Scorpio Gold Commences Milling of Lode-Star Ore 

 

VANCOUVER - Scorpio Gold Corporation reported the milling of Lode-Star Mining Inc. ore at the Company's Goldwedge processing facility, located 54 km north of Tonopah in Manhattan, Nevada, and 120 km north of Lode-Star's Goldfield Bonanza property.

 

As previously announced testing was conducted on Lode Star ore delivered to the Goldwedge milling facility. The Goldwedge mill is a fully permitted, 400 ton per day facility with an associated gravity recovery circuit. The Lode Star ore was separated into three batches and processed through the milling circuit, while adjustments were made to the wet mill cyclones prior to each batch. These cyclone adjustments affect the final particle size and provide a range for grind size versus recovery and associated throughput. This testing, when analyzed, will provide the baselines for metallurgical recoveries and mill throughput data to support the economics of processing Lode Star's ore. 

The coarse gold component of Lode-Star's material was recovered by the gravity circuit. Further testing will be conducted on the tailings to determine the potential economics of shipping tailings to the Company's Mineral Ridge heap leach operation for final recovery of cyanide-leachable precious metals. Metallurgical testing of the batched product will be conducted by Kappes Cassiday of Reno, Nevada.

Scorpio Gold's President, Chris Zerga, comments, "Although this testing was somewhat delayed due to permitting, the milling of the Lode Star ore at our Goldwedge facility went as planned and we look forward to reviewing the results from the metallurgical testing. These results should provide the basis for a long-term toll milling contract with Lode-Star." 

Lode-Star is the operator of the Goldfield Bonanza property, acquired under an option for development on December 11, 2014 from Lode-Star Gold, Inc., a private Nevada corporation. The property is located in the historic gold producing district of Goldfield, NV, which at one time was Nevada's largest gold producing district. Historic production totaled better than 4 million ounces of gold.

Scorpio Gold holds a 70% interest in the producing Mineral Ridge gold mining operation located in Esmeralda County, Nevada with joint venture partner Elevon, LLC (30%). Mineral Ridge is a conventional open pit mining and heap leach operation. The Mineral Ridge property is host to multiple gold-bearing structures, veins and lenses at exploration, development and production stages. Scorpio Gold also holds a 100% interest in the advanced exploration-stage Goldwedge property in Manhattan, Nevada with a fully permitted underground mine and 400 ton per day mill facility.