Plan Of Operations Approval At Black Pine Project

VANCOUVER, BC - Liberty Gold Corp. reported the approval of a Plan of Operations at the Black Pine Project, one of its three principal gold projects located in the prolific Great Basin of the United States. Located in southern Idaho, Black Pine is a past-producing, run-of-mine, oxide-heap leach gold mine that contains a large, shallow, district-scale, Carlin-style sedimentary rock-hosted gold system.

The Plan of Operations will allow Liberty Gold comprehensive access to the 7.3 square kilometer (“km2”) core of an estimated 12 km2 gold system.  A total of up to 141 acres (0.57 km2) can be disturbed under the permit, including up to 49 km of new roads and 370 drill pads, subject to a staged annual reclamation plan.  The main gold zone encompassing the historic Black Pine Mine is not subject to seasonal closures and can be accessed year-round, weather and road conditions permitting.  A previously-granted Plan of Operations allows Liberty Gold access to an additional 71 drill sites.

Liberty Gold’s Vice President of Exploration and Geoscience, Moira Smith said, “We are thrilled to have this permit in hand. This is the largest permit we have obtained in terms of size and scope, and we are excited about the prospect of a comprehensive drill test of the Black Pine gold system starting.  We were impressed with the timeliness and professionalism of the US Forest Service Sawtooth National Forest - Minidoka Ranger District throughout the process of producing the Environmental Assessment and adhering to all of the timelines and milestones necessary to permit this project. There are very few opportunities left in the Great Basin with multi-kilometer-scale oxide gold targets containing hundreds of gold-bearing drill holes, surrounded by undrilled gold-in-soil anomalies.”

Liberty Gold acquired Black Pine in 2016 and has spent over 2 years compiling data from 1,874 shallow drill holes, blast holes and other data pursuant to putting together a comprehensive 3D model of remaining gold mineralization at the property.  It carried out a small, proof of concept drill program under an existing permit in late 2017.  The data compilation identified a 12 km2 oxide gold system in a receptive carbonate package up to 300 metres (“m”) thick.  No sulphides have been identified to date in the system.  Most of the drill holes extend only 92 m from surface, and a large proportion end in gold mineralization. 

The Black Pine property is part of the Great Basin and located in southeastern Idaho and covers 31.7 km2.  The mineralized zone was extensively drilled in the immediate pit areas, with mining carried out by Pegasus Gold Corp. from 7 shallow pits over a 6-year period from 1992 to 1997 in a run of mine heap leach operation. The mining operation produced 435,000 ounces of gold from ore averaging 0.63 g/t gold, with a reported recovery of 65%. 

Liberty Gold is in possession of data from 1,874 shallow holes, totaling 191,500 m and has identified three broad target types for drill testing, including: 1) down-dip extensions of gold mineralization from mined pits under shallow cover, as evidenced by data suggesting that 19% of the historic holes bottomed in gold mineralization; 2) unmined bodies of mineralization identified by previous operators and verified by Liberty’s drilling to date; and 3) undrilled, high priority gold-in-soil anomalies.

The company’s address is Suite 1900, 1055 W. Hastings, Vancouver, BC V6E 2E9, (604) 632-4677, Fax: (604) 632-4678, libertygold.ca.