BARU Gold Corp (the “Company” or “Baru”) (TSXV:BARU) | (OTC:BARUF) is pleased to report on our commitment and the viability of the Sanighe Gold project based on the metallurgical studies and the milestones on permitting and advancing the Sangihe Gold project. With land clearing and construction ongoing, the BARU Gold team has reviewed metallurgy of the project in detail.
A metallurgical review and study are a crucial part of transitioning an exploration project to a producing mine site. It is during these tests, that the engineering team and contractors can assess the condition, composition, and best recovery methods for the materials to be mined. A higher recovery rate (defined as percentage of metal extracted from ore during processing), will mean the Company can recover more gold and silver per tonne of ore mined. Further, a positive metallurgical study can de-risk the project further and assist mining engineers in refining the flow sheet design. This in turn increases efficiency and lowers the environmental footprint of the operation.
In September 2018, Baru’s subsidiary, PT. Tambang Mas Sangihe or “TMS” (the holder of the Sangihe CoW licence) received approval of the Indonesian Feasibility Study (IFS) by Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources at an open meeting attended by TMS and representatives of both Provincial and Central mines departments. The IFS, was conducted by Resindo Resources and Energy, an Indonesian consulting firm and was comprised of several elements:
Metallurgical drilling to identify the most suitable heap-leaching locations.
Geotechnical drilling to provide the most up-to-date and accurate core samples for pit wall design, fragmentation of ore and ore excavation rates.
Hydro-geological surveying to help locate and identify the water table level in the pit design and best water sources needed for upcoming drilling, heap-leaching and ultimately gold production.
All drilling required for the IFS was completed and the metallurgical test results were as follows:
Bottle Roll Test of the Cyanide Soluble assay results showed gold recoveries of 85% and silver recoveries of 96%.
Agglomeration test results have been completed with the majority of the samples tested agglomerating very well
Carbon Column Test work reached 83.80% recovery of gold.
Acid Forming test work of overburden rock samples taken from the geotechnical drilling core indicated that only rock samples with more than 5% sulphides were Potential Acid Forming and these rock samples constitute less than 9% of the overall Binebase Resource.
The Indonesian Feasibility Study is not a Feasibility Study as defined by CIM as required by NI 43-101 but it is required under Indonesian law in order to obtain a licence to construct a production facility.
In February 2021, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MoEMR) upgraded its Sangihe Gold Project Contract of Work (“CoW”) to Operation Production status. This licence provides Baru Gold with the rights to operate precious metal mines on 42,000 hectares on Sangihe Island. To date only 10% of the area has been geologically explored. Exploration will be upgraded through a resource development drilling program and will be expanded to other areas of the CoW once production cashflow has been initiated.
The Company intends to proceed to production without the benefit of first establishing mineral reserves supported by a feasibility study. The Company cautions readers that any production decision made by the Company will not be based on a NI 43-101 feasibility study of mineral reserves that demonstrates economic and technical viability and as such, there may be involved increased uncertainty and various technological and economic risks such as the interpretation of drill results; the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with our expectations; commodity and currency price fluctuation; failure to obtain adequate financing; regulatory, recovery rates, refinery costs, and other relevant conversion factors, permitting and licensing risks; general market and mining exploration risks and production and economic risks related to design and engineering, manufacturing, technological processes and test procedures and the risk that the project’s output will not be salable at a price that will cover the project’s operating and maintenance costs.
The existing CoW licence for the Sangihe gold project is a 30-year licence and under the recently issued 2020 mining regulations can be extended for 20 years. This CoW production status upgrade also gives the Company rights for refinery and export licences.
The Board of Directors have approved a 35,000-metre Resource Development drilling program. The initial area targeted for this drilling is covered in the Sangihe 2010 NI 43-101 which identified 835,000 ounces gold inferred resource between Binebase and Bawone villages, approximately 1.2 kilometres. An infill drilling program will be conducted in this area to upgrade some of the inferred resources into indicated and measured resource status. Exploration drilling will continue over an additional 1.45 kilometres from Bawone to South of Salurang villages, an area over which this anomaly continues. After the initial exploration drilling in this area has been completed, the identified resources will then be infill drilled to bring some of these resources into indicated and measured status as well.
Terry Filbert, Chairman and CEO, commented, “I have been in Indonesia since mid-February overseeing all aspects of the Indonesian operations and don’t plan to leave until we are in production. Given the current price of gold, low production costs and continuing field analysis of the 23 new exploration targets identified in the structural study that provided promising results, the Company remains steadfast towards the goal of production. Baru has constituently and diligently worked towards that goal and plans to provide regular updates on activities to the shareholders as milestones are achieved.”
Frank Rocca, BAppSc.(Geology), MAusIMM, MAIG, Chief Geologist of Baru Gold Corp. is the Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101 who has reviewed and approves the content of this release.
ABOUT SANGIHE GOLD PROJECT
The Sangihe Gold Project (“Sangihe”) is located on the Indonesian island of Sangihe, off the northern coast of Sulawesi. Sangihe has an existing National Instrument 43-101 inferred mineral resource of 114,700 indicated and 105,000 inferred ounces of gold, as reported in the Company's "Independent Technical Report on the Mineral Resource Estimates of the Binebase and Bawone Deposits, Sangihe Project, North Sulawesi, Indonesia" (May 30, 2017). Readers are cautioned that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Company intends to proceed to production without the benefit of first establishing mineral reserves supported by a feasibility study.
The Company's 70-percent interest in the Sangihe-mineral-tenement Contract of Work ("CoW") is held through PT. Tambang Mas Sangihe (“TMS”). The remaining 30-percent interest in TMS is held by three Indonesian corporations. The term of the Sangihe CoW agreement is 30 years upon commencement of the production phase of the project.
BARU has met all the requirements of the Indonesian government and has been granted its environmental permit. The Company has received approval for the upgrade of its licence to advance the Sangihe project to construction and production in 2022.
