THUNDER BAY – Mining – Harte Gold Corp (TSX:HRT)(FRANKFURT:H4O) have announced significant progress at the Sugar Zone Gold Project in White River, Ontario. The company is moving forward with the project after the Ontario Government has issued needed permits
Harte Gold Corp moves forward with permits
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (“MNR”) has completed its Environmental Assessment (“EA”) of the Harte Gold advanced exploration/bulk sample program and issued all permits necessary to proceed with site development work. The Ontario Ministry of Environment (“MOE”) has completed its EA and accepted Harte Gold’s “Notice of Completion” related thereto. MOE operating permits are expected to be issued shortly.
Bulk Sample Area Resource
Harte Gold recently released assay results on May 14, 2013 from the in-fill drill program focused solely on the proposed bulk sample area. The drill program was designed to increase the company’s confidence level in both continuity and modeled grades.
An insitu polygonal resource calculation identified an NI 43-101 compliant Indicated resource of 57,065 tonnes grading 17.27 g/t for 31,691 contained ounces of gold (capped at 50 g/t) in the proposed bulk sample area (refer to the attached figures). The resource calculation does not include mining dilution or mining recoveries and assuming a minimum true thickness of 0.75 meter. Of particular note is that 54,063 tonnes of the 57,065 tonne bulk sample resource (approximately 95%) is within a projection of 25 meters, indicating a strong confidence in the resource calculation.
Off-Site Milling Agreement
The Company is pleased to announce that Richmont Mines Inc. (“Richmont”) has signed a Letter of Intent (“LOI”) with Harte Gold. The LOI outlines general terms under which material mined during the advanced exploration program may be processed by Richmont at its nearby Island Gold Mill. Recent metallurgical testwork conducted by SGS Canada Inc. (“SGS”) indicates excellent metallurgical recoveries. Richmont has agreed, subject to mill availability, final metallurgical testing and completion of a definitive milling agreement to process the Harte Gold bulk sample through 2015. The Off-site milling agreement will significantly reduce capital and permitting requirements for the bulk sample.
Metallurgical Test Results
SGS test-work on gravity recovery, followed by standard 48 hour cyanidation of the gravity tails demonstrated excellent gold recovery results ranging from 93.3% to 98.9% across all gold head grades and grind ranges. Metallurgical testwork included comminution, gravity separation and whole ore leaching. Four different grade composites were tested at various grinds for leach kenetics under gravity-leach and, whole ore leaching scenarios.
Bulk Sample Contract Mining
Harte Gold has entered into preliminary discussions regarding the provision of contract mining services. Harte Gold is looking to structure an agreement that could reduce start-up cash requirements by deferring a significant portion of mining costs until revenues are available from the sale of gold produced from the bulk sample.
Bulk Sample Work Schedule
With the issuance of permits referenced above, Harte Gold is in a position to proceed with construction of an access road to site and site development work. Harte Gold is reviewing development scenarios to determine the most efficient route to mining the bulk sample. The bulk sample is now expected to commence post completion of the site access road.
Stephen G. Roman, President and CEO reported “The goal of Harte Gold’s optimization efforts is to generate project efficiencies, accelerate project timelines and lower both up-front and overall project costs. The Sugar Zone deposit is a high grade gold deposit with significant growth potential along strike and at depth.”
QA / QC Statement
The resource calculation and mine layout specific to the bulk sample has been conducted under the supervision of Rene Marion, P.Eng., President of RJLM Professional Services Ltd. Mr. Marion is an “independent qualified person” for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators and has verified the data disclosed in this release.
Diamond drill holes were drilled with NQ sized core in order to obtain larger sample volumes of the mineralized zones. The core was sealed and delivered by the drilling contractor to Harte’s facilities located in White River, Ontario. The mineralized sections of the cores were photographed for reference, logged and mineralized sections were sawn in half. Sample lengths were 0.5 meters. Half core samples were bagged, sealed and delivered to Activation Laboratories in Thunder Bay, Ontario, an accredited laboratory. The remaining core is stored on site for reference. Samples were assayed by the fire assay method using an atomic absorption finish on a 50 gram pulp split. A quality assurance and quality control program (QA/QC) was implemented by Harte and the laboratory to ensure the precision and reproducibility of the analytical method and results. The QA/QC program includes the insertion of standards, blanks and field duplicates in the sample batches sent to the laboratory and a systematic re-assaying of samples returning values above 3 g/t Au by the fire assay method using a gravimetric finish. Drill programs are conducted under the supervision of George A. Flach, P. Geo, Vice President of Exploration for Harte. Mr. Flach is the Qualified Person (QP) as defined in National Instrument 43-101.
About Harte Gold Corp.
Harte Gold Corp. is focused on the development of its 100% owned Sugar Zone property and is currently permitting an advanced exploration program for the Sugar Zone Deposit. The Sugar Zone property is located 60 kilometres east of the Hemlo Gold Camp. and contains an NI 43-101 compliant Indicated Resource of 980,900 tonnes, grading 10.13 g/t for 319,280 ounces of contained gold (uncapped) and an Inferred Resource of 580,500 tonnes, grading 8.36 g/t Au for 155,960 ounces of contained gold (uncapped). Harte also holds the Stoughton-Abitibi property located on and adjacent to the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone in close proximity to the 2.5 million ounce Holt-Holloway Gold Mine in the Timmins, Ontario Porcupine gold camp.
Common Shares Outstanding: 190,181,554
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