TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 07/10/12 -- Tembo Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: TEM)(FRANKFURT: T23) ("Tembo" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of its gold deportment and preliminary metallurgical testing which was conducted on 32 samples collected during an artisanal mining face sampling program conducted at the Tembo project in the Lake Victoria goldfield in Tanzania. The samples were submitted to SGS South Africa (Pty) Ltd for the study. The test work indicates that gravity recovery and direct cyanidation of near surface gold mineralization at the Tembo project is expected to yield gold recovery in the order of 90 to 95%.
32 artisanal shafts and working places were accessed from a number of the 2012 drill target areas. A 20kg sample was taken across the width of each working face in safe and accessible artisanal shafts. No face mapping or geological control was applied and the geological context is therefore undefined. Photographs taken of the faces generally indicate 2 to 4m wide shear structures hosting smoky grey to black quartz veins.
The study consisted of the following:
-- Gold (Au) and sulfur (S) assays were conducted on each sample. Based on
the gold results, the samples were grouped into three composite samples:
low grade 0 to 3g/t Au, medium grade 3 to 6g/t Au, and high grade 6 to
60g/t Au.
-- Test work to determine the amenability of the mineralized material to
gravity recovery.
-- Grading analysis to determine the gold distribution across the size
fractions.
-- Heavy Liquid Separation (HLS) to determine the amount of free gold or
gold that would respond to gravity recovery.
-- Chemical analysis to determine the compositions of ore and metallurgical
test products.
-- General mineralogical characterization of the ore by XRD and QEMSCAN.
-- Identification and quantification of gold minerals, including native
gold, gold telluride etc. in the gravity concentrate.
-- Exposure and mineral association analysis of particulate gold grains in
the gravity concentrate.
-- Grain size distribution analysis of gold grains in the gravity
concentrate.
-- Test work to determine gold recovery by direct cyanidation.
-- Diagnostic leach test of gravity tails in order to determine the gold
deportment in gravity tails.
The average grades of the three composites, low grade, medium grade and high grade were 1.83g/t, 6.22g/t, and 18.26g/t gold and 0.7g/t, 1.5g/t and 1.8g/t for silver respectively.
The study findings are as follows:
Low Grade Composite
Liberation and association characteristics indicate that approximately 93% of the gold is liberated and that the gold in this composite is moderately amenable to gravity recovery. Exposure and mineral association characteristics of the gold grains in the gravity concentrate indicate that the low grade composite will be amenable to cyanidation as the grains are highly exposed at approx. 99%. In an Intensive Leach Reactor, adequate retention time would be needed to ensure that larger gold grains are leached.
Medium Grade Composite
The composite displays moderate liberation characteristics and gold grain size analysis indicates that approx. 80% of the gold grains are less than 30mm. Liberation and mineral association characteristics indicate approx. 85% is liberated and approx. 15% locked up in silicate and sulphide particles. Exposure and association characteristics of the gold grains in the gravity concentrate indicate that the composite will be amenable to cyanidation as the grains are highly exposed at approx. 99%. Cyanidation would not require long retention time due to the fineness of the gold grains.
High Grade Composite
Liberation and mineral association characteristics found that the gold grains were highly liberated (approx. 91%). The composite is partially amenable to gravity recovery. Exposure and association characterization indicate that the high grade composite has 99.7% exposed gold grains, suggesting that cyanidation will be effective. However, some coarse gold particles will require longer retention time to fully leach.
Summary
Gold in all three composites is well liberated and exposed. Gravity recovery plus direct cyanidation would be an effective method to recover the gold, but retention time may need to be increased to fully leach coarse gold particles. Gravity recovery is moderately effective and should be used to recover coarse gold particles that are amenable to this technology. This would be followed by direct cyanidation of the gravity tails with lower retention times.
Diagnostic leach and direct cyanidation tests were conducted on the gravity separation tails to determine gold leach characteristics. The results indicate expected CIL recovery of 86.13%, 93.37% and 96.64% for the low, medium and high-grade composites respectively. The tests indicate 1.21%, 2.21% and 0.13% refractory gold in the three composites.
Direct cyanidation of the head samples indicates high gold recovery in the medium and high-grade composites (94.7% and 98.9% respectively) whereas the low grade composite has a leach recovery of 87.3%. Lower gold recovery for the latter is considered to be due to gold locked in silicate minerals.
Tembo Gold President & CEO, David Scott, stated, "These preliminary gold deportment study and metallurgical response results on near surface gold mineralization being exploited by artisanal miners suggest that gravity recovery and direct cyanidation of shallow gold mineralization at the Tembo project will return high recovery. Tembo will continue to test artisanal ore and once sufficient gold intersections have been achieved from the current drill programs, conduct gold deportment test work on in situ mineralization encountered."
David Scott of Tembo Gold Corp. is the qualified person who supervised the preparation of the information that forms the basis of the disclosure contained herein and he has reviewed and approved the disclosure contained herein. There are not yet any mineral resources estimated for the Tembo project.
About Tembo Gold Corp.
Tembo Gold (TSX VENTURE: TEM) is a Canadian publicly listed mineral exploration company focused on the exploration and development of gold projects in Tanzania and the rest of Africa. The Company currently has 100% interest in the Tembo Gold Project that is located adjacent to African Barrick's 20Moz Bulyanhulu Mine in the prolific Lake Victoria Greenstone belt in Tanzania. The Company is led by a highly experienced team with a proven history of developing, financing, and operating mining projects in Africa. The Company has commenced its 90,000m drill program on its Tembo Gold Project.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Tembo,
David Scott, President & CEO
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain information set out in this news release constitutes forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements in respect of the results of the gold deportment studies conducted by SGS, including, without limitation, expected CIL recoveries and the expectation of high recoveries based on the preliminary gold deportment results, Forward-looking statements are based upon the opinions and expectations of management of the Company as at the effective date of such statements and, in certain cases, information provided or disseminated by third parties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, and that information obtained from third party sources is reliable, they can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. With respect to forward-looking statements contained in this news release, the Company has made assumptions regarding, among other things, the ability to develop the Company's Tembo project, the economic climate in the jurisdictions where the Company carries on operations at its Tembo project and commodity prices. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements contained in this document, and the assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are made, are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements included in this document, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, a significant drop in the price of gold, political turmoil in Tanzania and other risk factors set forth in the Company's continuous disclosure. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. These statements are made as at the date hereof and unless otherwise required by law, the Company does not intend, or assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements.
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Contacts:
Tembo Gold Corp.
Marc Cernovitch
Director
416.619.9010
mcernovitch@tembogold.com
