Amalga Mine Project Initiating Testwork For New System

VANCOUVER - Grande Portage Resources Ltd. reported that it is initiating testwork for a sensor-based ore sorting system, utilizing samples from the New Amalga Mine Project located approximately 16 miles (25 km) northwest of the city of Juneau, Alaska.

The Company's Conceptual Mining Plan envisions the development of the New Amalga gold mine as a selective underground mining operation which would send ore off-site to be processed at a third-party facility, enabled by the project's location near tidewater and less than 4 miles (6.5km) from existing paved highway. This results in a dramatically reduced mine site footprint due to the avoidance of chemical processing and tailings storage facilities. Processing options include potential use of third-party concentrator facilities around the Pacific Rim or direct shipment to smelters in East Asia.

Grande Portage has assembled a drill core composite which is reflective of the anticipated production from the Conceptual Mine Plan. The composite includes both ore and waste samples to reflect the expected dilution from wall rock (waste) which is inherent with underground blasting of narrow ore veins. This core is being subjected to a sensor-based ore sorting test process at the facilities of Steinert US Inc, a leading global manufacturer of ore-sorting equipment. The purpose of ore sorting is to quickly separate particles of waste dilution rock from the mined material, without the use of chemical reagents.

Sensor-based ore sorting utilizes a variety of measurements to determine whether a particle is ore or waste, including color, electromagnetic induction, and x-ray analysis to assess elemental composition. The crushed rock is placed on a conveyor belt and then dropped in front of the sensor, which rapidly analyzes the individual pieces of rock. When a piece of rock is identified as waste, a puff of compressed air redirects it to a "reject" bin. The remaining pieces of rock are sent to the stockpile of accepted material.

The New Amalga deposit is considered a good candidate for use of ore sorting technology since the wall rock is often both visually and geochemically distinct from the quartz vein resource.

Ian Klassen, President and CEO, said, "Sensor-based ore sorting is a well-established technology currently in use at many mines worldwide, and we are very excited to be working with Steinert to test its effectiveness on samples representative of the New Amalga conceptual mine plan.

Integrating ore sorting into the production plan could significantly reduce the amount of mined rock requiring transportation and processing at a third-party facility, lowering per-ounce costs while also providing useful sorter-reject material for underground backfill as part of the mining cycle. This would further enhance the existing advantages of our proposed direct-ship mine configuration which utilizes offsite processing. It may also create opportunities for inclusion of thinner veins into the mine plan - areas of the deposit which otherwise may not have been considered viable."