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Kaminak Commences Feasibility Study at Coffee Gold Project

July 28, 2014

Vancouver, B.C. – Kaminak Gold Corporation (KAM: TSX-V) today announced that its Board of Directors have approved commencement of a Feasibility study for the Coffee Gold Project, located 130km south of Dawson City, Yukon. The decision to proceed directly to Feasibility study follows on the heels of a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) that was announced last month and which indicates that Coffee represents a robust, high margin, rapid pay-back, 11-year open pit mining project at a US$1250 gold price. Feasibility activities will be initiated in Q3 2014, and will include infill drilling, additional metallurgical test-work, continued environmental baseline activities and a condemnation program under an initial budget of approximately $12 million. The company’s current cash position is approximately $27 million.

Eira Thomas, CEO commented: “Following the announcement of a private placement by Ross Beaty and Zebra Holdings on July 14, Kaminak’s Board of Directors have approved the commencement of an approximately $30 million Feasibility study for the Coffee Gold Project, to be completed by the end of 2015. Coffee represents a low-risk, high-return development-track gold project in Yukon, Canada where there is a long history of and strong support for gold mining. The completion of a Feasibility study is the next major milestone on our path towards a production decision.”

Preliminary Economic Analysis for Coffee

On June 10, 2014, Kaminak announced the results of a Preliminary Economic Analysis at Coffee. Highlights of this study are presented below (all amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated; base case is stated using a gold price of US$1,250 per ounce and an exchange rate of C$1.00 equal US$0.95):

  • NPV of $522 million at a 5% discount rate and an IRR of 32.8% before taxes and mining duties, and an NPV of $330 million and an IRR of 26.2% after taxes and mining duties
  • Mine life of 11 years with peak production of 231,000 ounces per annum (Year 1) and average LOM production of 167,000 ounces of gold
  • Average metallurgical recoveries of 88% gold
  • 1,859,000 ounces LOM gold production at an average diluted grade of 1.23 g/t Au
  • All-in sustaining costs* of US $688/oz (including royalties) for LOM, generating an Operating margin of over US $560/oz or 42%
  • Initial capital costs of $305 million (including a 15% contingency)
  • Payback of 1.8 years pre-tax and 2.0 years post-tax
  • Gross Revenue of $2.4 Billion and Operating Cash-flow of $1.24 Billion

*All-in Sustaining Costs are presented as defined by the World Gold Council (“WGC”) less Corporate G&A.

Feasibility Study

Given the positive findings in the PEA, which indicate that Coffee is a robust project at current gold prices, Kaminak’s Board of Directors has elected to advance directly to Feasibility. As follow-on to the work undertaken during the PEA, Kaminak has designed an initial Feasibility study program to be undertaken over the next 12-18 months that will incorporate the following elements:

  • Infill drilling: Approximately  70,000 metres of diamond core and reverse circulation drilling to bring the open pit resource to “Indicated” category
  • Additional metallurgical testwork to confirm and expand characterization of both Oxide and Transitional resources
  • Condemnation program comprising drilling, soil sampling and trenching
  • Geotechnical work to examine pit wall stability, heap leach facility and waste dump foundations
  • Environmental Baseline work
  • First Nations and Community Engagement
  • Feasibility study of a permanent all weather access road

The total budget for the feasibility work program is estimated at approximately $30 million with initial approved expenditures of $12 million to be completed in 2014 comprising long lead-time and critical path items that have been identified from the work programs listed above.  Additional objectives of the 2014 program are to evaluate the following:

  • nearby exploration targets for possible inclusion in the feasibility resources/reserves
  • the economics of coarse crushing and possible run-of-mine leaching
  • contract mining or equipment leasing
  • the exact route of the access road and possible synergies with other users
  • additional Kaminak staffing requirements for Feasibility implementation
  • engineering and construction companies for selection of the final Feasibility team

Assuming the completion of a positive feasibility study in 2015, it is expected that Kaminak will enter a two year Environmental Assessment phase, with the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) application to be submitted in early 2016.

Coffee has high potential for resource expansion, with many of the deposits in the current resource remaining open along strike and to depth. The 2014 Phase I program, testing some of the >20 km of gold in soil anomalies outside of the current resource area, is nearing completion with results to be assessed and a possible Phase II program decision to be made pending receipt of outstanding results during Q3.

Qualified Persons

Fred Lightner, PE, Kaminak Director of Mine Development, is the Company’s designated QP for this news release within the meaning of NI 43-101 and has reviewed and validated that the information contained in the release is consistent with that provided by the QPs responsible for the PEA.

Kaminak’s disclosure of technical or scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Tim Smith, MSc, P.Geo., Vice President Exploration of Kaminak Gold Corporation, who serves as a Qualified Person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Kaminak

“Eira Thomas”

Eira Thomas
President and CEO
Kaminak Gold Corporation

For further information about Kaminak Gold Corporation or this news release, please visit our website at www.kaminak.com or contact Tony Reda, Vice-President of Corporate Development, at toll free 1.888.331.2269, directly at 604.646.4534 or by email at info@kaminak.com.

NT3

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