Montreal, Quebec: Aurvista Gold Corporation (“Aurvista” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: AVA, OTCQB: ARVSF; Frankfurt: AV2) is pleased to announce that the Company has filed a NI 43-101 Technical Report for Mineral Resource Estimates (the “Technical Report”) at the Douay Gold Project (“Douay”). The independent Technical Report was completed by Micon International Limited (“Micon”), titled “NI 43-101 F1 Technical Report, Updated Resources Estimate for the Douay Gold Project, Douay Township, Quebec, Canada” dated April 10, 2017 with an effective date of February 15, 2017.
Highlights:
- Inferred (“Pit-Constrained”) Mineral Resource Estimate of 2,813,000 ounces of gold in 83,327,000 tonnes at an average gold grade of 1.05 g/t Au (0.5 g/t gold cut-off grade).
- At a higher cut-off grade (0.7 g/t Au), the Inferred Pit-Constrained Mineral Resource Estimate stands at 2,177,000 ounces of gold in 49,700,000 tonnes at an average gold grade of 1.38 g/t Au, representing 77% of the overall pit-constrained Inferred ounces.
- Preliminary gravity and flotation metallurgical test results were relatively consistent, total gold recovery ranged from 88 to 97% (average 92%).
- All zones are still open in all directions and there is potential to increase the resources further once the true extent of the mineralization is outlined at the Douay Project.
Aurvista’s President and CEO, Jean Lafleur, stated: “The filing of the NI 43-101 Updated Mineral Resource Estimate marks an important milestone for the Company. Our technical team spent significant time completing a comprehensive re-logging and re-sampling program that resulted in standardized drill logging information and reduced rock types within our databases. This improved understanding of mineralization and deposit types has contributed to the resource growth and go-forward exploration plans at Douay.”
The table below outlines the “Pit-Constrained” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimates at various cut-off grades:
Table 1: “Pit-Constrained” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate Summary*
| “Pit-constrained” INFERRED Mineral Resource Estimate* |
Cut-off Grade (g/t Au) |
Tonnes |
Gold Grade (g/t) |
Gold Metal (Ounces) |
| 5.0 | 588,000 | 7.38 | 139,000 | |
| 3.0 | 2,143,000 | 4.73 | 326,000 | |
| 1.0 | 27,519,000 | 1.79 | 1,585,000 | |
| 0.7 | 49,700,000 | 1.36 | 2,177,000 | |
| 0.5 | 83,327,000 | 1.05 | 2,813,000 | |
| 0.3 | 143,566,000 | 0.77 | 3,567,000 |
*A Mineral Resource is a concentration or occurrence of metals in such form and quantity and of such a grade or quality that it has reasonable prospects for economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade, geological characteristics and continuity of a Mineral Resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge. Reasonable prospects for economic extraction implies a judgment by a Qualified Person in respect of the technical and economic factors likely to influence the prospect of economic extraction. An Inferred Mineral Resource is that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade or quality are estimated on the basis of limited geological evidence and sampling. Geological evidence is sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade or quality continuity. “Pit-Constrained” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate is an inventory of mineralization under an open pit scenario that under realistically assumed and justifiable technical and economic conditions might become economically extractable. They have been prepared without reference to surface rights or the presence of overlying public infrastructure.
The NI 43-101 Technical Report has been posted to the Company’s website at www.aurvistagold.com and can also be found under Aurvista’s Company profile on SEDAR at www.SEDAR.com.
Additional Details for the NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimates and Technical Report
The “Pit-constrained” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate mineralized envelopes were modeled using Leapfrog Geo at a 0.3 g/t cut-off with the inclusion of lower grade material for modeling purposes, and are contained in eight separate zones: 10, 20, 531, Central, Douay West, North-West, Porphyry and Main, and may consist of a number of sub-parallel or parallel lenses. Bulk densities used: 2.88 - Douay West, 2.81 - Porphyry, 2.94 - 10, 2.67 – 20, 2.78 - North-West, 2.77 – Main, and the Central Zone and Waste used the global average of 2.82 as no test work was conducted for these areas. The overburden was assigned a bulk density of 1.5.
Only the mineral resources for the Douay West, Porphyry and 531 zones were estimated using Ordinary Kriging with the remaining zones estimated using Inverse Distance Cubed, due to the number of data points for each zone. A block size of 10 m x 2 m x 5m was used. The search ellipses ranged from 50 m to 300 m and used three passes to fill the blocks within the model. The figures have been rounded to reflect that they are estimates. The multiple open pits used to constrain the “Pit-Constrained” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate are comprised of the ultimate breakeven Whittle pit-shell cones, which do not consider pit design or minimum mining widths.
The open pit parameters used to construct the optimization are: gold price of US $1,400 per ounce, an exchange rate (CAN$/US$) of 1.32:1, overburden stripping cost of CAN$2.50/t, open pit mining cost of CAN$2.78/t, processing cost of CAN$8.14/t, and G&A cost of CAN$2.47/t.
Gold recoveries per zone are: Douay West - 85%, North-West - 52.5%, Porphyry - 94%, 20 - 92%, 10 - 88%, Central - 94%, 531- 93% and Main - 83%. Pit slope angles are: 55° for the foot wall; 52° for the hanging wall and 25° for the overburden.
The report for Aurvista Gold Corporation entitled “NI 43-101 F1 Technical Report, Updated Resources Estimate for the Douay Gold Project, Douay Township, Quebec, Canada” dated April 10, 2017 with an effective date of February 15, 2017, was co-authored by William J. Lewis, B.Sc., P. Geo., Antoine R. Yassa, P. Geo., and Richard Gowans, P. Eng..
Douay Gold Project and Company Profile
Aurvista Gold Corporation is a leading gold exploration and development Company advancing the Douay Gold Project in Quebec. Aurvista’s Douay Gold Project consists of a 100% owned interest in 541 mostly contiguous claims totaling 293 km2 and a 75% interest (25% held by SOQUEM) in 32 contiguous claims totaling 11.9 km2. In total, there are 573 claims covering 305 km2 located along a 40 km segment of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone in the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt of northern Quebec. Douay is located 40 km SW of the Matagami Base Metal Camp and ~140 km N of the Val-d’Or Canadian Malartic Gold Camp (both in Quebec). The Company has 138,545,780 shares outstanding trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and OTCQB in the US. For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.aurvistagold.com.
Qualified Person
The technical contents in this news release have been reviewed and approved by Mr. Jean Lafleur, M. Sc., P. Geo., President and CEO for Aurvista Gold Corporation, and Mr. William Lewis, B.Sc., P. Geo., of Micon, who is independent of Aurvista and who is responsible for the “Pit-constrained” Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate. Both individuals are Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43-101.
For further information please contact:
Mr. Jean Lafleur, P. Geo.
President and CEO, Director
Cell: +1 514 927 3633
Mr. Keith C Minty, P. Eng., MBA
Chief Operating Officer
Phone: +1 416 682 2671
NEITHER THE 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 PRESS RELEASE.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions, uncertainties and management’s best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company’s expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. When used herein, words such as “anticipate”, “will”, “intend” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Aurvista Gold Corporation’s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company’s website at www.aurvistagold.com.