TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - February 24, 2015) - Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: VIT) "Victoria" or the "Company" is pleased to announce better than expected heap leach recoveries and kinetic results from the column metallurgy test work on the Olive Zone.
During the summer and fall of 2014, Victoria completed an exploration program on the Olive Zone which is adjacent to the Eagle Gold deposit. The Olive Exploration Program included core drilling, metallurgical testing and geotechnical testing.
Results from the Olive Exploration core drilling included gold assays of 70m of 2.3 g/t, 96m of 1.2g/t, and 42m of 2.4 g/t. (see new releases dated June 24, 2014, July 28, 2014, August 13, 2014 and November 4, 2014 and the Company's website for complete results).
Kappes Cassidy & Associates ("KCA") of Reno, Nevada conducted metallurgical shake tests and 96 hour bottle roll tests which confirmed that Olive material is amenable to heap leaching. (see news release dated July 28, 2014).
The first three of nine metallurgical column tests conducted by KCA have been completed on Olive oxide material and generated an average recovery of 69%
using the same crush size as proposed at the Eagle Gold project. Importantly, over 80% of the recoverable gold was recovered in the first 30 days demonstrating very favourable leaching kinetics. The initial thesis for Olive was a higher average gold grade albeit lower recoveries relative to Eagle. These column test results are meaningfully higher than initial expectations when Victoria first contemplated the Olive Exploration Program.
There are an additional six columns currently running on Olive material; two duplicate columns each on samples from oxide, transition and sulphide zones. These columns have run for approximately 32 days and preliminary results are 83%, 55% and 51% gold recovery after 32 days of leaching for the oxide, transition and sulphide material, respectively. As with previous Olive tests the samples have been crushed to match the proposed crushing facility at Eagle (P80 6.3mm).
Mr. John McConnell, President and CEO of Victoria commented "The metallurgical results stemming from the 2014 Olive Program significantly exceeded management expectations and confirm the potential for the Olive Zone to materially complement the existing Eagle project."
Victoria completed one additional metallurgical test on the Shamrock Zone, 500m to the north of Olive. Shamrock is believed to be part of the same mineralized system as Olive. The 96-hour bottle roll test resulted in observed recovery of 89% at a crush size of P80 6.3mm (equivalent to Eagle) and 93% recovery at a grind size of 75 microns. These initial results are significantly higher than those observed at Olive and Eagle. Column test work for Shamrock has not yet been initiated.
The Eagle Gold deposit, and the adjacent Olive Zone lie along the Potato Hills Trend. The Potato Hills trend is a >13 km-long belt of Au-As-Bi-Sb and Ag-Pb-Zn mineralization extending to the northeast and southwest of the Eagle deposit along the margins of the Dublin Gulch granodiorite stock and beyond. This Potato Hills Trend hosts a series of high priority exploration targets including gold targets: Shamrock, Popeye, Steiner, Lynx, Nugget, and Lynx Dome as well as the silver target Rex-Peso.
Qualified Person
The Qualified Person for the metallurgical content is by Carl E. Defilippi, Kappes Cassidy and Associates and the Qualified Person for the geological content is Paul D. Gray, P.Geo.
About Olive
The Olive Zone target 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.
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 ozs 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 definitive 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.
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.
