VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Contact Gold Corp. (the “Company” or “Contact Gold”) (TSX-V:C) is pleased to announce that it has completed staking and acquiring an additional 270 unpatented mining claims covering 22 square kilometres of prospective mineral tenure adjacent to the Pony Creek gold property (“Pony Creek”), located approximately 25 kilometres south of Elko, Nevada. Contact Gold now controls approximately 127 square kilometres (49 square miles) in the district (including the Dixie Flats and North Star gold properties).
“We are very pleased to significantly expand Pony Creek’s footprint by over 30%,” stated Vance Spalding, Vice President, Exploration of Contact Gold. “The land expansion announced today, further solidifies Pony Creek’s importance on the Southern Carlin Trend. The new claims cover prospective host rocks with strong exploration potential that have seen minimal exploration effort in the past. This land provides an excellent growth opportunity beyond the priority targets we are currently drilling at Pony Creek.”
At Pony Creek, the strategic expansion of the property focused on the east and south of the property following evaluation of key regional exploration targets in areas underlain by Pennsylvanian and Mississippian clastic and carbonate rocks known to host gold occurrences in the Railroad-Pinion district. In addition to staking new claims, Contact Gold acquired the Pony Spur property which covers a key N80W striking (Rain parallel) structural zone on the western boundary of Pony Creek.
Pony Creek is now comprised of a total of 1157 unpatented lode mining claims covering approximately 95.4 square kilometers (36.8 square miles) located squarely on the Southern Carlin Trend between the Railroad-Pinion district and Kinross's Bald Mountain mine.
North of Pony Creek, Contact Gold has also acquired the Poker Flats property, which is adjacent to Contact Gold’s Dixie Flats gold property (“Dixie Flats”) and Newmont Mining’s Emigrant Mine. Dixie Flats now comprises 324 unpatented mining claims covering 27.1 square kilometres (10.5 square miles) of prospective ground.
Total consideration for the acquisition of the Pony Spur and Poker Flats properties was US$75,000 in cash and 112,500 shares in Contact Gold, with no retained NSR.
For a map of the expanded Pony Creek land position, please click: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/Pony-Creek-Land-update-September-13-2017-FINAL.pdf
Pony Creek Exploration Program
The Pony Creek project hosts a previously identified Carlin-type gold system and numerous targets that have been the subject of intermittent past exploration campaigns. Pony Creek is Contact Gold’s focus in 2017, with core and RC drilling underway in the central zone of the property. The Company is collecting geological, geophysical and geochemical data to identify new exploration targets, and is currently focused on drilling in areas of previously drilled gold mineralization which have potential for expansion.
Assay results from the initial RC and core drilling programs are expected to arrive in early Fall 2017.
Incentive Option Awards
Contact Gold will also be issuing a total of 150,000 incentive stock options at an exercise price of $0.75 per share for a period of five years to certain employees and consultants to the Company. The incentive stock options will vest 1/3 on each successive anniversary of the date of grant.
About Contact Gold Corp.
Contact Gold is a gold exploration company focused on leveraging its properties, people, technology and capital to make district scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Gold’s extensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin and Independence gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold’s land position is comprised of 28,082 hectares (281 square kilometres) of target rich mineral tenure which hosts numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early- to advanced-exploration and resource definition stage.
Dixie Flats and Pony Creek are early stage exploration properties and do not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”). There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource estimate at Pony Creek, Dixie Flats, or on any of Contact Gold’s properties. Additional information about Pony Creek is summarized in a technical report entitled “Technical Report on the Pony Creek Gold Project, Elko County, Nevada, USA” dated April 18, 2017, and effective March 15, 2017), prepared by Michael M. Gustin, C.P.G. of Mine Developments Associates of Reno, Nevada (the “Technical Report”), which can be viewed under Contact Gold’s issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com
The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Vance Spalding, CPG, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, who is a “qualified person” within the meaning of NI 43-101.
Additional information about the Company is available at www.contactgold.com. For more information, please contact:
Matthew Lennox-King
President & Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Farncomb
SVP
E-mail: info@ContactGold.com
Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the anticipated exploration activities of the Company on the Carlin Trend Properties.
These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.