News Release2012-04-17 04:26 PT - News Release
Dr. Bill Pearson reports
CASTILLIAN INITIATES TECHNICAL WORK FOR PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT AT HOPE BROOK GOLD PROJECT, NEWFOUNDLAND
Castillian Resources Corp. has retained the services of AGP Mining Consultants Inc. to supervise the technical work required to form the basis of a preliminary economic assessment for the Hope Brook gold project in southwest Newfoundland. The technical work will lay the foundation as the company continues to establish Hope Brook as a potentially viable gold operation.
As recommended in the independent technical report entitled "Mineral Resource Estimate Technical Report, Hope Brook Gold Project, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada" (the "Technical Report") (see the press release issued by Castillian on April 5, 2012), such technical work will include metallurgical testing, acid base accounting and preliminary geotechnical and environmental studies, together with detailed systematic sampling of the historic tailings deposits to assess gold grades.
Dr. Bill Pearson, P.Geo., President & CEO of Castillian, commented: "We believe there is potential to improve metallurgical recovery from the levels reported for the historic mine plant. In addition, the preliminary tailings sample results reported by Castillian (see press release dated March 29, 2012) indicate that there may be more gold in the tailings than previously reported. Our current 5000 metre diamond drill program at Hope Brook is focused on identifying potential major extensions to the existing mineral resources as well as testing new targets."
AGP Mining Consultants Inc. is a mining consulting firm specializing in mine engineering (underground and open pit), mineral resource estimation, metallurgical development and process engineering, geotechnical and water resources engineering, infrastructure and project management. Two members of Castillian's Board of Directors, Michael Hoffman, P.Eng, a mining engineer and Brian Penney, P.Eng, a metallurgical engineer, both of whom have extensive production experience, will be advisors for the technical work program.
The National Instrument 43-101-compliant mineral resources on the Company's Hope Brook Gold Project, as reported in the press release issued by Castillian on February 14, 2012, are estimated to contain 290,000 indicated ounces of gold and 740,000 inferred ounces of gold as set out in Table 1 below. There is a possible copper credit that is not included in the mineral resource estimate due to missing copper assays for the historical drill holes. The Technical Report is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.castillian.ca.
Table 1: Hope Brook Project Mineral Resource Summary as at February 14, 2012
Table 1. NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate, Hope Brook Gold Project as at February 14, 2012 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Within constraining(i) shell Below constraining(i) shell @ 0.50 g Au/t cutoff @ 2.0 g Au/t cutoff -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tonnes Gold Gold Tonnes Gold Gold Category (millions) g/t (k Oz) (millions) (g/t) (k Oz) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------Indicated 4.0 1.11 140 1.5 3.04 150 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------Inferred 11.2 1.57 570 2.0 2.65 170 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tonnes Gold Gold Category (millions) g/t (k Oz) ---------------------------------------------Indicated 5.5 1.65 290 ---------------------------------------------Inferred 13.2 1.73 740
SAMPLING, ASSAYING AND QUALITY CONTROL
All drill core in the Castillian diamond drilling program (NQ (47.6 mm), BQTK (40.6mm) and BQ (36.4mm)) was logged, photographed and then sawn in half with one-half sent to the laboratory for analysis and the other half retained and stored on site. All core samples were prepared and assayed at ALS Chemex, with sample preparation done in Sudbury and analytical work done in Vancouver. All locations of ALS Chemex are ISO 9001:2000 certified. The entire sample received is weighed and crushed to greater than or equal to 70% passing 2mm (10 mesh). A sample split of up to 1000g is then pulverized to greater than or equal to 85% passing 75 microns (200 mesh) to produce a homogenized sample. A 50g aliquot is used for fire assaying with an atomic absorption (AA) finish to determine gold concentration. Copper is initially analyzed using a four acid digestion ICP (inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry) method. Any results for copper greater than 10,000 ppm are assayed further by a four acid digestion and "ore grade" ICP method. Internal quality control includes the use of blanks, duplicates and standards in every batch of samples. The Company also conducts internal check assaying using certified external reference standards and blanks. Regular external check assays are performed at a second certified Canadian commercial laboratory. Castillian also inserts external reference standards as well as blank granite drill core in each sample batch as a further external check.
QUALIFIED PERSONS
Mr. Dan Lee, P.Geo., Chief Geologist and Project Manager for Hope Brook, and Dr. Bill Pearson, P.Geo., President and CEO of Castillian, both of whom are qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101, have reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content of this press release. Pierre Desautels, P.Eng., Principal Resource Geologist, and Jay Melnyk, P.Eng., Principal Mining Engineer, both of AGP Mining Consultants and qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101 who are independent of the Company, have prepared and authorized the release of the mineral resource estimates presented herein. The Castillian and historical diamond drill hole databases and geological model developed by Castillian were reviewed and validated by Michael Cullen, P.Geo., of Mercator Geological Services, a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101 who is independent of the Company.
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