VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Jan. 28, 2013) - High Desert Gold Corporation ("HDG" or the "Company") (News - Market indicators)(OTCQX:HDGCF) announces the results from the latest series of metallurgical tests designed to assess the recoverability of gold by bottle roll testing using cyanidation. These tests were also conducted to assess the possible variation of gold grades due to the presence of coarse gold, the so called "nugget effect". These tests were conducted on 47 samples collected from the RC chips from the 2012 drill program at the Grey Eagle and Jumbo targets and the trench at the Grey Eagle target at Gold Springs in Nevada and Utah. All samples had previously been analyzed by fire assay.

These metallurgical tests used a much larger sample size of 1 kilogram instead of the 30 gram sample size used for the previous fire assays on the original drill chips. The average metallurgical recovery for all gold samples tested was 92% (79%-98%) and the overall gold grades calculated from the metallurgical recoveries increased by an average of 15% over the original fire assays for values >0.2 g/t gold. Gold grades ranged from 0.043 gpt to 13.056 in the original results providing a broad range of values for the test work. Samples in this test came from drill holes GE-12-001, GE-12-002, J-12-004 and J-12-005 as well as the Grey Eagle trench.

Ralph Fitch, President and CEO stated that "This is important new information and compares well with our earlier metallurgical test from the Jumbo target (PR10-17, October 18, 2010) where the average recovery from 12 samples was 97% using a combination of gravity recovery and cyanidation. It is remarkable that we are discovering gold mineralization starting at surface at both the Grey Eagle and the Jumbo targets and that 90-95% of this gold mineralization is recoverable through cyanidation. The 10 samples from the Grey Eagle trench gave an average recovery of 95%. This trench averaged 1.54 g/t gold Eq over 56 metres (see HDG PR 12-20, Nov. 7, 2012). These high gold recoveries bode well for the economics of any future project. The significance of the larger one kilogram samples returning higher grades than the originally reported assays is that the reported fire assay grades are probably low due to "nugget effect". This being so we are looking into new assaying protocols that may be able to mitigate this issue going forward."

The one kilogram samples were ground to a powder (85% <200 mesh) then subjected to cyanidation for 72 hours, with gold assays taken at 24, 48 and 72 hours. The residue or tail was also assayed. The vast majority of the gold was recovered in the first 24 hours with only an additional 3% of the gold being recovered between 24 and 48 hours and little additional recovery between 48 and 72 hours, indicating rapid availability of the gold at the 200 mesh grain size. Recoveries were very uniform with only a slight increase in recovery with grade. Low grade material between 0.048 g/t and 0.2 g/t gold had an average recovery of 87% whereas material grading 0.2 g/t to 13 g/t had an average recovery of 93%.

Gold Springs is a 70/30 Joint Venture with Pilot Gold Inc. in which HDG holds a 70% interest and is the operator of the Joint Venture.

The Qualified Person on the Gold Springs property is Randall Moore, Executive Vice President of Exploration of High Desert Gold Corporation and he has reviewed and approved the content of this press release and has verified the data, including sampling, analytical and test data, included in this press release. The data has been reviewed for consistency and checked against the original assays for the same samples.

All technical information in this news release is obtained and reported under a quality assurance and quality control program. This program includes chain of custody protocols and systematic assaying of sample duplicates and commercially prepared standards and blanks for analytical reliability. All samples are collected under the supervision of Company geologists and transported directly to Inspectorate Laboratories in Reno, Nevada by Company personnel. The metallurgical tests and assays were performed in Reno, Nevada by Inspectorate Laboratories, an ISO 9001:2000 Certified laboratory. Gold was analyzed by fire assay of a 30 gram sample with an AA or gravimetric finish and by cyanidation of a one kg sample. 

ABOUT HIGH DESERT GOLD

The Company is a mineral exploration company that acquires and explores mineral properties, primarily gold, copper and silver, in North America. The principal property held by HDG is a 70% interest in the Gold Springs gold project situated along the border between Utah and Nevada. The Company also holds direct interests in a number of other properties including the San Antonio project in Sonora, Mexico, the Gold Lake property in New Mexico, and the Kinkaid and Pinyon properties in Nevada. The Company also has a 34.2% interest in the Canasta Dorada property in Sonora, Mexico, through its equity interest in Highvista Gold Inc. There has been insufficient exploration to define a property-wide mineral resource at Gold Springs and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the additional targets at Gold Springs being delineated as a mineral resource.

Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements look into the future and provide an opinion as to the effect of certain events and trends on the business. Forward-looking statements may include words such as "designed", "future", "likely", "may", "recoverable", "continue", "plans, "develop, "expect", "interpreted" and similar expressions. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the continued advancement of the Gold Springs property. In addition, information concerning the interpretation of drilling and metallurgical testing results may be considered forward-looking statements, as such information constitutes a prediction of what mineralization might be found to be present and recoverable if and when a project is actually developed. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and entail various risks and uncertainties.

Actual results may materially differ from expectations, if known and unknown risks or uncertainties affect our business, or if our estimates or assumptions prove inaccurate. Factors that could cause results or events to differ materially from current expectations expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, include, but are not limited to: the ability to reproduce the recoveries obtained by Inspectorate Laboratories in their lab testing on an industrial or commercial scale; the availability of sufficient financing to fund planned or further required work in a timely manner and on acceptable terms; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined and other risks more fully described in the Company's Management Discussion & Analysis of Financial Position and Results of Operations, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The material assumptions that were applied in developing the forward-looking statements include: the existence of the "nugget effect"; the effectiveness of the Company's quality control/quality assurance programs; the availability of equipment and qualified personnel, and the timely receipt of permits, to advance the Gold Springs project; and the execution of the Company's existing plans and further exploration and development programs for Gold Springs, which may change due to changes in the views of the Company or if new information arises which makes it prudent to change such plans or programs. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Except as required by law, HDG assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or any other reason. Unless otherwise indicated, forward-looking statements in this release describe the Company's expectations as of January 28, 2013.