35% Increase in Resources at Castelo de Sonhos as Preliminary Economic Assessment Begins
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On behalf of TriStar Gold Inc. (TSG-TSX.V) (the “Company” or “TriStar”), GE21 Consultoria Mineral Ltda (“GE21”) of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has begun the Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) for the Castelo de Sonhos gold project in southern Pará State, Brazil. The first phase of this work, updating the mineral resources, is complete. With the increase in resources being materially significant, Bernardo Horta de C Viana of GE21 is the independent Qualified Person (“QP”) for this new resource estimate. Key highlights include:
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- Mineral Resources (above a 0.3 g/t cut-off) of:
| Indicated: | 17.7 million tonnes at 1.2 g/t, containing 0.7 million ounces (“Moz”) of gold |
| Inferred: | 39.8 million tonnes at 1.0 g/t, containing 1.3 Moz of gold |
- Esperança East, where drilling has confirmed strong similarities to Esperança South, contributes Inferred Resources of 11.8 Mt @ 0.9 g/t with 0.4 Moz of gold, making it already larger than Esperança Center despite having only 28 initial drill holes.
- Most of Esperança East remains to be tested by future drilling, as do promising targets with surficial mineralization at Esperança West, the New Discovery Zone and the Upper Conglomerate Zone.
“This year’s strong drilling results in Esperança East have been very encouraging,” says Nick Appleyard, TriStar’s President and CEO, “especially in that they clearly show the existence of the same two high-grade reefs seen earlier in Esperança South. We have now seen over 600% growth in mineral resources over the last 2 years. This new, larger mineral resource will be used in the PEA now underway to give us the first look at the project’s potential economic viability before the end of the year.”
Table 1. Mineral resource estimate1 for the Castelo de Sonhos gold project (with an effective date of September 17, 2018) above a reporting cutoff 2 of 0.3 g/t Au.
| Region | Classification | Tonnage (Mt) | Grade (g/t Au) | Metal Content3 (Moz Au) |
| Esperança South | Indicated | 11.8 | 1.4 | 0.5 |
| Inferred | 21.7 | 1.2 | 0.8 | |
| Esperança East | Indicated | -- | -- | -- |
| Inferred | 11.8 | 0.9 | 0.4 | |
| Esperança Center | Indicated | 5.9 | 0.9 | 0.2 |
| Inferred | 6.3 | 0.7 | 0.1 | |
| Project Total | Indicated | 17.7 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Inferred | 39.8 | 1.0 | 1.3 |
| 1Numbers have been rounded to reflect the precision of Inferred and Indicated mineral resource estimates. 2The reporting cutoff corresponds to the marginal cutoff for an open pit with operating cost (processing + G&A) of $US 10/t, metallurgical recovery of 98% and a gold price of $US 1,200/oz. These are mineral resources and not reserves and as such do not have demonstrated economic viability. 3The metal content estimates reflect gold in situ, and do not include factors such as external dilution, mining losses and process recovery losses. 4TriStar is not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing or political factors that might materially affect these mineral resource estimates. 5TriStar intends to file an independent NI 43-101 Technical report within 45 days in support of this new mineral resource estimate. |
Resource estimation
The resource was constrained by a mineralized envelope that corresponds to the conglomeratic band of the paleo-placer, honouring its outcrop location and surface measurements of its bedding orientations, and extending into the upper and basal arenites where drilling has confirmed that these contact arenites contain remobilized gold. The mineralized envelope was divided into five domains, each a layer that follows stratigraphy of the original depositional environment. Two of these domains are higher-grade reefs, approximately 10-20m thick that contain 40-45% of the gold metal content in only 10-15% of the total thickness of the conglomeratic band. The other three domains lie above the upper reef, below the lower reef and between the two reefs. Modeling of the 3D geometry of the reefs was constrained by drill hole assays, by logged lithologies, by paleo-current direction measurements from field mapping, and by optical televiewer images.
All drill hole assays were capped at 10 g/t. Where multiple assays were available for a sample interval, Leachwell assays were used, if available, then metallic screen assays, and then fire assays if neither metallic screen results nor Leachwell results were available. This prioritization reflects the Company’s conclusions on the accuracy and precision of data from the three different analytical procedures.
Grades were interpolated into 5x5x2m blocks using inverse-distance-cubed (ID3) interpolation of grades from nearby drill hole assays. The search strategy, guided by variogram analysis, uses a flattened ellipse, with long ranges in the bedding direction and a short range perpendicular to bedding. In the reef domains, ranges were 150m (parallel to bedding) and 15m (perpendicular); in the non-reef domains, ranges were 100m and 10m.
Directions of maximum and minimum continuity needed for grade interpolation were locally customized, using the wireframes of the domain boundaries to establish local bedding directions.
As with previous resource models, this new resource estimate was checked against the grade-tonnage distribution predicted by a global change of support procedure, assuming 5x5x2m selective mining units. The grade, tonnage and metal content predicted by this global procedure are all within 10% of the values reported from the ID3 block model, which has the advantage of providing local detail that enables checking of the modeling of the reefs which guide continuity directions.
Resource classification
The mineral resources in Table 1 are constrained by open pit shells developed by the independent QP to meet the requirement that resources have “reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction”. Within the pit shell material above a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t was classified as Indicated in blocks for which grade estimation was able to use data from at least three separate drill holes in three quadrants, and for which the average distance to the nearby data was less than half the variogram range; these criteria are almost always met only in the areas where the drill holes are more closely spaced than 50m. All other blocks with grade estimates were classified as Inferred resources; since the search ellipse was aligned with the variogram ranges, Inferred blocks must have at least one sample within the range of the variogram. This usually occurs in areas where hole spacing is 100m. These block by block classification codes were then spatially smoothed to avoid inconsistent classification of isolated blocks.
Qualified Person
Bernardo Horta de C Viana (MAIG #3709), Director of GE21, is the Qualified Person for the mineral resource estimates presented in this press release, has approved its publication.
TriStar Gold Retains Investor Relations Firm
TriStar has retained Transcend Capital Inc. ("Transcend") to develop and implement an investor relations program for the Company for a period of 12 months for an aggregate fee of C$60,000 plus applicable taxes. Transcend and its directors, officers and employees own 400,000 common shares and 200,000 warrants of the Company.
About TriStar:
TriStar Gold is an exploration and development company focused on precious metals properties in the Americas that have potential to become significant producing mines. The Company’s current flagship property is Castelo de Sonhos in Pará State, Brazil. The Company’s shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol TSG. Further information is available at www.tristargold.com.
For further information, please contact:
TriStar Gold Inc.
Nick Appleyard
President and CEO
480-794-1244
info@tristargold.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) 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.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements under Canadian securities legislation which are not historical facts and are made pursuant to the "safe harbour" provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “expects” or “it is expected”, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results “will” occur. Forward looking statements in this press release include, the scope and success of the planned exploration program at the Castelo de Sonhos project and the Company's opinion that it has clear title to the Castelo de Sonhos property Such forward-looking statements are based upon the Company's reasonable expectations and business plan at the date hereof, which are subject to change depending on economic, political and competitive circumstances and contingencies. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause a change in such assumptions and the actual outcomes and estimates to be materially different from those estimated or anticipated future results, achievements or position expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's plans to change include changes in demand for and price of gold and other commodities (such as fuel and electricity) and currencies; changes or disruptions in the securities markets; legislative, political or economic developments in Brazil; the need to obtain permits and comply with laws and regulations and other regulatory requirements; the possibility that actual results of work may differ from projections/expectations or may not realize the perceived potential of the Company’s projects; risks of accidents, equipment breakdowns and labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties or interruptions; the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated expenses in development programs; operating or technical difficulties in connection with exploration, mining or development activities; the speculative nature of gold exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities of grades of reserves and resources; and the risks involved in the exploration, development and mining business. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.
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