Drilling Underway at Bravada's Wind Mountain Gold/Silver Project in Northwestern Nevada
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 06/16/11 -- Bravada Gold Corporation (TSX VENTURE: BVA)(FRANKFURT: BRT) (the 'Company') reported that drilling is underway at its wholly owned Wind Mountain project, part of the Company's program of advancing the project through pre-feasibility. Wind Mountain is one of the Company's 22 Nevada properties (approximately 20,000 hectares) located in the Battle Mountain-Eureka, Walker Lane, Northern Nevada Rift, Austin, and Kings River Rift gold trends.
Drilling: The program is expected to consist of drilling 70 shallow reverse-circulation holes, 6000 metres in total. Many of the holes will be in-fill within the Wind Mountain and Breeze deposits, with some of the holes testing structures that appear to host higher-than-average grade for the deposits. Currently drilling along these structures is too widely spaced to demonstrate continuity of the higher grades within the resource block model. Some of the drill holes will test areas of shallow mineralization previously intersected in widely scattered historic drill holes and some will test anomalies identified by the Company's January soil survey, where gold values ranged from nil to 1.4 g/t. Those holes that could expand the currently modelled open pit or delineate new areas for open pits will be tested first in order to allow follow-up drilling to proceed as soon as possible.
Metallurgy: Metallurgical test work began in March when eight samples, each approximately 180 kilograms, were collected from historic heaps, 'waste' piles, and in-situ mineralization exposed in the bottom of the existing open pits. These samples provide material necessary for several important metallurgical tests, some of which will continue over many months, providing important data about crushing, reagent requirements, and recovery characteristics.
Results to date from samples of the historic heap-leach piles are particularly encouraging. Analyses by size fraction demonstrate that while gold in the finer fractions was effectively leached, gold was not leached from the coarser fractions. Silver shows a similar pattern. Tests will now be performed to determine the costs for crushing and the respective recoveries for various crush sizes to determine if reprocessing the heaps could be profitable. There are approximately 20 million tonnes of uncrushed, also called run-of-mine, material on the heaps. Similar crushing tests will also be performed on 'waste' piles (approximately 9 million tonnes) and in-situ mineralization in order to determine if those materials should be crushed prior to heap leaching.
Permitting: Biological surveys are nearly complete and archaeology surveys are scheduled to begin in early July. These surveys will be necessary for additional exploration and mine permitting.
The Company also reported that it has granted incentive stock options to directors, officers, consultants and employees, exercisable to purchase 4,800,000 common shares at $0.10 per share for a period of five years in accordance with the Company's stock option plan. The options are subject to acceptance for filing by the TSX Venture Exchange.
About Wind Mountain
The project is located approximately 160km northeast of Reno and has good road access and a power line to the property. AMAX Gold/Kinross Gold recovered nearly 300,000 ounces of gold and over 1,700,000 ounces of silver between 1989 and 1999 from the Wind Mountain and Breeze open pit heap leach operations (based on Kinross Gold files). Rio Fortuna Exploration (US) Inc., a wholly owned US subsidiary of Bravada Gold Corporation, acquired 100% of the property via an earn-in agreement with Agnico-Eagle (USA) Limited, a subsidiary of Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited, who retains a 2% NSR royalty interest, of which 1% can be purchased for $1,000,000 any time prior to production. In May 2010, Rio Fortuna received and filed on SEDAR a Technical Report for the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) conducted by Mine Development Associates (MDA) of Reno. The study assumed open-pit mining using conventional trucks, shovels, run-of-mine leaching and utilized a base case gold price of US$850 per ounce with a credit for silver at a price of $14.50 per ounce. The base case economic model (1) in US dollars indicates:
Resource inside pits = 26.9 million short tons @ 0.012 oz Au/t, with 0.007 oz Au/t cutoff (approx.90% Measured Indicated, approx.10% Inferred)
Gold Ounces mined = 320,000
Gold Ounces produced = 198,000
Waste: Ore Strip ratio = 0.7:1
Capital = Initial capital of $41.8 million with $4.4 million sustaining capital
Mine Life = 4 years active mining with 2 additional years of residual leaching and rinsing of leach pads
Life-of-mine cash cost per Au ounce = $497 after a silver credit of $86 per ounce of gold is applied
Total Pre-Tax cost per Au ounce = $719 after a silver credit of $86 per ounce of gold is applied
IRR = 15%
Pre-tax NVP @ 5% = $13.2 million
(1) Note that Canadian NI 43-101 guidelines define a PEA as follows: 'A preliminary economic assessment is preliminary in nature and it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied that would enable them to be classified as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary assessment will be realized.'
Sensitivity studies by MDA indicated that gold and silver prices 20% higher in the same modeled pit ($1,020/oz Au and $17.40/oz Ag) will increase the IRR to 38% and the NPV@5% to $43.7 million. Gold and silver prices that are 10% lower ($765/oz Au and $13.05/oz Ag) result in the model becoming uneconomic at an NPV@5%. Sensitivities of the model to capital and operating costs are also provided by MDA.
Mine Development Associates, Ore Reserves Engineering ('O.R.E.') and Debra Struhsacker, Environmental Permitting and Government Relations Consultant, compiled the technical report. Thomas Dyer, P.E. is a Senior Engineer for MDA and is responsible for sections of the technical report involving mine designs and the economic evaluation; Alan C. Noble, P.E. is the Principal Engineer of O.R.E. and is responsible for sections of the technical report involving resource modeling and information taken from the 2007 Technical Report completed entitled 'Technical Report on the Wind Mountain Gold Project'; and Debra Struhsacker is responsible for the section of the technical report involving environmental issues. These are the Qualified Persons of the technical report for the purpose of Canadian NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Economic Analyses of Mineral Projects.
About Bravada Gold Corporation
Bravada Gold Corporation is a member of the Manex Resource Group of companies with an exploration office in Reno, Nevada from which it is exploring its extensive Carlin-type and low-sulfidation-type gold holdings strategically located within the numerous productive gold trend in Nevada. The Company has several projects available for joint venture with qualified groups.
Joseph Anthony Kizis, Jr. (P.Geo.) is the Qualified Person responsible for reviewing the technical results in this release.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Bravada Gold Corporation
Joseph A. Kizis Jr., Director, President, Bravada Gold Corporation
This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. These statements are based on a number of assumptions, including, but not limited to, assumptions regarding general economic conditions, interest rates, commodity markets, regulatory and governmental approvals for the company's projects, and the availability of financing for the company's development projects on reasonable terms. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Bravada Gold Corporation does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Bravada Gold Corporation
Liana Shahinian
604.641.2773 or Toll Free 1.888.456.1112
liana@mnxltd.com
www.bravadagold.com