Metallurgical Test Work Commences At The Santa Fe Mine

TORONTO - Lahontan Gold Corp. has begun metallurgical test work at its flagship Santa Fe Mine, a past-producing open pit, heap-leach gold and silver mine located in Mineral County, Nevada. The program is designed to verify historic gold and silver recoveries from oxide mineralization at Santa Fe, and to provide baseline metallurgical data that can be used to design process flowsheets for any future mining operations.

The first phase of testing will be a series of bottle-roll tests utilizing reverse-circulation drill cuttings which will allow the Company to characterize different mineralization types within the oxidized portion of the Santa Fe mineral resource. Previous bottle-roll tests produced gold recoveries in oxidized rock of up to 88.9% with CN consumption averaging 0.25kg/tonne (Lacana Pre-Feasibility Study, 1987). Subsequent testing will include defining optimizing crushing size for potential future heap-leach processing, column leach tests, and evaluating agglomeration to improve precious metal recoveries.

Kimberly Ann, Founder, CEO, and President, said, "Lahontan is excited to take the next step in the development of the Santa Fe Mine. Reported gold and silver recoveries during the near six-year period of leach operations (1988-1994) were excellent, 77% for gold and 55% for silver in oxidized mineralization. These recoveries will need to be verified by modern metallurgical test work along with evaluating optimization opportunities for potential future mining and processing operations.”