TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 12/20/11 -- Crocodile Gold Corp. (TSX:CRK)(OTCQX:CROCF)(FRANKFURT:XGC) ("Crocodile Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed a Mine and Development Options Study ("the Study") to ascertain the optimum financial development scenario for its Maud Creek Deposit.
The Study concluded (using A$1400 oz Au gold price) that the deposit can support a financially viable and robust gold project. The Maud Creek Deposit has a 43-101 compliant Indicated Mineral Resources of 9,288,000 tonnes at 3.1 g/t Au and Inferred Mineral Resources of 1,072,000 tonnes at 2.4 g/t Au.
The Maud Creek Deposit is a sulphide Mineral Resource located approximately 110 kilometres southeast of the Company's Union Reefs processing facility. The deposit is accessible by asphalt road and is 100% owned by Crocodile Gold. The deposit was discovered in 1987 and the oxide portion of the deposit was successfully and economically mined and processed at the Union Reefs processing facility in 2000.
Key Study findings include:
-- The development scenario of a high-grade open pit followed byunderground mining with on site ore processing to produce a gold richconcentrate provides the highest Net Present Value, Rates of Return andquickest project payback.-- The preferred ore processing scenario is the construction of a dedicatedconcentrator at the Maud Creek mine site, utilizing a simple flotationcircuit (with a gravity gold circuit). The concentrator will produce agold rich sulphide concentrate (of between 2 ounces and 5 ounces Au pertonne) with a high overall total gold recovery of greater than 95%.-- With most of the mining conducted from underground and utilizing asimple flotation circuit, the intent is that minimal, easily mitigated,environmental disturbance will occur on site.-- While the majority of the ore is refractory in nature, approximately 10%to 15% of the gold is free and can be recovered by a gravity goldcircuit.-- Based on the open pit and underground mining studies, an ore-processingrate of between 400,000 and 500,000 tonnes per annum matches with likelyoptimum mining extraction rates.-- The high-grade mineralized zones located immediately below the existingOxide open pit indicates that for the first three years of mineproduction approximately 70,000 ounces per annum is achievable, with anaverage annual Life of Mine production of greater than 50,000 ounces peryear.-- Opportunities exist to utilize the Company's Union Reefs processingfacility to reduce capital costs and operating costs with theinstallation of a dedicated circuit to treat the concentrate from theMaud Creek mill and recover gold directly on site. This dedicatedcircuit will provide considerable savings in concentrate transport costsas well as concentrate Treatment and Refining charges compared to theoption of shipping the concentrate to a facility equipped to process andrecover gold from the concentrate.
Based on the positive results the Company will be working towards advancing the project via a Pre- Feasibility Study where further detailed studies will be conducted.
In the latter part of 2011 Crocodile Gold's exploration group undertook a diamond drill program to confirm the current resource model and possibly expand the resource base. This program has just recently been completed and assay results are pending. They will be reported at a later date.
About Crocodile Gold