Livengood Gold Project Continues To Expand
Results have now been released for 168 of the 207 holes completed in 2009 (65,000 metres), with assays for 39 drill holes pending. The first phase of the 2010 drilling campaign is scheduled to commence at the beginning of February, 2010 with four drill rigs. The 2010 program is currently planned to complete 50,000 metres of resource expansion and infill drilling. The first Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Livengood deposit, which will focus on the heap leach option, is currently underway using the present (October 2009) resource model. The results from this initial study are anticipated later this quarter. A new resource estimate is scheduled to be completed when all the remaining assay results have been released. This 2009 year-end resource estimate is anticipated to be completed in the first quarter of 2010. Ongoing metallurgical testing for the addition of a milling circuit should be completed by the end of 2009 for integration into an updated PEA evaluating the combined milling/heap leach option, which is scheduled to be finished late in the first quarter of 2010.
The six new Sunshine Zone holes reported demonstrate the continuity of mineralization in the south and eastern part of the Zone. Hole MK-RC-267 (117 metres @ 1.2 g/t gold) demonstrates the depth continuity to the south and hole MK-RC-254 (41 metres @ 1.1 g/t gold) shows the mineralized zone remains open to the southeast. These new results continue to highlight the significant expansion potential of this large new area of the deposit, which has excellent continuity to depths of at least 250 metres with oxidation extending to 170+ metres in depth. These characteristics magnify the economic potential of the Sunshine Zone, given the apparent low strip ratio in a broad range of oxidation where gold recoveries are anticipated to be better. Assay results from several holes continue to delineate this prolific new zone of mineralization to the northeast of the Sunshine Zone. Mineralization in this zone is characterized by numerous intervals from 10-30 metres thick that coalesce in some areas, as demonstrated by hole MK-RC-0216 (114 metres @ 0.9 g/t gold.
In the central part of the deposit a significant new zone of mineralization is developing on the eastern side of Money Knob hill, where MK-RC-0262 returned 104 metres @ 1.0 g/t gold. Several of the pending drill holes in this area display strong alteration, characteristic of the higher grade gold zones.
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