Montreal, Quebec / TheNewswire / August 15, 2017 - John Cumming, President and Chief Executive Officer of Stellar AfricaGold Inc., (TSX-V: SPX) ("Stellar" or the "Company") announces:
BALANDOUGOU GOLD PROJECT BULK SAMPLE UPDATE
The Company is pleased to report that the 150 tonnes per day gravity pilot plant has arrived in Guinea. The three 40 foot containers were cleared by Customs and a convoy of trucks is now en route to the B3 site of the Balandougou gold project. The Company further announces that the site preparations are on schedule and ready for the installation of the plant.
During June and July 2017, the Company stockpiled 15,000 tonnes of mill feed for the gravity plant. The sample consists of 800 truckloads of oxide material from 3 different areas along the B3 gold-bearing structure. The mining cost of the stockpiled sample was less than US$ 4.00 per tonne.
In preparation for the sample extraction, the Company excavated three new trenches, designated TE2, TF2 and TG2. The three trenches were channel sampled at a depth of three metres. Each sample is a two-metre composite sample taken across the mineralized high quartz content sections. A total of 66 samples were taken and sent to ALS Laboratory in Bamako for Fire Assay, Atomic Absorption Finish on 50g aliquot. The results of these samples are expected in the coming weeks and will be released as soon as processed and reviewed.
ABOUT THE B3 GOLD STRUCTURE
Stellar discovered the Balandougou B3 shear zone in 2010 during a regional and detailed soil geochemistry survey exploration program, and a strong NW-SE trending gold anomaly approximately 1,150 metres long by 350 metres wide was outlined. The geochemical anomaly was subsequently investigated with 76 Reverse Circulation drill holes totalling 5050 metres at a 50m grid interval along an 800 metres strike length, and then by 16 diamond drill holes totalling 2,350 metres. Using an excavator, five trenches at 100 metre intervals were excavated to a depth of more than 3 metres across the B3 zone, and an extensive structural analysis was undertaken by AECOM, an independent consultant, to better understand the controls of the gold mineralization.
ABOUT THE BULK SAMPLE PROGRAM
In 2016 as part of preparatory work for a feasibility study Stellar engaged the Metallurgy and Mineralogy Division of SGS South Africa to perform a four-stage gravity recovery test work on a 72-kilogram composite sample collected from the mineralized sections of trenches F, G and H across the B3 gold structure.
The pre-test head grade of the composite sample submitted to SGS was 3.5g/T Au. For the test, a 50 kilogram sub-sample was concentrated through four stages of gravity separation using consecutively smaller milling sizes. The overall gold recovery after gravity separation was 66.2% with 33.8% of the gold remaining in the gravity tails. The 33.8% unrecovered gold in the tailings is thought to be due to the presence of fine gold particles in the initial sample that were too fine to recover using only gravity separation.
To address the issue of fine gold not being recovered by gravity separation, the Company requested a bench test using cyanidation on the tailings after completion of the last stage of gravity separation to evaluate the suitability of a cyanide circuit to process the gravity tailings and increase the gold recovery. The cyanidation bench test of the gravity tailings resulted in a 91% gold recovery from the tailings over a four-hour leach period.
The combination of the four-stage gravity separation followed by cyanide leaching test resulted in a combined gold recovery of 97% of the tested head grade.
Stellar also engaged XKJ Solution, a branch of Henan Xingyang Mining Machinery Manufactory of China, for the engineering design and subsequent fabrication of a 15-to-25-ton-per-hour gravity pilot plant to process a proposed and permitted 15,000 tonnes bulk sample.
The final design parameters and the fine tuning of the pilot plant were set according to the results of the SGS Mineral Services four-stage gravity test results. The pilot plant was design with all required components including a primary crusher and a fine jaw crusher circuit and a ball mill to discharge -0.2 mm size material into two Knelson Concentrators for optimal gold recovery. Final gold recovery from STL-60 Knelson concentrate will be performed on two 6-S shaking tables.
ABOUT STELLAR AFRICAGOLD INC.
Stellar AfricaGold Inc. is a Canadian gold exploration Company based in Montreal, Quebec, with operations concentrated mainly in West Africa and in Quebec.
The Company is currently developing the promising gold potential of the advanced exploration stage Balandougou project in Guinea, including a 15,000 tonne bulk sample program. (see News Release March 1, 2017) The Company also owns the Namarana project in neighbouring Mali. In Quebec, the Company owns 100% of the Opawica Project in the Chibougamau mining camp.
The technical content of this press release has been reviewed and approved by independent consultant Greg Isenor, P. Geo, a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101.
For further information please contact Maurice Giroux, VP Exploration, Stellar AfricaGold Inc., 410 St-Nicolas, Suite 236, Montreal (Quebec) H2Y-2P5. Tel.: 514-866-6299 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or access the Company's website at www.stellarafricagold.com.
