TORONTO, ON–(Marketwired – February 23, 2016) – Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: VIT) (“Victoria” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the 2016 exploration program focused on expanding the Olive-Shamrock target, a satellite zone to Eagle, and plans to update the Eagle Gold Feasibility Study.

“Victoria will utilize the recently closed $3.6 million flow through financing to advance the Olive-Shamrock target while preserving the hard dollars in the Company treasury,” stated John McConnell, President & CEO. “Company management firmly believes that the near-surface, high-grade gold mineralization identified at the Olive-Shamrock target will enhance the now fully-permitted Eagle project.”

2016 Olive-Shamrock Exploration Program

The Olive-Shamrock Zone is a near-surface mineralized target situated approximately 2 kilometers from the fully-permitted Eagle Gold project and has the potential to enrich Eagle Project economics by virtue of additional higher-grade ore, increased flexibility in mine planning and lowering capital intensity from shared infrastructure. 

A $3.6 million exploration budget is slated to begin in April 2016 for this year’s Olive-Shamrock definition and exploration program and is expected to take 4 months to complete. Several large chargeability anomalies were defined during the 2014 3D Induced Polarization geophysical survey. The program will consist of diamond drilling, surface trenching and geophysical surveys over the Olive-Shamrock zone with a focus on the previously undrilled areas linking the Olive and Shamrock mineralization. The exploration program will concentrate on expanding the strike length of confirmed near-surface, high-grade gold mineralization within the Olive-Shamrock shear zone trend and target the previously un-tested, 300 metre separation zone between the Olive and Shamrock targets.

The program is designed to result in the maiden Resource Estimate for the Olive-Shamrock Zone.

Eagle Feasibility Study

Victoria plans to update the Eagle Gold Project Feasibility Study. The last technical update to the Feasibility Study was in 2012. A significant number of parameters have materially changed. Most importantly, Eagle now has all the major permits in hand to build and operate Eagle making it a unique asset in Canada. Secondly, despite some softening of the gold price the project economics are poised to meaningfully improve due to a significant devaluation of the Canadian dollar. A number of input parameters are also believed to be materially improved in the current environment from fuel and mobile equipment prices to attracting top quality operations personnel. In addition to updates on capital and operating costs, we will be undertaking trade-off studies aimed at reducing capital intensity, reducing operating costs, and optimizing annual throughput. Completion of the Feasibility Study is expected in the fall of 2016.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul D. Gray, P.Geo., as the Qualified Person.

About the Dublin Gulch Project

Victoria Gold’s 100%-owned Dublin Gulch gold property is situated in the central Yukon Territory, Canada, approximately 375 kilometers north of the capital city of Whitehorse, and approximately 85 kilometers from the town of Mayo. The Property is accessible by road year-round, and is located within Yukon Energy’s electrical grid. The Company has constructed and maintains a 100 person all-season camp at the project site.

The Property covers an area of approximately 555 square kilometers, and is the site of the Company’s Eagle Gold Deposit. The Eagle Gold Deposit is expected to be Yukon’s next operating gold mine and includes Probable Reserves of 2.3 million ozs of gold from 92 million tonnes of ore with a grade of 0.78 grams of gold per tonne, as outlined in a National Instrument 43-101 feasibility study. The NI 43-101 Mineral Resource has been estimated to host 222 million tonnes averaging 0.68 grams of gold per tonne, containing 4.9 million ounces of gold in the “Indicated” category, inclusive of Probable Reserves, and a further 78 million tonnes averaging 0.60 grams of gold per tonne, containing 1.5 million ounces of gold in the “Inferred” category.

About Olive-Shamrock

The Olive-Shamrock target lies 2 kilometers from the proposed infrastructure at the Eagle Gold Project, along the Potato Hills Trend. Drilling and surface trench results to date indicate the existence of near-surface, high-grade potential feed into Eagle operations. (see New Releases dated May 20, June 24, July 28, August 13, and Nov 4, 2014). Metallurgical testing completed in 2015 (see New Releases dated February 24, and August 7, 2015) has indicated that the Olive-Shamrock Zone is amenable to heap leach recovery at the same crush size as the Eagle Project feed.

Olive-Shamrock is defined by a broad gold/arsenic in-soils geochemical anomaly and lies on the intrusive-sediment contact of the Potato Hills Trend (as does the Eagle Deposit) and is punctuated by several historically exploited high-grade sulphide veins. The Olive area was mined on a small scale from shallow shafts and adits in the early 1900’s and via placer mining in creeks draining the area. The Olive vein system is located near the top of Olive Gulch and consists of gold-bearing quartz-scorodite-arsenopyrite vein material centralized in a shear zone structure. More detail and a current summary of all Olive-Shamrock Zone exploration can be found on the Company’s website.

Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. All statements in this discussion, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities, anticipated metal production, internal rate of return, estimated ore grades, commencement of production estimates and projected exploration and capital expenditures (including costs and other estimates upon which such projections are based) and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include metal prices, exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.