Desert Gold Ventures Inc. (the "Company") is pleased to provide an SMSZ Project update. A total of 445 auger holes totalling 2,067 metres have been completed over priority soil and structural targets proximal to Desert Gold's Mogoyafara South and Gourbassi West North gold deposits. Samples for these holes have been submitted to SGS Laboratories in Bamako.
As part of Desert Gold's regular site routine, exploration staff tour our 440 km2 property (see Figure 1 for locations) to document artisanal mining activity. Recently a new zone of artisanal mining activity was observed approximately 500 metres south of our Mogoyafara South gold deposit (Inferred mineral resource estimate comprising 412,800 ounces of gold grading 1.05 g/t gold - see Desert Gold news release Jan. 17, 2022).
The new artisanal zone is approximately 400 metres long and 50 to 75 metres wide. Host rocks include sheared conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and shale with both northerly and easterly trending quartz veining with associated albite, sericite and pyrite alteration. The image below shows a narrow, easterly-trending quartz vein with darker pyrite casts in the weathered rock adjacent to the vein. Samples from this site have returned up to 1.55 g/t gold (see Figure 1). Another new area of artisanal mining has open up approximately 1,000 metres to the east of the Mogoyafara South trend (see Figure 2); samples from two, 50 metre long by 2 to 5 metre wide artisanal zones returned grab samples to 5.04 g/t gold.
Another informal mining area was noted approximately 2 km east of the Kolon Zone (see Figure 1 for locations) located in the central eastern part of the concession area. This area, which has not yet been explored by Desert Gold was the subject of a larger scale mining operation using excavators and several large sluice boxes using water supplied from two, 50-100 metre wide, man-made lakes. Open pit excavations, in saprolitized sediments, ranged up to 100 metres across and up to 15 metres deep before authorities stopped the work.
Jared Scharf, President, and CEO commented, "I am always pleasantly surprised when new artisanal mining sites open up on our SMSZ property. This new activity supports our belief that with more work, new gold zones will be discovered on our property. I am also pleased that we have been able to complete more auger holes than planned and are still under budget. We look forward to getting these results out as soon as possible."
The initial planned exploration drilling consisted of auger drilling (approximately 2,500 metres in 325 holes) to probe the strike extents of the magnetic anomaly trends for gold enrichment, test several large-scale structural targets and validate the proximal, high gold (>200 ppb) in soils and termite mounds. To date, 2,067 metres of auger drilling have been completed with holes averaging 4.6 metres deep with a range of 2 to 15 metres deep. Two samples are collected for assay from each hole corresponding to the base of the laterite and upper portion of the saprolite or weathered rock.
Additional holes, to fulfill the 2,500 m auger drilling contract will be carried out to bracket the best anomalies, once the first phase assay results are received. Once the auger results have been received, it is expected that follow-up drilling to further test the deposit and to test new targets, will be recommended. Desert Gold has successfully used auger drilling to discover new gold zones like the Gourbassi West North Zone where holes have returned up to 1.08 g/t Au over 123.95 metres (true width estimated to be approximately 87 metres).
This press release contains certain scientific and technical information. The Company is solely responsible for the contents and accuracy of any scientific and technical information related to it. Don Dudek, P.Geo. a director of Desert Gold both Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43-101, have reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this press release.
**All gold grades over width, with the exception of the Soa, Berola and Gourbassi prospects, represent drill holes with the true widths, for most holes, ranging from 65 to 95%. Estimated true widths for the Soa and Berola prospects are unknown. Estimated true widths at the Gourbassi Zones are estimated to range from 60% to 90%. True widths at Linnguekoto West are estimated to be 50% of drilled length.
QA/QC
All rock samples are delivered to SGS in Bamako, Mali where they are prepped and analyzed. Standards, assay blanks and sample duplicates, are inserted into the assay stream every 20 samples, respectively. All assay batches are reviewed for quality with re-assays requested 20 samples on either side of standards that assay more than 2 to 3 SD from an excepted value and for blanks that contain more than 10 ppb gold.