Liberty Gold Confirms Gold Leach Recoveries at Black Pine Project

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 17, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Liberty Gold Corp. has validated its predicted gold leach recoveries through bulk column tests on run-of-mine (ROM) sized samples at its Black Pine Oxide Gold Project in southeast Idaho. The company conducted these tests at the Reno laboratory of Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA) to simulate the performance of gold leaching within a commercial ROM heap.

The tests involved seven ROM-sized samples, each weighing approximately 10 to 15 tonnes, with particle sizes ranging from 2 inches to 8 inches. These columns, measuring 4 feet in diameter and 20 feet in height, were designed to mimic the leaching conditions within a commercial ROM heap. The results confirmed the company's previously modeled gold leach recoveries for ROM-sized material at Black Pine, providing additional confidence in the economic viability of processing the ores through a ROM heap leach operation.

According to Jon Gilligan, President and CEO of Liberty Gold, "We are conducting detailed metallurgical work that many heap leach projects often overlook. This rigorous approach is part of our disciplined technical study phase and will significantly de-risk our path to construction. By validating gold leach extractions across a wide range of particle sizes, we are optimizing the balance between mining costs and ultimate gold recoveries."

The tests showed that gold extraction was insensitive to particle size, with an average improvement of less than 3% when reducing the rock particle size from 10 inches to 1 inch. This finding is particularly significant for Carlin-style oxide ores, where minimal value uplift is observed from crushing or blasting to a finer particle size.

Key results from the bulk column testing include: - The Discovery upper Pola sample, indicative of early leach feed ore under the feasibility study mine plan, performed within 0.5% of the modeled gold recovery. - The Rangefront Ppos sample, which outperformed modeled gold recoveries by over 13%, indicating potential for increasing the value of Rangefront as the Ppos unit is currently viewed as low-value stripping material. - On average, 90% of total gold extraction was achieved within 36 days of leaching, with several columns reaching the same milestone in 22 days or less. This rapid leach kinetics is a significant operational advantage, contributing to low-cost ounce production and operational flexibility.

Richard Zaggle, Senior Director of Mining and Metallurgy at Liberty Gold, commented, "Rangefront contains oxide ore with favorable leach characteristics, while also offering low processing costs. The bulk column program significantly strengthens an already extensive metallurgical column leach data set for Black Pine ores, with multiple variability columns delivering more than 90% gold extraction at laboratory particle sizes between 1 and 3 inches."

The company's Phase 6 program tested seven Black Pine ores, collected with an excavator, and included results from six historic pits and one surface sample. The bulk column results confirmed recoveries modeled at ROM particle sizes, providing additional confidence in the gold recovery predictions using the feasibility study (FS) metallurgical models.

Silver extraction results from the bulk column leach tests were also positive, with a weighted average silver recovery of 21%, indicating that silver grades and extractions are generally above previous variability composite averages.

Liberty Gold's ongoing pre-production metallurgical programs include: - Phase 8: Testing composites from 24 sonic drill holes in the legacy heap leach pad for economic potential. - Phase 9: A re-assay campaign of approximately 2,000 samples for LECO and Preg Rob focused on better understanding dilution risk with MET4 and Poc materials. - Phase 10: Testing 26 composites from additional core holes in Rangefront to increase variability sample coverage. - Phase 11: Focused on low-grade samples to further refine the metallurgical models.

These tests and ongoing programs are crucial for de-risking the project and ensuring that the predicted gold and silver recoveries can be achieved through a simple, low-cost ROM processing strategy. The results from the bulk column testing at Black Pine provide a strong foundation for the company's future plans and operations.