VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Liberty Gold Corp. (TSX: LGD; OTCQX: LGDTF) ('Liberty Gold' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce an update to the independent Mineral Resource Estimate (the 'Resource' or 'MRE') at its Black Pine Oxide Gold Project ('Black Pine') in southeastern Idaho. The updated Resource builds on the maiden resource released on July 13, 20211, and includes an additional 528 Reverse Circulation ('RC') and core holes (126,726 metres) drilled by Liberty Gold between April 2021 and October 2022.
The MRE has an effective date of January 21, 2023, is reported using a constraining resource pit at a cut-off grade ('COG') of 0.20 grams per tonne ('g/t') gold ('Au') and consists of: An indicated resource of 2,613,000 ounces of oxide gold at an average grade of 0.52 g/t Au and totalling 157,267,000 tonnes ('t'); and An inferred resource of 483,000 ounces of oxide gold at an average grade of 0.43 g/t Au and totalling 35,150,000 t.
A high-grade subset of the MRE within the 0.20 g/t Au resource pit using a COG of 0.50 g/t Au consists of: An indicated 1,548,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 1.02 g/t Au and totalling 47,391,000 t; and An inferred 219,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 0.93 g/t Au and totalling 7,315,000 t.
In total, using the same COG as the previous resource estimate, the updated MRE represents a 52% increase in indicated ounces and a 31% increase in inferred ounces over the maiden resource released just 18 months ago (see press release dated July 13, 2021). Within the higher-grade subset (0.50 g/t Au COG within the 0.20 g/t Au resource pit), 528,000 indicated ounces were added relative to the 2021 maiden resource estimate, a 52% increase. The significant increase in ounces can be attributed to:
The discovery (see press release dated September 1, 2021) and subsequent intensive drilling of 154 holes included in the resource in the Rangefront Zone beginning in July 2021 over a 15 month period.
Expansion and/or amalgamation of several existing zones, including the CDF, E, and M zones and discovery of the Bobcat Zone, a southern extension of the CDF Zone (see press released dated December 13, 2022).
Drill testing and drill definition of surficial waste rock storage and pit backfill.
Definition drilling in previously-defined areas of inferred mineralization.
The MRE was completed by SLR Consulting (Canada) Ltd., Toronto, Canada ('SLR'). SLR is a highly respected engineering company with extensive experience in resource estimation and audit of the largest Carlin-style gold systems in the Great Basin.
Jason Attew, President and CEO of Liberty Gold stated, 'This updated Mineral Resource Estimate for our flagship Black Pine project represents a major milestone for Liberty Gold and a major accomplishment for our exploration team, who spent the last year and a half with a singular focus on expanding and upgrading the resource endowment at Black Pine. The team has delivered impressive results. Compared to the July 2021 resource estimate, tonnes are up significantly while grade has improved using conservative input assumptions, positioning Black Pine in the rarified territory of an oxide resource with more than 2.6 million indicated ounces and a further half a million ounces inferred. Moreover, we are encouraged that Black Pine continues to expand in all directions with future resource growth expected as drill results continue to impress.'
ABOUT BLACK PINE
Black Pine is located in the northern Great Basin, immediately adjacent to the Utah/Idaho border. It is a Carlin-style gold system, similar in many ways to the prolific deposits located along Nevada's Carlin trend. Like Nevada Gold Mine's Long Canyon deposit, Black Pine represents a growing number of Carlin-style gold systems located off the main Carlin and Cortez trends in underexplored parts of the Great Basin. The historic Black Pine Mine operated from 1992 to 1997, during a period of historically low gold prices, with 435,000 ounces of gold produced from five composite, shallow pits, at an average grade of 0.63 g/t Au.
Gold mineralization at Black Pine is hosted in a 100 to 500 m-thick package of receptive, faulted carbonate rocks of the Pennsylvanian Oquirrh Formation. The rocks show evidence of extensive decalcification and clay alteration typical of Carlin-style gold deposits and are strongly oxidized over the entire extent of the 14 km2, exposed portion of the gold system.
Metallurgical column test results received to date indicate rapid gold recoveries, relatively insensitive to crush size, which support a simple, low-cost heap-leach process.
A virtual site tour and 3D model of Black Pine property, including details about the geology and mineralization, will be available in due course on the Company's website: libertygold.ca.
ESTIMATION METHODS
The resource estimate was completed by Ryan Rodney, C.P.G., Senior Resource Geologist, of SLR. Mr. Rodney is an Independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ('NI 43-101'). The resource estimate was prepared in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ('CIM') Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the CIM Council, as amended. Estimation methods are summarized below.
The gold mineral resources at the Black Pine Project were modeled and estimated by: Developing a geological model, in Leapfrog Geo reflecting low-angle fault control and stratigraphic control of mineralization hosted in receptive carbonate host rocks; evaluating the drill data statistically; interpreting low (0.1 g/t Au) and high-grade (0.3 g/t Au for Rangefront and 0.5 g/t Au for all other areas) gold-domains using Leapfrog Edge; compositing data to 3.048 metres (10 feet) within the gold domains; coding a block model comprised of 10 x 10 x 5 (x, y, z) metre blocks and sub-blocked to 2.5 x 2.5 x 1.25 metre blocks to the domains; analyzing the modeled mineralization geostatistically to aid in the establishment of estimation and classification parameters; interpolating gold grades using inverse distance cubed (ID3) and a three pass interpolation strategy into the model blocks using the mineral domain coding to explicitly constrain the gold grade estimations; and evaluating, statistically and visually, the resulting model in detail prior to finalizing the mineral resource estimation.
The Black Pine Deposit mineral resource has been constrained by optimized pit shells created using a gold price of US$1,800/ounce and pit slopes ranging from 45 to 47 degrees in eight sectors defined by geotechnical studies. Additional inputs for the pit-optimizations include: Mining - $2.35/tonne mined, heap leaching - $2.00/tonne processed; and G&A cost of $0.80/tonne processed at an assumed 10 million tonnes per year processing rate. Gold recoveries are based on equations derived from metallurgical data and vary by grade and rock unit. A 0.5% net smelter return royalty was also applied.
The drilling database for the project contains 1,854 historical RC holes and 23 diamond core holes, as well as 768 RC and 30 core holes drilled by Liberty Gold. The historical holes at the Black Pine Project were primarily drilled from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s by Noranda and Pegasus Gold.
A technical report on the updated resource estimate will be prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 and filed within 45 days of this news release on Liberty Gold's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com
The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Ryan Rodney, C.P.G. of SLR, an Independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Rodney has verified the data disclosed, including sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the drill results, and he consents to the inclusion in this release of said data in the form and context in which it appears. Mr. Rodney experienced no limitations with respect to data verification activities related to the Black Pine project.
Moira Smith, Ph.D., P.Geo., Corporate Technical Advisor to Liberty Gold, is the Company's designated Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of NI 43-101 and has reviewed and validated that the information contained in the release is accurate.
ABOUT LIBERTY GOLD
Liberty Gold is focused on exploring for and developing open pit oxide deposits in the Great Basin of the United States, home to large-scale gold projects that are ideal for open-pit mining. This region is one of the most prolific gold-producing regions in the world and stretches across Nevada and into Idaho and Utah. We know the Great Basin and are driven to discover and advance big gold deposits that can be mined profitably in open-pit scenarios.
Contact:
Investor
Susie Bell
Manager
T: 604-632-4677
Toll Free: 1-877-632-4677
E: info@libertygold.ca
Cautionary Note for United States Investors
The information in this news release, including any information incorporated by reference, and disclosure documents of Liberty Gold that are filed with Canadian securities regulatory authorities concerning mineral properties have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws.
Without limiting the foregoing, these documents use the terms 'measured resources', 'indicated resources', 'inferred resources' and 'probable mineral reserves'. Shareholders in the United States are advised that, while such terms are defined in and required by Canadian securities laws, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the 'SEC') does not recognize them. Under United States standards, mineralization may not be classified as a reserve unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated resources will ever be converted into reserves. Further, inferred resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of the inferred resources will ever be upgraded to a higher resource category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility, pre-feasibility or other technical reports or studies, except in rare cases. Therefore, United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of the inferred resources exist, or that they can be mined legally or economically. Disclosure of contained ounces is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report resources as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. Accordingly, information concerning descriptions of mineralization and resources contained in these documents may not be comparable to information made public by United States companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC.
LIBERTY GOLD CORP. 
