TVI Pacific drills 22.47 g/t gold over one metre at Balabag, Philippines

TVI Pacific Inc. [TVI-TSXV; TVIPF-OTC] provided an update of exploration activities at the Balabag gold and silver mine. Balabag is owned 100% by TVI Resource Development Phils., Inc. (TVIRD), a Philippines corporation in which TVI holds a 30.66% interest, and is located in Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. TVIRD’s Balabag Mine

TVIRD owns 100% of Balabag which covers a 4,779-hectare Mineral Production Sharing Agreement located within the Municipality of Bayog, Province of Zamboanga del Sur and Municipalities of Diplahan and Kabasalan, Province of Zamboanga Sibugay, Mindanao, Philippines. The mine is situated approximately 75 km east-northeast of TVIRD’s Canatuan mine.

TVI announced on November 22, 2019 that TVIRD had determined to advance Balabag towards commercial production. As part of plant commissioning, Balabag development progressed to the commencement of continuous milling operations in July, 2021 which included the first discharge of tails to Stage 1 of the tailings storage facility. The TSF is being constructed in stages to accommodate progressively increasing resources as they may be defined with the current focus now being the construction of Stage 3. Twenty-four-hour operation of the plant was introduced in late August 2021 and TVIRD has advised that commercial production was achieved at Balabag effective November 1, 2021.

The average processing rate at the Balabag plant improved to 1,635 throughput per day for the seven months ended July 31, 2022, with an average of 1,972 tpd through July. Plant availability also improved to 85% for the seven months ended July 31, 2022 and to an average of 93% through July. Head grades for Au and Ag averaged 1.86 g/t and 70.72 g/t, respectively, for the seven months ended July 31, 2022, with recoveries at 88.2% for gold and 59.2% for silver through the same period. Activities at site continue to be focused on further optimizing the operation.

The first shipment of gold doré was completed on September 30, 2021, and to the date of this news release Balabag has completed 22 shipments of 23,384 kg of gold doré containing 27,032 ounces of gold and 710,119 ounces of silver for 35,798 gold equivalent ounces.

A total of 55 drillholes with a total meterage of 4,735.15 metres have been completed through the Phase 6 drilling program and include 2.56 g/t gold and 92.28 g/t silver over 2.70 metres of drill intercept from drillhole BLDH-22-424R; 5.04 g/t gold and 71.93 g/t silver over 4.05 metres from drillhole BLDH-22-465; and a further 3.99 g/t gold and 119.04 g/t silver over 3.30 metres from drillhole BLDH-22-467 in West Tinago.

Drill hole BLDH -22-426 returned 2.99 g/t gold and 7.69 g/t silver over 3.0 metres; 3.20 g/t gold and 20.81 g/t silver over 2.0 metres and a further 8.24 g/t gold and 26.37 g/t silver over 2.80 metres of drill intercepts from drillhole BLDH-22-440; 3.40 g/t gold and 2.16 g/t silver over 2.00 metres of drill intercepts from BLDH -22- 458 in the South Tinago Area.

Drill hole BLDH-22-4422 returned 2.47 g/t gold and 22.79 g/t silver over 1.0 metre; 3.05 g/t gold and 31.66 g/t silver over 0.80 metres from drillhole BLDH-22-451 in the East Tinago – Yoyon Area.

A total of 538 drillholes with a total meterage of 52,256.50 metres have been completed at Balabag since November 2005 through to completion of the Phase 6 drilling program in June 2022.

“While TVIRD continues its focus on the optimization of operations it continues also to explore opportunities that may potentially add to the estimated mineral resource reported in the NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Update filed under TVI’s profile on SEDAR on July 21, 2021,” said Cliff James, Chairman and CEO of TVI and Chairman of TVIRD, “The results are encouraging as they have opened up a potential extension of veins at East Tinago – Yoyon and new target resource potential to the south of Tinago.”

The results of the Phase 6 drilling program provide more geological information that supports the western extension of the Tinago veins at the West Tinago area and the potential extension of veins to the east at the East Tinago -Yoyon area. New target resource potential was identified at the southern portion of Tinago.