SURREY, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - April 20, 2015) - Ascot (TSX VENTURE:AOT) is pleased to announce that it has commenced its 2015 drill program at Premier. The Premier property covers more than one hundred square kilometres near the town of Stewart in northwest BC, and includes the old Premier Mine, a past producer of 2.1 MOz Au and 44.9 MOz Ag. Drilling in 2015 will be concentrated in the Premier main zone and Premier west zone areas, following up on the highly successful 2014 drilling campaign which saw many multi ounce gold intercepts, the most spectacular of which was 14,394.5 grams per ton gold over 0.75 of a metre.
Ascot has recently received results from bench scale metallurgical test work for samples from Big Missouri and the Premier mine area conducted by ALS Metallurgy Kamloops. Three composite samples were tested with whole ore cyanide leaching at different grind sizes over 48 hour cycles. Gold recovery ranged from 90-96% while silver recovery ranged from 69-76% both showing little notable effect to grind size.
Leach extraction appears reasonably fast for gold with peak extraction after 6 hours while silver extraction was slower. Amenability of gravity concentration was also examined with overall gold recoveries of between 32% and 52% of the feed gold recovered. When gravity concentration was incorporated with cyanidation leaching a combined gold recovery of 93-97% was obtained, nominally better than whole ore leaching. The Premier ore contains areas of high zinc content and future work will include zinc flotation tests.
Graeme Evans, P. Geo and Lawrence Tsang, P. Geo are providing the field management for the Premier exploration program. Graeme Evans, designated as the Qualified Person (QP) as defined by National Instrument 43-101 has prepared the technical information in this news release.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
ASCOT RESOURCES LTD.
John A. Toffan, President and Director
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information
All statements, trend analysis and other information contained in this press release relative to markets about anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation; statements regarding the exploration and mineralization potential of the Premier property, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Ascot's expectations include fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need for cooperation of government agencies and native groups in the exploration and development of properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; and uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made. Ascot does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.