May 7 2015
Candente Gold Corp. ("Candente Gold" or the "Company") advises that the Company has commenced leach extraction testwork at McClelland Laboratories, Inc. in Sparks, Nevada for Candente Gold's Mexico Mine Tailings Recovery Operation ("MMTRO") located in El Oro, Mexico.
This testwork program will evaluate the potential for leach extraction of gold and silver from representative samples collected from the Mexico tailings during the 2014 Auger Sampling program. A key aspect of this leach testwork program is that the Mexico tails will be subjected to additional grinding prior to leaching. Testwork completed by previous owners in the 1980s indicated that additional grinding of the tails may significantly improve precious metal recoveries. This testwork will also include additional metallurgical and mineralogical characterization of the Mexico tails, which will assist in optimizing recovery strategy. The leach extraction testwork program currently underway will take approximately five weeks to complete.
Leach extraction technology is one of the most commonly applied technologies globally for gold and silver extraction and recovery.
The Company has decided not to pursue the previously announced processing agreement (see Candente Gold News Release 043 dated February 24, 2015) for gravity recovery of gold and silver from the Mexico tailings. Pilot plant testwork was successful in recovering gold and silver; however, the recoveries were variable and in Management's view not sufficient to justify further pilot plant operation.
In addition, the Company has received Expressions of Interest from groups to finance and/or enter into a joint venture for the MMRTO. The Company is pursuing these interests simultaneously with the leach testwork program.
The Mexico Mine Tailings contain an Inferred Resource* of 1,267,400 Tonnes grading 2.94 Au g/t, 75.12 Ag g/t containing 119,900 ounces of gold and 3,061,200 ounces of silver.
*Note: Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. All figures have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate. For more information see "National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of the Mexico Mine Tailings" prepared by Nadia Caira, P.Geo. and Allan Reeves, P.Geo., dated August 25, 2014 with an effective date of July 8, 2014 (the "Technical Report") available at www.sedar.com.
Joanne C. Freeze, P.Geo., CEO and Sean I. Waller, P.Eng. are the Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for the project discussed above. Ms. Freeze and Mr. Waller have reviewed and approved the contents of this release.