Excellent Results From Sonic Drilling In Historic Heap Leach Pad

VANCOUVER - Liberty Gold Corp. on recently-completed sonic drilling program at the Goldstrike Oxide Gold Project in southwestern Utah. The purpose of the program was to obtain material for metallurgical testing from the historic heap leach pads (HHLP), to determine how much gold remains and to what extent it can be recovered in a new heap leach mining operation. The program followed a 2018 reverse circulation (RC) drilling program, which indicated that considerable gold remains in the HHLP and in underlying backfill material.

The Company completed 815 meters (m) of sonic drilling in 23 holes in the two leach pads making up the HHLP and in adjacent and underlying backfill areas. All holes returned at least 15 m true thickness of above reporting cut-off grade (0.15 grams per tonne gold “g/t Au”) oxide gold mineralization, with some holes in the thicker portions of the pads returning up to 44 m of continuous mineralization. Cyanide solubility of gold in assay pulps, as expected, returned a wide range of values, but generally showed a good correlation between grade and solubility, with some higher-grade intervals returning in excess of 90% cyanide solubility. These data suggest that much of the gold in the HHLP was incompletely leached during the historic mining operation and is potentially available for extraction by re-leaching.

Material from the sonic drilling program will be shipped to Kappes Cassiday Associates in Reno, Nevada for metallurgical column testing under the guidance of the Company’s metallurgical consultant. Data from this program and the RC drilling will be used to estimate the gold available for leaching within the HHLP in support of further engineering studies.

Jon Gilligan, COO, said, “We are extremely pleased with the results of the sonic drilling program. With approximately 7.5 million tonnes of previously-leached material contained in these two pads, much of it still contains gold, it is likely that a significant portion could be re-treated in a modern heap leach operation. This study could enhance the economics of any future operation considerably, particularly in the crucial first year or two of operation. We look forward to the results of the metallurgical testing so we can take the next steps in optimizing the economic viability of the Goldstrike deposit.”