Positive Results from Blackdome Tailings !!
SONA RESOURCES CORP.
NEWS RELEASE No. 3, 2010
Positive Results from Blackdome Tailings Metallurgy Tests
Studies Indicate Possible Gold Recovery from Tailings
VANCOUVER, February 23, 2010 - Sona Resources Corp. (the "Company" or "Sona"; TSXV - SYS) is pleased to announce that recent metallurgical testing conducted by SGS Lakefield Research indicates that 92.3 percent of the residual gold contained within the tailings pond from the Blackdome Gold Mine ("Blackdome") can be recovered by cyanidation. In 2002, a total of 51 drill holes over 314 metres were completed, covering the majority of the tailings pond. Sampling determined that the average grade of samples from the area tested was 1.89g Au/t (Mine Tailings Sampling Program on the Blackdome Property, Geoquest Consulting Ltd., May 16, 2002). The Blackdome Property is located approximately 250 kilometres north of Vancouver in the Clinton Mining Division.
When production commenced at Blackdome in 1986, it was one of the highest-grade gold mines in Canada. Production for the periods 1986 to 1991 and 1998 totaled approximately 231,000 ounces of gold and 564,000 ounces of silver from approximately 357,000 tonnes milled. This gave an average recovered grade of about 20g Au/t (0.65 oz Au). Gold recovery was reportedly just over 90 percent during the life of the mine, with the balance of slightly under 10 percent discharged into the tailings area.
The ore at Blackdome possessed relatively simple metallurgy with over 60 percent of the gold being free. Milling consisted of a gravity circuit for the recovery of free gold, and a floatation circuit to recover precious metal bearing sulphides. Tailings were discharged into a pond about 80 metres below the mill and were impounded by a rock and clay fill dam. The tailings are relatively benign environmentally and are classified as not acid generating, with a very low acid-producing potential (0.3 to 0.6 t CaCO3/1,000 t).
About Sona Resources Corp.
Since its inception in 1990, Sona has engaged in exploration activities at its mineral properties in Canada and the U.S., as well as small-scale gold production at its flagship property, the Blackdome Gold Mine, in south-central British Columbia. At its Elizabeth Gold Property, 50 kilometres south of the Blackdome Gold Mine, Sona has outlined an inferred gold resource of 522,900 tonnes grading 12.3g Au/t containing 206,100 ounces of gold, (news release June 8, 2009). Sona is working toward bringing the Blackdome mill back into production over the next two to three years, with feed from both the former producing Blackdome Mine and the Elizabeth Deposit.
Sona holds a 100 percent interest in two other promising properties. The Callaghan Project is located in Nevada within 80 kilometres of several producing mines and is underlain by the Roberts Mountain Thrust, which is a major structural setting for gold deposits in the state. The Montgolfier Project is located in Quebec and lies 40 kilometres east of the multimillion ounce Casa Berardi Mine gold deposit, and straddles a 25 kilometre strike length along the Casa Berardi deformation zone.
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by John P. Thompson, P.Eng., Sona’s qualified person for this project for the purposes of NI 43-101 regulations.