Barkerville Gold Mines Intersects 11.18 g/t Au over 6.70 Metres in Phase II Drilling at Island Mountain

TORONTO, Feb. 22, 2017 /CNW/ - Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. (TSXV: BGM) (the "Company" or "Barkerville")  is pleased to announce additional results from the ongoing 2017 Phase II Island Mountain and Cow Mountain exploration drilling programs at the Company's flagship Cariboo Gold Project.  The Company is currently exploring and delineating Island Mountain with seven drill rigs and has now mobilized the eighth rig to the untested Tailings Zone which occurs in the valley between Cow and Island Mountains.  The Tailings Zone has not been drill tested since production and development ceased circa 1960. Detailed drilling results, drill hole location plan maps and long sections are presented at the end of this release.

Island Mountain Delineation Drilling

The Phase II delineation drill program at Island Mountain continues to yield high grade intersections of vein hosted gold mineralization as demonstrated by drillhole IM-17-007 which intersected 11.18 g/t Au over 6.70 metres and IM-17-008 which returned 12.40 g/t Au over 4.50 metres.  These new occurrences of auriferous veining occur in the near surface proximal to the historic Mosquito Creek Mine. Approximately 70 metres down dip of the mine development, drillhole IM-17-013 intersected additional veining grading 34.06 g/t Au over 2.05 metres.  The newly discovered Shaft Zone continues to expand as drillhole IM-17-010 intersected auriferous veining grading 7.60 g/t Au over 5.40 metres approximately 20 metres below surface.

Cow Mountain Drilling

Ten large diameter drillholes totaling 1,168 metres have now been completed on Cow Mountain. These holes were specifically designed to collect material for an upcoming metallurgical test as well as providing a basis to ascertain the short-range variability of the vein hosted gold mineralization and to optimize drillhole spacings for future resource estimations. Gold assays for drillholes CM-17-001 through to CM-17-004 are detailed in Table 2, with the results of the remaining holes to be disclosed once available. Notable intersections include CM-17-002 which returned 7.10 g/t Au over 10.70 metres and CM-17-003 which intersected 3.59 g/t Au over 11.50 metres. Now that the material for the metallurgical test has been collected, the rig has been mobilized to the Tailings Zone and will be the first phase of drilling initiated in this area since it was last drilled in 1958. The Tailings Zone represents the deepest development in the historic Cariboo Quartz Gold Mine and was host to not only quartz vein hosted gold but also the higher gold tenor sulphide replacement bodies akin to those observed at Island Mountain.

"These results continue to demonstrate the validity of the geologic model developed by the exploration team resulting in the definition of new areas of mineralization at Island Mountain", commented Chris Lodder, President and CEO of Barkerville.

Qualified Persons

Exploration activities at the Cariboo Gold Project are administered on site by the Company's Exploration Manager, Maggie Layman, P.Geo. As per National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Paul Geddes, P.Geo. Vice President Exploration, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting its exploration activities on the Cariboo Gold Project.

Quality Assurance – Quality Control

Once received from the drill and processed, all drill core samples are sawn in half, labelled and bagged.  The remaining drill core is subsequently stored on site at the Company's secure facility in Wells, BC.  Numbered security tags are applied to lab shipments for chain of custody requirements.  The Company inserts quality control (QC) samples at regular intervals in the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QAQC program was designed and approved by Lynda Bloom, P.Geo. of Analytical Solutions Ltd., and is overseen by the Company's Qualified Person, Paul Geddes, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration.

Drill core samples are submitted to ALS Geochemistry's analytical facility in North Vancouver, British Columbia for preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for gold assays and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is crushed and 250 grams is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 50g fire assay fusion with atomic absorption (AAS) finish with a lower limit of 0.01 ppm and upper limit of 100 ppm. Samples with gold assays greater than 100 ppm are re-analyzed using a 1,000g screen metallic fire assay. A selected number of samples are also analyzed using a 48 multi-elemental geochemical package by a 4-acid digestion, followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).

About Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.
The Company is focused on developing its extensive land package located in the historical Cariboo Mining District of central British Columbia. Barkerville's mineral tenures cover 1,164 square kilometres along a strike length of 60 kilometres which includes several past producing hard rock mines of the historic Barkerville Gold Mining Camp near the town of Wells, British Columbia. The QR Project, located approximately 110 kilometres by highway and all weather road from Wells was acquired by Barkerville in 2010 and boasts a fully permitted 900 tonne/day gold milling and tailings facility. Test mining of the Bonanza Ledge open pit was completed in March of 2015 with 91,489 tonnes of ore milled producing 25,464 ounces of gold. The Company has completed a number of drilling and exploration programs over the past 20 years and is currently compiling this data with all historical information in order develop geologic models which will assist new management and provide the framework to continue to explore the Cariboo Gold Project. An extensive drill program is currently underway with the goal of delineating additional high grade gold mineralization.

Cautionary Statement on Forward -Looking Information
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange ('TSXV') nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, statements regarding exploration results and exploration plans. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

Table 1: Length weighted gold composites for Island Mountain Phase II drillholes:

Table 2: Length weighted gold composites for Cow Mountain metallurgical drillholes:

Table 3: Drillhole Collar Orientations

SOURCE Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.