Announcement • Jun 16
Valor Gold Corp. Announces Exploration Plans for the Courageous Lake Project Valor Gold Corp. announced its 2026 plans for the 100% owned Courageous Lake Project. Valor Gold will be mobilising field crews in late June to refine target potential along the Tundra-Salmita trend, to initiate environmental baseline studies for permitting and prepare the camp and infrastructure for a First Quarter 2027 drill program. The Courageous Lake deposit is currently defined with a measured and indicated mineral resource of 145 million tonnes grading 2.36 grams per tonne gold containing 11.0 Moz gold, and an inferred mineral resource of 41 million tonnes grading 2.52 grams per tonne gold containing a further 3.3 Moz. A National Instrument 43-101 compliant preliminary feasibility study dated January 2024 outlined an open pit mine producing 2.8 Moz of payable gold over 12 years with a preliminary economic assessment outlining a subsequent 3.7 Moz of payable gold over a further 16 years. Valor Gold believes there is significant upside to this preliminary feasibility study by integrating long term consensus metal prices, evaluating resources beneath and surrounding the January 2024 43-101 pit, optimising throughput, and integrating non-refractory deposits along the greenstone belt. The Courageous Lake Greenstone Belt has had two past producing mines, the Salmita mine and the Tundra mine, which operated with realized head grades of 25.0 grams per tonne gold and 19.0 grams per tonne gold respectively. Exploration along the greenstone belt in the 1980's, confirmed by Seabridge Gold's 2018 drilling has provided Valor Gold with a rich dataset that have indicated several opportunities for near surface, open pit deposits that can significantly improve project economics. The Walsh Lake deposit is 9 kilometers south of the Courageous Lake Deposit and the southern extension of the historical Tundra mine. It is currently delineated as an inferred mineral resource of 4.1 million tonnes grading 4.18 grams per tonne gold, containing 0.55 Moz. Mineralization is orogenic in style and occurs within and adjacent to quartz veins at the contact of felsic volcanics with underlying mafic volcanics and overlying sedimentary rock. Preliminary metallurgy has indicated that this ore is non-refractory with recoveries demonstrated to be 93 to 96%. Screening economics by Valor Gold have indicated that integrating this deposit into the mine plan can significantly benefit the project economics by lowering upfront capital costs and improving payback. It is intended that the First Quarter 2027 drill program will include infill drilling Walsh Lake to an Indicated mineral resource. In addition to Walsh Lake, several other analogue targets have been identified over this 9-kilometre trend. In 2018, Seabridge Gold drilled several of these targets returning results such as 40.4 metres at 3.04 grams per tonne gold at Olsen and 14.0 metres of 3.08 grams per tonne gold at Marsh Pond. Valor Gold's 2026 program will seek to define the geological controls, mineralisation and size potential of several of these targets and recommend drill targets for First Quarter 2027. Valor Gold is also reinitiating environmental baseline studies at Courageous Lake. This program will include wildlife biology, hydrology, fish and aquatic surveys, and groundwater data collection that will form datasets that will be crucial to advance the project through mine permitting at a later date. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the results of the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. Mineral resources in the preliminary economic assessment mine plan are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. The preliminary economic assessment evaluates a conceptual expansion beyond the pre-feasibility study pit and includes inferred mineral resources. See the preliminary economic assessment for relevant assumptions, parameters, and risks. The contents of this release have been reviewed and approved by Marcus Adam, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration of the Company and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101. 
