May 15 2014
Star Gold Corp. ("Star Gold" or the "Company") announced today that the Company released results from its metallurgical testing on the Main Zone as part of its flagship property, the Longstreet Property, located near Tonopah, Nevada (referred to herein as the "Longstreet Property" or the "Longstreet Project"). These results conclude six months of testing from material taken from the adit on the Main Zone in 2013.
Star Gold engaged McClellend Laboratories, Sparks, Nevada to undertake a metallurgical test work program on mineralized samples from its Longstreet Project in west central Nevada. The technical data generated from the metallurgical test work program provides adequate data that will enable Star Gold to undertake and complete a Preliminary Economic Analysis (PEA) on the Longstreet Project.
The metallurgical test program was conducted in order to verify earlier work on the leachability of surface and underground gold/silver mineralization at the Longstreet Main Zone.
A heap leach cyanidation test program was undertaken on samples selected from the currently defined resource which was identified to contain two main types of mineralization, near the surface -- "oxide" mineralization associated with limonitic pseudomorphs of pyrite, and "sulphide" mineralization associated with disseminated pyrite. It is estimated that approximately 95% of the mineralized deposit can be categorized as oxide with the remaining 5% as sulphide.
Methodologically, the heap leach (column) cyanidation test program utilized three master composite samples of oxide material. The composite samples were identified as surface, underground and a master blend, which was composited using a weighted average of surface and underground sample. All samples were crushed to a size of P80 of 19mm (80% of material smaller than 19mm) and were leached for a period of 180 days. Gold extractions ranged from 83.1% to 88.9% indicating that the Longstreet Project deposit oxide is amenable to gold heap leaching. Silver extractions for the column tests were low and ranged from 15.4% to 20.0% (see chart).
Bottle roll testwork was carried out on a variety of crush size products ranging in size from 100% -50 mm down to 80% -1.7 mm material utilizing cyanide concentrations ranging from 1 to 5 g NaCN/liter. The total leach time for all bottle rolls tests was 96 hours. Gold extractions ranged from 63% to 81% with silver extractions ranging from 3.6% to 17.5%. A single bottle roll test was conducted on a sample ground to a P80 of 75 microns in order to examine the effect of fine grinding on silver recovery. Results indicate a silver recovery of 60.6% indicating that fine grinding would be required in order to liberate silver and improve recovery. This was confirmed by the mineralogical examination of the bottle roll tail sample which indicated that, due to the fine-grained nature of the silver sulphide, recovery can be increased by further liberation or exposure of the silver.
Future metallurgical testwork has been recommended to explore load/permeability testing, reagent optimization, variability testing and crushing testwork.
QUALIFIED PERSONS
The metallurgical testwork was completed by McClellend Laboratories, Sparks, Nevada, and reviewed by Mr. Alfred S. Hayden, P.Eng., a Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument 43-101, a Canadian regulation with prescribed standards for the reporting of mineral property technical information. The NI 43-101 standard is accepted in many jurisdictions. Alfred S. Hayden, P.Eng., is independent of Star Gold Corp and has approved the contents of this press release that pertain to the metallurgical test work results and their interpretation.
About Star Gold Corp.
Star Gold is a gold exploration company with 115 unpatented claims and located within the historically prolific Walker Lane belt. The Company is currently focused on developing its flagship property, Longstreet Project. The Longstreet Project is located in Nye County, Nevada.