Aug 10 2015
Victoria Gold Corp. "Victoria" or the "Company" is pleased to report strong heap leach recoveries and kinetic results from the Phase 2 column metallurgical test work completed as part of the Olive exploration program. The Olive Zone is adjacent to Victoria's Eagle gold deposit on the Dublin Gulch property, Yukon Canada.
As previously announced, the Olive Phase 1 metallurgical testing, conducted by Kappes Cassidy & Associates of Reno ('KCA'), included 96-hour bottle roll tests and 3 initial column tests. The bottle roll tests resulted in an average recovery of 61% at a P80 6.3mm crush size to match the crushing plant planned for the Eagle gold deposit. Initial column testing averaged 69% gold recovery with over 80% of the total gold recovered in the first 30 days, demonstrating very favourable leaching kinetics (see Victoria news release dated February 24, 2015).
The remaining 6 of 9 Olive Zone column leach tests confirm better than expected recoveries. Recoveries averaged 68% for oxide material and 57% for transitional and sulphide material. These results confirm favourable leaching kinetics from earlier testing which showed that, when using the same crush size as proposed at the Eagle gold project, over 80% of the total gold is recovered within the first 30 days.
These new metallurgical data have validated Victoria's initial thesis that Olive, displaying lower recovery but significantly higher grade than Eagle, may materially improve overall Eagle economics. Mr. John McConnell, President and CEO of Victoria commented "The metallurgical results from the Olive program demonstrate that the high grade Olive mineralization is amenable to heap leaching and displays the upside potential of the entire 13 km long Potato Hills Trend which could prove to be a long-term complement to the existing Eagle deposit and Eagle mining camp."
Victoria completed one additional metallurgical test for the Shamrock zone, contiguous to the north of the Olive Zone, and believed to be part of the same mineralized system. The 96-hour bottle roll test resulted in recoveries of 89% at a crush size of P80 6.3mm (equivalent to Eagle) and 93% recovery at a grind size of 73 microns. These initial results are significantly higher than those observed at Olive. Column test work for Shamrock has not yet been initiated.