 85 kilometers from the town of Mayo. The Property is accessible by road year-round, and is located within Yukon Energy’s electrical grid. The Company has constructed and maintains a 100 person all-season camp at the project site.
The Property covers an area of approximately 555 square kilometers, and is the site of the Company’s Eagle Gold Deposit. The Eagle Gold Deposit is expected to be Yukon’s next operating gold mine and includes Probable Reserves of 2.3 million ounces of gold from 92 million tonnes of ore with a grade of 0.78 grams of gold per tonne, as outlined in a National Instrument 43-101 feasibility study. The NI 43-101 Mineral Resource has been estimated to host 222 million tonnes averaging 0.68 grams of gold per tonne, containing 4.9 million ounces of gold in the “Indicated” category, inclusive of Probable Reserves, and a further 78 million tonnes averaging 0.60 grams of gold per tonne, containing 1.5 million ounces of gold in the “Inferred” category.
Qualified Person
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul D. Gray, P.Geo., as the Qualified Person.
Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. All statements in this discussion, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities, anticipated metal production, internal rate of return, estimated ore grades, commencement of production estimates and projected exploration and capital expenditures (including costs and other estimates upon which such projections are based) and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include metal prices, exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
For Further Information Contact:
John McConnell
President & CEO
Victoria Gold Corp
Tel: 416-866-8800
Fax: 416-866-8801
www.vitgoldcorp.com