Corvus Gold unveils latest drill results for metallurgical testing at North Bullfrog

Corvus Gold (TSE:KOR)(OTCQX:CORVF) announced Tuesday results from a series of diamond drill holes within the current resource at its North Bullfrog project in Nevada, which are designed to provide materials for metallurgical testing.
Highlights of the large-diameter holes include 58 metres of 0.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 60 metres of 0.48 g/t gold and 90 metres at 0.35 g/t gold.
The initial preliminary economic assessment report, announced in February, outlined indicated resources of 19.5 million tonnes at 0.32 g/t gold and inferred resources of 123.3 million tonnes of 0.23 g/t gold.
Materials from these latest metallurgical holes will be used for a program of column testing to model the heap leach performance and gold recovery at the project, the company said.
Large diameter column tests reported earlier this year showed an average gold recovery of 70 per cent at the Sierra Blanca area, and 64 per cent at the Jolly Jane area.
Results are still pending from additional holes on the Yellow Jacket high-grade gold and silver zone, as well as from a series of large diameter core holes at the Mayflower deposit.
"The core drilling displays the quality of the resource at North Bullfrog and the column testing will allow us to develop a more precise processing flow sheet to optimize this large oxide heap leach resource as we move this project toward mine development," said Corvus CEO Jeff Pontius.
The current North Bullfrog program is focused on infill and step out drilling, advanced metallurgical work and environmental baseline characterization studies, together with the completion of a feasibility study by early 2013 on the Mayflower deposit.
The company said the recently completed $5.5 million financing has provided Corvus with the financial resources needed to "rapidly advance the mine development assessment of the North Bullfrog area", and for the continued exploration of the major new high-grade Nevada gold discovery.
In late May, Corvus unveiled the  latest results from diamond drilling in the Yellow Jacket Zone, opening up what it called "significant potential" for expanding mineralization in the area.
The precious metals miner said that hole NB-12-138, which is outside the current in-pit resource as reported in the preliminary economic assessment in February, was the fifth core hole to be drilled in the Yellow Jacket Zone that encountered high-grade gold mineralization.
This latest intersection returned three separate high-grade intervals, with the best being 16.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 1,218 g/t silver over 5.4 metres, including 2.1 metres of 33.0 g/t gold and 2,870 g/t silver within "quartz veined hydrothermal breccia", the company said.
Corvus controls 100 per cent of North Bullfrog, which covers approximately 43 square kilometres in southern Nevada just north of the historic Bullfrog gold mine formerly operated by Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX).
The property package, which is next to a major highway and power corridor, is made up of a number of leased patented federal mining claims and 461 federal unpatented mining claims.
The PEA on the property produced an economic analysis for a conceptual, low capex, heap leach project that generates average annual gold production of 57,700 ounces over 12.8 years.
This indicated a pre-tax, pre-royalty net present value of $118.3 million and an internal rate of return of 28.8 percent at a $1,300 per ounce gold price and a five percent discount rate.
The PEA also showed the project has a considerable leverage to gold price, with a pre-tax, pre-royalty net present value of $338 million and an internal rate of return of  a whopping 70 percent at a $1,700 per ounce gold price.
Total initial capital expenditure was estimated at $68.8 million with a 2.6-year payback period.
The current resource at the property includes four targets, Mayflower, Sierra Blanca, Jolly Jane and Connection.