January 14, 2016. Desert Gold Ventures Inc. (TSX-V symbol: DAU) (“Desert Gold” or the “Company”) has filed a new Mineral Resource estimate with its accompanying Technical Report for its Farabantourou Property in accordance with the requirements of the British Columbia Securities Commission (“BCSC”) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”).
Subsequent to the retraction of the Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) of the Company’s September 16, 2014 Technical Report, Desert Gold contracted Minxcon Consulting to generate a new Mineral Resource estimate and a supporting NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Farabantourou Property in order to meet the requirements of the British Columbia Securities Commission (“BCSC”) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”). The following reconciliations are against the Company’s previously disclosed resource estimate in its September 16, 2014 Technical Report filed on SEDAR, as initially disclosed in the Company’s September 17, 2014 news release.
The mineralised zone within the Barani East Prospect of Farabantourou ranges in width from approximately 4.5 m to 15 m, with the thicker portion of the mineralised zone found in the south. It strikes north-northeast to south-southwest, dipping toward the southeast at between 55° and 60°.
In order to generate the new Mineral Resource estimate, Minxcon conducted and incorporated many technical improvements, which in addition to the required site visit, included the following:
- An updated accurate surface topography was utilised to delineate the upper limit of the mineralised zone. For previous non-compliant estimates, only drillhole collar elevations were utilised for the generation of the surface topography.
- Minxcon conducted a data capture and validation exercise to capture all drillholes in the immediate area of the identified Barani East mineralised zone, in order to assist with the accurate delineation of the mineralised lithologies. No significant mineralised intersections were added which impacted on the mineralised zone, however mineralised material in some areas identified additional exploration targets that were not previously recognised. 107 drillholes from Barani East and 42 drillholes from Barani were added to the 2013 database of 79 drillholes, thus rendering a total dataset of 228 drillholes.
- In addition, Minxcon validated some historical drill collars in the field during the site visit, verified other drilling and assay information, and is of the opinion that the historical drill holes are valid for the purposes of conducting a Mineral Resource estimate.
- Utilising a grade cut-off of 0.3 g/t, Minxcon identified the zones of mineralisation in all the drillholes and utilised Leapfrog Geo™ Software for the generation of the geological constraining wireframes for the purposes of conducting the Mineral Resource estimate. This is viewed as being an improvement due to the extrapolated wireframes being as smoother and more conservative when compared to historical manually generated wireframes. In addition, Minxcon only modelled down to a maximum depth of approximately 190 m as compared to the 2013 non-compliant estimate of 250 m based on a perceived mining depth. The digital extrapolation process resulted in an increased strike length of the mineralised zone from a previous 650 m to the current 800 m for the current Mineral Resource estimate. The extrapolation methodology also resulted in the identification of a hanging wall and 2 footwall mineralised zones that have been added to the Mineral Resource estimate. Additional exploration targets for possible future exploration programs have also been identified by means of the extrapolation exercise.
- The historical capping strategy used for the non-compliant Mineral Resource estimate in the Company’s September 16, 2014 technical report utilised the 99th percentile as its capping limit. Minxcon reviewed the data in 2015 and it was regarded that although there are some high values they do not represent a deviation from the population and have thus been considered as representative for the purposes of Mineral Resource estimation. For this reason no top-cutting has been applied in the 2015 estimation as this would unfairly and unjustifiably discount the value mineralised zone.
- Minxcon improved the estimated relative density estimate for the Barani East Mineralised zone by reviewing available RD in 3D with respect to the mineralised zone. The RD data, though limited is of acceptable standard and is viewed as being representative of the host lithologies down to an approximate depth of 150 m below surface. Uncertainty exists below this limit. Minxcon revised the utilised RD down from 1.8 kg/dm³ to 1.6 kg/dm³ down to a depth of 78 m below surface and to 1.7 kg/dm³ below this.
- The new report revises optimised assumptions used as a basis for cut-off grade. As a result, the base-case cut-off grade increases from 0.4 to 0.5 g/t gold.
- The new estimate omits parts of the previous inferred resource estimates not supported by the drill and assay database and the statistical analysis procedure used for resource estimation.
The inclusion of all the above improvements has resulted in a reduced Inferred Mineral Resource for Barani and a slightly increased Indicated Mineral Resource due to the spatiality of drilling. However, the Indicated Mineral Resource reports a decreased gold grade when compared to historical noncompliant Mineral Resource estimates.
The following table summarises the Mineral Resources for Farabantourou - Barani East as at January 2016 (estimated by Minxcon). Resources for Barani East are stated at a 0.5 g/t cut-off by Minxcon.
Barani East Mineral Resources as at November, 2015 (estimated by Minxcon)
Mineralised Zone |
Mineral Resource Category | Tonnage | Average Au Grade | Au Content | Au Ounces |
t | g/t | Kg | Koz | ||
Main |
Indicated Mineral Resources |
541 822 | 2.23 | 1 208 |
38.9 |
HW | 61 467 | 2.18 | 134 |
4.3 |
|
FW1 | 39 176 | 2.54 | 100 |
3.2 |
|
FW2 | 9 615 | 0.80 | 8 |
0.2 |
|
Total Indicated Mineral Resources | 652 080 | 2.22 | 1 450 |
46.6 |
|
Main |
Inferred Mineral Resources |
280 007 | 2.23 | 625 |
20.1 |
HW | 5 887 | 2.33 | 14 |
0.4 |
|
FW1 | 29 641 | 2.87 | 85 |
2.7 |
|
FW2 | 1 486 | 0.57 | 1 |
0.0 |
|
Total Inferred Mineral Resources | 317 021 | 2.29 | 724 |
23.3 |
Notes:
- The Inferred Mineral Resources have a large degree of uncertainty as to their existence and whether they can be mined economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of the Inferred Resource will be upgraded to a higher confidence category. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
- Gold content conversion: 1 kg = 32.15076 oz.
- Columns may not add up due to rounding.
- Cut-off: 0.5 g/t.
- RD: 1.6 t/m³ from 0m -78m below surface.
- RD: 1.7 t/m³ from 78m -190m below surface.
- All figures are in metric tonnes.
The company disclosed a current resource estimate in its April 23, 2013 news release. However, there is no technical report filed on SEDAR to support this estimate and the current technical report is unable to support its compliance. The above current resource estimate supersedes the non-compliant April 23, 2013 estimate and all other previous resource estimates.
Mr. Uwe Engelmann, BSc. (Botany and Zoology), B.Sc. (Geol.), B.Sc. Hons (Geol.). Pr. Sci. Nat., has prepared, reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release and is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Mr Engelmann is a consulting geologist, employed by Minxcon (Pty) Ltd, to the Company, is independent of the Company and holds no beneficial interest in the Company or its assets.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
“Ayub Khan”
Ayub Khan,
Chief Executive Officer
Desert Gold Ventures Inc.
+1 (604) 592 6881
For further information please visit our website www.desertgold.ca or information available on www.SEDAR.com under the Company’s profile.
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 release.