Corvus Gold: Highly leveraged gold play with five exploration and development projects

Corvus Gold (TSE:KOR, OTCQX:CORVF) is junior Canadian explorer that is exploring and developing the North Bullfrog Gold Project in Nevada, and has joint ventured four highly prospective projects of various stages in Alaska.

The Company has a 100% interest in the North Bullfrog Project  which covers 24 square kilometres of claims located 15 kilometres north of Beatty, and 8 kilometres north of Barrick’s historic Bullfrog Mine. The district has produced over 112,000 ounces of gold and 869,000 ounces of silver since 1904, and is situated in an area that contains excellent infrastructure that includes a major highway and electric power.

The North Bullfrog Project contains 7 gold targets that straddle a 7,000 metre strike line and  include 3 bulk tonnage open pit prospects, and multiple high grade vein targets at Yellow Jacket, Sierra Blanca, Savage Valley, Jolly Jane, Connection, Pioneer, and Mayflower.

The most southerly extension of this strike line which ends at Mayflower, was drilled in 2008, and contains a NI 43-101 compliant Indicated Resource of 57,086 ounces at 0.88 g/t Au, and an Inferred Resource of 23,793 ounces at 0.78 g/t Au for a total of 80,879 ounces of gold.

Corvus Gold recently completed 75 drill holes for 17,820 metres at the northern end of the strike line, with 70 of the 75 holes intercepting significant gold mineralization in a range of 0.10 g/t - 11.86 g/t Au, and intercepts in a range of 4.6 - 301 metres. This work confirmed the presence of an extensive and thick oxide gold zone covering approximately 1.6 square kilometres.

This new discovered oxide zone occurs at Sierra Blanca and Jolly Jane as a large stratabound, disseminated gold deposit that is hosted within a rhyolitic ash flow called the “Crater Flat Tuff”. A second style of mineralization was also identified that consists of moderately thick zones of high grade gold and silver mineralization containing breccias, and quartz-sulfide vein stockworks and is found at  Mayflower and Yellow Jacket.

Drilling at Yellow Jacket, Sierra Blanca, and Savage Valley established a 1,750 metre strike line that remains open to the south. A second strike line extends to the southeast over a distance of 2,000 metres and includes Jolly Jane and Connection.

Drilling highlights at Yellow Jacket include NB-10-63 with 6.1 metres at 11.9 g/t Au, at a depth of 178.3 metres, which discovered a new vein system. NB-11-79 at Connection, which intersected 15.0 metres at 2.4 g/t Au, from a depth of 16.8 metres, and identified a new bulk tonnage target, as did NB-11-81 at Savage Valley, which intersected 68 metres at 0.51 g/t Au, from a depth of 32.0 metres. Other highlights include 88 metres at 0.46 g/t Au at Yellow Jacket, and 81 metres at 0.58 g/t Au at Sierra Blanca.

Drilling at Jolly Jane at NB-11-107 intersected 44 metres at 0.45 g/t Au, and NB-11-114 intersected 44 metres at 0.48 g/t Au, confirming continuity of mineralization over an area of 600 x 350 metres. Results from Savage Valley confirmed the continuity of mineralization over a 600 x 400 metre area, where mineralization was previously not known to exist.

Preliminary and ongoing metallurgical testing indicates a rapid recovery of oxide gold at an average rate of 90%. Heap leach tests have also commenced at McClelland Labs in Reno.

A NI 43-101 compliant and updated resource statement for North Bullfrog is expected in late September, and will setup commencement of a Preliminary Economic Assessment. This will evaluate open pit mining of bulk ore and gold recovery utilizing a heap leach. A Phase II drilling program will also get underway to probe the considerable resource potential that remains on the property.

Corvus Gold is also developing the Terra, West Pogo, LMS and Chisna Projects in Alaska through a number of joint ventures.
The Terra Gold Project covers 205 square kilometres in the  McGrathMining district of Western Alaska. WestMountain Index Advisor is the joint venture partner that is earning an 80% interest with a $9.05 million commitment.  Terra hosts an NI 43-101 Inferred Resource of 168,000 ounces of gold at 12.2 g/t Au, and 318,000 ounces of silver at 23.1 g/t, and hosts potential for significant resource upgrades from multiple vein systems that cover 8,000 metres of strike and extend to a depth of up to 350 metres.

Initial metallurgical studies confirm gold recoveries that exceed 80% utilizing a simple gravity circuit. WestMountain has commenced a +3,000 metre drilling program on the high grade Ben Vein system, and is setting up a bulk sample pilot plant that is expected to generate an income stream from near surface, high grade gold resources.  Corvus Gold will be entitled to an NSR royalty of between 0.5% - 5% on all precious metal production and a 1% NSR royalty on all base metal production.

West Pogo covers 17 square kilometres and is locate 5 kilometres west of the Pogo mine. The joint venture partner, First Star Resources (CVE:FS) is earning a 55% interest by spending $3.5 million and is completing geophysical surveying and mapping aimed at identifying high grade intrusion related gold veins that are similar to those being mined at the Pogo Mine. A 1,500 metre drilling program on selected targets will follow.  Corvus Gold will be entitled to an NSR royalty of 3-4% from all precious metal production.

The LMS Project covers 61 square kilometres and is located 40 kilometres south of the Pogo Mine, and is joint ventured with First Star Resources, which has the right to earn a 55% interest by spending $3.5 million in exploration and development. A winter drill program identified both thick bulk tonnage gold and high grade vein type mineralization that included 21.2 metres at 5.8 g/t Au, and 19.1 meters at 2.51 g/t Au.

Recent drilling on stacked high grade gold zones of gold bearing graphitic quartz breccias has extended mineralization from 480 metres to 700 metres down dip, with assay results due shortly. First Star expects to start a follow-up drill program in September and complete a resource estimate of the project in 2012.    Corvus Gold will be entitled to an NSR royalty of 3-4% from all precious metal production. 

The Chisna Project is located on the Mid Cretaceous Alaskan porphyry belt and on a trend with historical and current gold placer mining, and contains a number of copper, gold and molybdenum porphyries, skarns, and structurally controlled gold mineralization systems. Joint venture partner Ocean Park Ventures (CVE:OCP) has committed to spending $20 million to obtain a 51% interest.  Ocean Park may earn an additional 19% by producing a bankable feasibility that delineates a mining project on the Chisna property that produces at least 300,000 gold equivalent ounces per year.

As of September, Ocean Park confirms that  7 of 17 drill holes have been completed at Golden Range, and that   897 grab samples returned an average of  1.37 g/t Au, with 34 samples returning over 10 g/t Au. These samples were collected from an 8 square kilometre area that lies along a 9 kilometre strike line.

The Southwest Grubstake target area has also produced a large number of high grade samples from networks of quartz-galena-barite veins, and is under structural evaluation.

Corvus Gold was spun out of International Tower Hill Mines (TSE:ITH, AMEX:THM) in August of 2010, with institutions currently holding over 33.5% of issued capital, who are prepared to back an experienced management team with a track record in the discovery of large scale gold deposits.

The Company is capitalized at $27 million, holds cash of $ 7.4 million, and is highly leveraged to a very active exploration effort that is funded by its partners on all of the Alaskan projects, and self-funded at the North Bullfrog Project in Nevada.