Mr. Jared Scharf reports

DESERT GOLD COMMENCES PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF OXIDE GOLD RESOURCES ON ITS BARANI EAST AND GOURBASSI WEST DEPOSITS, SMSZ PROJECT, MALI

Desert Gold Ventures Inc. has initiated a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) to determine the viability of mining oxide and transition mineral resources at its Barani East and Gourbassi West gold deposits. These deposits lie on Desert Gold's SMSZ property in western Mali.

Company chief executive officer Jared Scharf commented: "Management believes that gold in the oxidized portion of the Barani East and Gourbassi West deposits can be profitably extracted. As such, a PEA has been initiated. If the PEA confirms our initial assumptions, work will be carried out to advance the project towards production. Assuming mining is initiated, the company's goal will be to use the free cash flow to fund ongoing exploration at our SMSZ project." Mr. Scharf also commented: "With so many oxide targets on such a large property package, management believes there is significant merit in designing a mobile plant and camp that could be moved from one deposit area to another so that the company can take advantage of the oxide facies gold mineralization that caps most of the deposits on our property and in the region. The company's core objective remains the develop of a Tier 1 gold project through targeted exploration. We believe both initiatives, mining and exploration, can be run concurrently."

Technical study

Background

A PEA is being initiated to determine the economic viability of mining oxide gold resources at its Barani East and Gourbassi West gold deposits with gold recovery by heap leach. Emphasis will be placed on designing a mobile, camp, crushing and gold recovery infrastructure that could be moved from one oxide deposit to another.

Over all, the oxide and transition portion of two deposits contains measured and indicated mineral resources of 131,000 ounces of gold grading 1.41 grams per tonne gold and inferred mineral resources of 55,000 ounces of gold grading 1.22 grams per tonne gold.

Barani East and Barani Gap deposits

Oxide and transition mineral resources at Barani East and Barani Gap comprise measured and indicated mineral resources of 53,700 ounces gold grading 2.09 grams per tonne gold and inferred mineral resources of 40,700 ounces grading 1.33 grams per tonne gold.

At Barani East, in 2014, a two-tonne metallurgical sample of oxide mineralization, ground to 80 per cent passing 70 microns grading 2.74 grams per tonne gold, was first subjected to a 21.6-per-cent mass pull spiral concentrate and then an intense leach combined with normal leaching of the tails over 24 hours, recovered 78.7 per cent of the gold.

The Barani East oxide and transition resources lie above the Barani East deposit, which contains fresh rock measured and indicated mineral resource totalling 37,500 ounces grading 1.78 grams per tonne gold and an additional inferred mineral resource of 33,700 ounces grading 1.66 grams per tonne gold.

Bottle-roll leach tests of the fresh-rock Barani East gold mineralization, ground to 85 per cent passing 75 microns and leaching over 72 hours, suggest gold recoveries ranging from 83 per cent to 98.7 per cent. These data suggest that fresh rock gold mineralization may also be heap leachable.

Gourbassi West deposit

Oxide and transition mineral resources at Gourbassi West comprise measured and indicated mineral resources of 77,200 ounces gold grading 0.93 gram per tonne gold and inferred mineral resources of 14,600 ounces grading 0.91 gram per tonne gold.

Three samples of oxide gold mineralization, grading 0.33 gram per tonne gold, 0.67 gram per tonne gold and 1.05 grams per tonne gold, were ground to 80 per cent passing 100 microns and subject to a 48-hour bottle-roll cyanide leach. Gold recoveries of 92.4 per cent, 94.3 per cent and 94.2 per cent, respectively, were attained with most of the gold recovered in 24 hours.

Gourbassi West North deposit

The 1.6-kilometre-long Gourbassi West North deposit lies 500 metres north of the Gourbassi West deposit. The upper 25 metres to 30 metres of this deposit is oxidized and is expected, as per other oxide gold zones on the property and region, to have gold recoveries in excess of 90 per cent. A mineral resource estimate of this zone will be carried out and, if deemed material, this zone will be considered as potential feed for a heap leach component of the PEA.

Planned work

Step 1 includes completing additional holes to collect fresh material for metallurgical test work, including column leach tests that are required to determine expected gold recoveries if the ore is subject to heap leaching. This drilling would also be used to provide geotechnical information for pit slope stability, ore hardness and ore character. This information would then be used to determine throughput rates, gold recoveries, gold recovery options and what equipment is required for the proposed mine project.

Additional drilling of up to 19 holes totalling 925 metres at Barani East/Barani Gap may also be carried out as part of the study with a goal to upgrade some of the inferred mineral resources to indicated mineral resources and to provide additional material for metallurgical studies.

Six core holes totalling 765 metres are planned at both Gourbassi West and Gourbassi West North to collect metallurgical samples for column leach testing and to supply geotechnical data for pit and processing designs.

Once these data have been collected, it will be sent to an independent consultant to prepare a National Instrument 43-101 compliant PEA study report and financial model. Extra care will be taken to cost out the camp, mobile and plant components as accurately as practical.

Exploration

Exploration drilling is proposed over the Mogoyafara South deposit, which comprises a 421,800 ounces inferred mineral resource grading 1.05 grams per tonne gold. This deposit occurs within a multi-kilometre scale sigmoidal-shaped magnetic feature and is open in all directions with recent auger drilling highlighting potential proximal new zones. The current drill proposal includes 32 reverse circulation holes totalling 3,795 metres and two diamond drill holes totalling 500 metres with the goal to validate historic drill holes and the geological model and to expand the footprint of the known, gold-bearing lenses.

Drilling is also proposed over the Frikidi area, which returned five grab samples assaying greater than 100 grams per tonne gold, the highest-grade auger sample to date at 8,650 parts per billion gold and the site of a kilometre-scale, crosscutting alteration zone associated with a northwest-trending splay off of the Senegal Mali shear zone. Approximately 1,150 metres in 21 holes are proposed over this target area.

A third target area, located just south of the Barani East deposit, has been identified through mapping and recent auger drilling. Numerous gold-in-auger targets to 1,527 parts per billion gold, proximal to a kilometre-long tourmaline alteration zone, need to be followed up. In total, 24 holes totalling 1,200 metres are recommended.

The fourth target area lies immediately to the northeast of the Barani East deposit, along the strike extent of the structure that hosts the Barani East deposit. This area has been an active artisanal mining site with four approximately 100-metre-long open pits previously excavated. The company's work in the area has returned up to 2.04 grams per tonne gold over 30 metres. Follow-up of this intercept and numerous other drill targets are recommended. A total of 41 holes comprising 2,050 metres are proposed.

As part of the company's continuing review of the property, a multispectral satellite and synthetic aperture radar analysis of its 440-square-kilometre SMSZ project in western Mali was carried out. The goal of the project was to identify larger-scale alteration and/or structural features that would aid in the follow-up prioritization of an expanding list of gold zones that have been identified on the property. This type of review has been successfully carried out over projects in other areas of the world. This work identified additional exploration targets and potential extensions to known target area and with targets still requiring validation by drill testing. More analysis of the data is also required to produce a testable vetted exploration model.

This press release contains certain scientific and technical information. The company is solely responsible for the contents and accuracy of any scientific and technical information related to it. Don Dudek, PGeo, a director of Desert Gold and a qualified person under NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this press release.

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