Aurvista Gold Updates Douay West Engineering
Studies
Montreal,
Quebec: Aurvista Gold Corporation (“Aurvista”
or the “Company”) (TSX-V: AVA, OTC: ARVSF)
is pleased to update shareholders and
stakeholders on the completion of recent
engineering work at the Douay West Project
(“Douay West”), part of the 136.5 km2 Douay
Project (“Douay”). Douay is located in the
prolific gold bearing Abitibi Greenstone
Belt where 200 million ounces of gold has
been produced in both Quebec and Ontario
since the early 20th century.
Golder
Associates Ltd. (“Golder”) was retained by
Aurvista in August 2014 to complete an
overburden and rock pit slope design for the
Douay West open pit based as part of the
Company’s Pre-Feasibility Study using a
planned open pit geometry extending 300
metres in the NW-SE direction and 250 metres
in the NE-SW direction to a depth of about
100 metres with overall pit slope angles of
48 degrees. Additional results from Golder’s
underground stope design work, also part of
the Pre-Feasibility Study, are expected in
Q2-2015.
A site investigation of the overburden and
bedrock was carried out in 2014. The overall
overburden slope angles are proposed in the
13 degrees to 17 degrees range for the 5
metres to 40 metres thick overburden;
whereas the rock slope angles are proposed
to be developed with 20 metres high double
benches and interramp angles varying from 48
degrees to 55 degrees, with potential to
steepen to 59 degrees in some design
sectors.
The major recommendations going forward
include additional drilling of the deeper
overburden with laboratory soil
classification and strength testing,
installation of additional piezometers in
the overburden to monitor groundwater
conditions and carrying out pumping tests to
assist with the design of the dewatering
system.
Mr. Jean Lafleur, M. Sc., P. Geo., President
and CEO of Aurvista, stated “In
support of the engineering work and based on
the PEA recommendation to complete a
trade-off study that considers an
underground only scenario versus an open pit
and underground scenario, Aurvista plans to
complete an infill drilling campaign that
would lead to an update of the Mineral
Resources later in 2015. This work would
lead into the prescribed trade-off study
setting the scope of work for a more
comprehensive Pre-Feasibility Study.”
Mr. Lafleur also stated “As
a rule-of-thumb in the mining business we
would need to define minimum 10 years of
Mineral Resources before advancing Douay
West to the Feasibility stage. Right now
there are three additional gold targets
within a 1 kilometre radius of Douay West
from which to add Mineral Resources, in
addition to the immediate Douay West
potential on strike to the west of the
planned pit and at depth below 250 metres.
These additional zones include the Porphyry,
Porphyry NW Extension and the NW zones. The
Porphyry Zone contains current Mineral
Resources of 107 million tonnes grading 0.68
g/t (at a 0.3 g/t cut-off) or 29.4 million
tonnes at 1.3 g/t (at a 0.7 g/t cut-off);
whereas the NW Zone contains 196,000 tonnes
grading 8.68 g/t (at a 0.7 g/t cut-off). The
Porphyry NW Extension Zone extends the main
Porphyry lower grade, bulk gold target to
the NW for an additional 1.2 km consisting
of largely untested ground wedged between
Douay West and the NW zones. The overall
gold potential in and around Douay West is
significant and Aurvista is committed to
drilling this sector in the near term
hopefully adding to the current Mineral
Resources.”
Mr. Lafleur adds “In
the event that any shareholder missed it,
the Sleeping Giant Mill owned by Aurbec
Mines Inc., a subsidiary of Maudore Minerals
Ltd., located 50 kilometres south and east
of Douay is now in receivership. A call for
tenders is expected in Q2-2015.”
The Douay Gold Project (“Douay”) and the
Douay West Zone (“Douay West”)
Douay is located
approximately 55 km southwest of Matagami
and 120 km north of Amos, Quebec. It is
accessible by paved Provincial Highway #109,
which is the major north-south regional road
linking the towns of Amos (Val-d’Or) and
Matagami (James Bay). Access is via the
public road network that extends onto the
mine site. This network could be used to
haul mineralized material off-site to nearby
toll processing facilities. Utilities are
available on site including
hydro-electricity provided directly from
Hydro-Quebec’s power grid to the Company’s
on-site substation.
As of 2012, Douay contained NI 43-101
Mineral Resources of 114,652,000 tonnes at
0.75 g/t gold (2.8 million ounces of gold)
in the Inferred category, and 2,689,000
tonnes at 2.76 g/t gold (238,400 ounces of
gold) in the Measured and Indicated
category, at a cut-off of 0.3 g/t gold.
The Company recently completed a PEA of
Douay West (refer to the Company news
release dated December 9m 2014, and January
22, 2015). The PEA considered both open pit
and underground production options for the
advancement of the project.
The PEA schedule assumed mining of 419,000
tonnes of mineralized material in the open
pit at an average grade of 3.16 g/t gold (at
a cut-off of 1.17 g/t gold) with an average
dilution factor of 16.3% at a grade of 0.32
g/t gold and mining recovery of 97%. The
underground operation would mine 133,000
mineralized development tonnes at a grade of
4.57 g/t gold and 608,000 stoping tonnes at
a grade of 4.83 g/t gold (at a cut-off grade
off 3.25 g/t gold) with an average planned
dilution factor of 14.5% at a grade of 1.82
g/t gold and a mining recovery of 85%.
The study economics showed a pre-tax Net
Present Value (“NPV”) of $25.0 million at a
discount rate of 5% and post-tax NPV(5%) of
$16.6 million using an approximate two-year
average gold price of US$1,350 per ounce and
an exchange rate of 1.00 $C=0.95 US$. The
pre-tax and post-tax internal rates of
return (“IRR”) for the project are 55% and
40%, respectively. The PEA mine plan and
economic model include the use of Inferred
Mineral Resources which are considered too
speculative geologically to have any
economic considerations applied to them that
would enable them to be categorized as
Mineral Reserves and there is no certainty
that the PEA will be realized...
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