Aurvista Gold Discovers 25 New Targets at the Douay Gold Project
Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - December 17, 2014) - Aurvista Gold Corporation (TSXV: AVA) (OTC: ARVSF) ("Aurvista" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from the Company's recently completed geophysical interpretation of 2011 magnetic and historic electromagnetic-magnetic ("EM") INPUTTM airborne geophysical surveys from the Douay Gold Project (the "Project") within the prolific gold producing Abitibi Greenstone Belt ("AGB"). A list of the geophysical and geological technical reports and data sets compiled and synthesized for the geophysical interpretation are appended to this press release. The magnetic and EM INPUTTM responses and target map can be found on the Company's website www.aurvistagold.com under Compilation-Target Map #5.
Notable conclusions include:
- Discovery of a number of sizeable EM INNPUTTM anomalies associated with a mix of felsic and mafic volcanic rocks that could be associated with base metal mineralization. The largest which spans a length of 4 km has been marked inside the ellipse on the Compilation-Target Map #5.
There are a number of examples of such bi-modal occurrences in the AGB. - The largest portion of the newly discovered targets is in an area some 6 km in length and 1 km wide and contains a cluster of EM INPUTTM anomalies and conductors. This cluster runs from the southern tip of the South Porphyry Zone eastwards to the limit of the Project (marked by a rectangle on the Compilation-Target Map #5).
- The discovery of these targets has resulted in Aurvista map-staking a group of contiguous claims to the southwest of the Project. This has not been approved as of yet but the Company is taking the necessary steps.
The original strategy behind the on-going geophysical and geological interpretation work was to assist in identifying additional targets with similar geophysical properties to those associated with already known gold mineralization on the Project.
The Company now believes that the results show the potential for additional and significant gold and base metal mineralization. Examples of such bi-modal occurrences in the region include: (1) the Dome, McIntyre, Hollinger gold deposits of the Timmins Mining Camp with the copper-zinc mineralization of the Kidd Creek deposit; (2) the Doyon gold deposit along the Cadillac Break of the Rouyn-Noranda Mining Camp with the Bousquet gold-base metal deposit; and (3) the Sigma-Lamaque gold deposits of the Val-d'Or Mining Camp with the Louvicourt base metal deposit.
The bi-modal gold and base metal potential cannot be overlooked, since the Project is of camp-scale proportion extending in length for 20 km along the CBDZ, of which only 10 km has been reasonably investigated for gold only. There are numerous EM INPUTTM conductors outside of the known gold mineralization corridor. These EM INPUTTM conductors could potentially be linked to massive sulphides based on the geological-geophysical association.
The Douay-Style Mineralization ("DSM")
Independent geophysical and geological consultant Yvan Bussières, P. Eng., of St-Eustache (Quebec), compiled and interpreted the 2011 magnetic and historic magnetic and EM INPUTTM airborne geophysical surveys from the Project and surrounding area.
The main conclusion of the interpretation is that there is a direct link between several multi-kilometric magnetic signatures, bedrock alterations, known gold mineralization and structural patterns. The distinct association is now termed the Douay-Style Mineralization (the "DSM"). The DSM has been well defined by historic and recent exploration work, although not necessarily recognized as such by the previous investigations since the 1970's.
The DSM is comprised of the following:
| (1) | A 10 km long by 3 km wide southeast-tilted parallelogram-shaped block (at its longest and widest points) covering an area of 18 km2 located in the centre of the Project and bounded in all directions by southeast-northwest and northeast-southwest splay faults of the east-west trending Casa Berardi Fault (the "Fault"). |
| (2) | Mafic and felsic volcanics with related sediments and porphyry intrusives that are typical of the AGB gold camps. Some of the sediments appear as younger conglomerates of the Timiskaming-type (the Pull-Apart Zone). This is not uncommon as they are present in the Kirkland Lake and Timmins Gold Mining Camps in the western portion of the AGB; |
| (3) | Schistose and foliated host rocks due to various degrees of shearing related to the CBDZ and its numerous faults or "horsetail faults"; |
| (4) | Highly altered host rocks containing anomalous amounts of secondary pyrite (an iron sulphide), barite (a barium sulphate), anhydrite (a calcium sulphate), ankerite (an iron carbonate), fluorite (a calcium fluoride), and micas (water bearing potassium fluorine aluminum silicates) and/or clay minerals (water bearing aluminum silicates); |
| (5) | The geophysical responses are unique to the DSM in that they consist of chaotic, non-linear, and distorted bands of strong magnetic highs and complementary lows that result from the faulting, shearing, and alteration of the host rocks; |
| (6) | All of the known higher and lower grade gold mineralization, such as the "Douay West", "10", "20", "531", "Central", "Main", "Northwest", "Porphyry" and the "South Porphyry" zones; are clearly identified on the Compilation-Target Map #5. |
| (7) | Of the zones noted above in (6), the gold mineralization including in the porphyry zones tend to occupy magnetic lows; and the DSM completely lacks EM INPUTTM anomalies or conductive horizons. |
Other Geophysical Targets
Several significant targets including those of the DSM-type remain completely untested outside of the discovered gold mineralization marked by the parallelogram-shaped block on the Compilation-Target Map #5. The untested locations run along the remaining 10 kilometric-long area of the CBDZ that lies within the Project limits.
A number of the 25 newly identified targets in this interpretation are extensions of already known gold mineralization, however the Company still considers these viable targets as they could potentially contain higher grade gold veins and/or disseminated, and strictly disseminated, bulk gold mineralization, as well as possible Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide ("VMS"). There is one specific VMS target, 6 km long, running along the southeast boundary of the DMS, which contains a 1 km wide cluster of EM INPUTTM anomalies or conductors (shown on the Compilation-Target Map #5).
Jean Lafleur, M.Sc., P. Geo., President and CEO of Aurvista commented "The geophysical interpretation has now shown that the 3 million ounces of gold in mineral resources outlined in a 2012 NI 43-101 technical report sits within a 5 km2 segment of a 18 km2 geophysical target area that remains largely untested for gold. This excludes the remaining untested 10 km trend of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone, as well as the massive sulphide targets."
Mr. Lafleur adds "All of the superpit mineralization at the Dome, Canadian-Malartic and Detour Lake deposits, which are located in the AGB along with Douay, had extensive historic underground mining which extracted most of the higher grade gold veins and stockworks. Douay, on the other hand has never been mined and contains the higher grade gold lenses surrounded by lower grade gold mineralization in very similar geological environments to the superpit deposits. Douay lacks the extensive exploration at this time to substantiate a larger mineral resource. Aurvista's 20 km strike length includes the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone, a structure similar to the Porcupine-Destor and Larder Lake-Cadillac Deformation Zones, which hosts numerous gold deposits, such as the Dome, McIntyre and Hollinger mines in the historic triangle or the 25 km long Val-d'Or and Malartic gold deposit trend."
Aurvista's combined geophysical and geological interpretative work will continue into 2015. It will include the field testing of the priority targets determined as part of the interpretation, starting as soon as possible. The Company is also focused on the engineering and permitting processes to assess the potential and the economics of bringing the Douay West Zone into production. At the beginning of Q3-2014 the Company undertook an engineering program that includes both overburden and rock field investigations for slope engineering and design purposes, a hydrogeological investigation, an environmental baseline study, a geochemistry program and mineral resource infill drilling. The infill drilling will lead to a revised resource estimation that will be appropriate for both an open pit and an underground mining scenario. Much of the work is nearly complete and will be reported in mid-2015. The resource modeling will continue to be revised as the Company receives drill results.
A Company news release issued on December 9, 2014, summarized a Preliminary Economic Study ("PEA") of the Douay West Zone. The PEA considers both open pit and underground production options for the advancement of the Project. The study economics show a pre-tax Net Present Value ("NPV") of $25.0 million at a discount rate of 5% and post-tax NPV 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 valuations compare to a current market capitalization of approximately $C 3,000,000.
The technical contents in this news release have written, revised and approved by Mr. Jean Lafleur, M. Sc., P. Geo., President and CEO for Aurvista Gold Corp., Mr. Denis Chénard, P. Eng., Aurvista's Senior Project Consultant Geological Engineer at the Douay Gold Project, and Mr. Yvan Bussières, P. Eng., Geophysical and Geological Consultant. All three individuals are Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43-101.
About Aurvista Gold
Aurvista Gold Corp. is a junior gold exploration and development company. Aurvista's only asset is the Douay Gold Project, consisting of 221 wholly owned claims totaling approximately 11,430 hectares. The Douay Project's North West Zone has 32 designated claims for a total of 1,193 hectares and is in a Joint Venture agreement with SOQUEM. The Douay Project is located on the Casa Berardi Fault in northern Quebec.
The Douay Project contains Mineral Resources of 114,652,000 million 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 (238,433 ounces of gold) in the Measured and Indicated category, at a cut-off of 0.3 g/t gold.
Details of the Douay Gold Project can be viewed on the Company's website at www.aurvistagold.com. Refer to the latest newsletter updates at www.miningmarketwatch.net.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions, uncertainties and management's best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. When used herein, words such as "anticipate", "will", "intend" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Aurvista Gold Corporation's filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company's website at www.aurvistagold.com.
For further information please contact
Jean Lafleur, M. Sc., P. Geo.
President and CEO
Cell +1 514 975 3633
Facsimile +1 416 504 4129
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List of technical reports and data sets synthesized during the geophysical compilation work:
Daigneault, R. (1996)
Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources, Deformation Zones of the Abitibi Subprovince, 128 pages (MB 96-33).
Gaudreault, D., (2001)
Inco Ltd. - Cancor Mines Inc., Geoscientific Compilation of the Joutel Sector, 4 pages, 2 maps (GM 58930).
Geophysical Surveys Inc. (1981)
Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources, Airborne EM Survey (INPUT MK V1), Comtois-Cavalier Region, 63 maps (DP 819).
Joly, M. and Dussault, C. (1991)
Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources, Geology of the Vezza-Bruneau Volcanic-Sedimentary Belt, 2 maps (DP-91-05).
Keating, P., Lefebvre, D., Rainsford, D., and Oneschuck, D. (2010)
Ministère de l'Énergie, des Ressources et de la Faune, Geophysical Maps - Part of NTS Map-Sheets 31, 32, 41 et 42, 8 pages, 2 maps (DP 2010-05).
Largeaud, J., Mouge, P. and Boulanger, O. (2011)
Aurvista Gold Corp. - Société d'Exploration Minière Vior Inc. - SOQUEM Inc,, Logistical and Technical Report - Heliborne Magnetic Survey, 23 pages, 3 maps (DP-91-05).
Questor Surveys Ltd. (1976)
Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources, Airborne EM Survey (INPUT MK V1), Joutel-Poirier Region, 8 maps (DP 430).
SIGEOM Geological Maps (2010)
Ministère de l'Énergie, des Ressources et de la Faune, 57 maps (CG SIGEOM 32E).
SIGEOM Geological Maps (2010)
Ministère de l'Énergie, des Ressources et de la Faune, 64 maps (CG SIGEOM 32F).
Compilation -Target Map #5
Compilation map of the Douay Gold Project outlining in the centre of the map the Douay-Style Mineralization (the "DSM"), the pale green inverted, southeast tilted parallelogram-shaped block hosting the known higher and lower grade gold mineralization, the ellipse which highlights the base metal target area, and the rectangle which hosts a cluster of magnetic anomalies.
To view an enhanced version of "Compilation -Target Map #5", please visit:
http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3077/13088_image-enhanced.jpg