Gold Recoveries From Coarse Crush Bottle Rolls Warranting Investigation Into Heap Leaching

VANCOUVER - Tectonic Metals Inc. reported on the metallurgical test results from the Flat Gold Project, an intrusion-hosted, bulk tonnage gold system located in southwestern Alaska. As part of the first year exploration program at Flat, metallurgical samples were selected by Tectonic from historically drilled diamond core determined to be representative of the known drilled mineralization and five composites comprising of four oxide and one fresh sulphide were formed. The composites were then subject to conventional bottle roll, gravity, combined gravity and bottle roll and flotation metallurgical test work with the goal of de-risking the project and to provide insight into what metallurgical processing methods might be ideal. The metallurgical results from the five composites returned gold recoveries averaging 95.6%, with one test returning a high of 99.1%, all with conventional cyanide leaching (bottle roll) of 75µm material. These exceptional results prompted Tectonic to conduct a follow-up bottle roll test at a coarser crush (6 mesh, 3360 µm), which potentially can be used as a proxy for heap leaching, and an average gold recovery of 88.5% was achieved with four of the five composites returning an average gold recovery of 94.0% and a high of 96.8%. The metallurgical results also demonstrate that the mineralization presently known at Flat is not grind sensitive, is extremely low in sulphur, non preg robbing and favorable to various gold extraction methods. The success of Tectonic' metallurgical program warrants investigating column leach testing as a next step to determine if the mineralization at Flat is amenable to heap leaching.

Tony Reda, President & CEO, said, We are very pleased with the results of our initial metallurgical testing at Flat, which undoubtedly demonstrates the non-refractory nature of known mineralization to date as evidenced by the exceptionally high gold recoveries through bottle roll testing with minimal cyanide consumption. The baseline test work clearly de-risks the Flat project with respect to metallurgy and gives Tectonic confidence to aggressively explore for and develop resources on the project. Most importantly, the high gold recoveries from the 6 mesh bottle rolls coupled with the fact that mineralization begins at surface significantly endorses the potential amenability for open-pit, heap leachable mineralization at Flat. Heap leaching is a processing and extraction technology becoming increasingly popular over recent years due to the potential cost advantages and lower environmental impact it can offer to miners especially as the average grade of gold deposits has decreased over the past decade. Tectonic is excited to evaluate heap leaching as a viable metallurgical processing method at Flat as the next value creating opportunity."