John McConnell

Almost exactly two years ago I was on the Yukon Mining Alliance Media Tour and went to the Victoria Gold (V.VIT) Dublin Gulch Eagle Mine project, 80 bumpy kilometres from Mayo, Yukon. There, VP Exploration, Paul Gray took us on a tour of the proposed mine site. There were some roads bulldozed out of the bush, drill collars, a large camp which was somewhat empty and a vision. John McConnell’s vision of a 200,000 ounce per year gold mine.

I reached McConnell by phone to get an update on the Eagle Mine. “It’s going pretty well right now,” said McConnell. “We’re working every day. Long days. The past year has been pretty much flat out and it’s put us about a month ahead of schedule. We’ve put the first ore through the primary crusher.”

“The build itself has gone pretty much according to plan,” said McConnell. “Though, at the beginning, we had the wettest May and June on record in 2018. It was so wet that Tara (Christie, CEO of Banyan Gold (V.BYN)) and I thought we might have to postpone our wedding so I could be on site. Fortunately, the weather got better and the wedding could go ahead. We had many of the mining CEOs in Canada up in Dawson.”

“Right now we are planning to do our first pour in mid-September and do a live broadcast during the Denver Gold Forum,” said McConnell. “We want to do a Grand Opening of the Mine on Victoria Day 2020 when we’ve achieved commercial production. Our stretch internal goal is to achieve commercial production by the end of 2019, but we are pretty certain to have achieved it by Q2 2020.”

Along the way to the first pour and eventual commercial production, Victoria has spent over 500 million dollars and has become the largest private employer in the Yukon. However, McConnell is most proud of the fact that we have now worked more than 1.5 million person-hours without a single lost-time incident.

“Victoria and our Construction Manager, JDS Energy & Mining Inc. created a strong safety culture right at the beginning,” said McConnell. “Early on, a contractor’s foreman was seen working up high on a piece of equipment without a safety harness. The foreman was suspended from the site for 100 days and that seemed to set the tone and show people we were serious about safety”

Creating a culture of safety is one job for a mining CEO, creating ongoing engagement with both the Government of the Yukon and the Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation, are two other vital elements of the job. “We get along well with the First Nation,” said McConnell. “But you have to constantly work at it. We’ve been through four chief elections.”

When you are in the Yukon you hear government people, First Nations members and resources workers all explain that the First Nations in the Yukon are a real level of government. Making sure that the Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation’s voice is heard at the Eagle Gold Mine and that their concerns are addressed is a big part of McConnell’s job. So, of course, is getting along with the Yukon government.

“Sandy Silver (the current Premier) is the MLA for Dawson City,” said McConnell. “Before that, he taught school in Dawson and his students’ parents were miners. He understands mining and he, and his government, are very supportive.”

In fact, the Government of the Yukon has what is probably the most effective mining support operation in Canada. Working with the Yukon Mining Alliance, Premier Silver and Energy, Mines & Resources Minister Ranj Pillai, have become fixtures at the major mining conferences all over the world.

While building the mine and tending to First Nations and Government of the Yukon relations would seem to be more than enough for McConnell to have on his plate, Victoria Gold’s investors had a surprise for him a couple of weeks ago. One of the company’s major shareholders, Orion Mine Finance Inc. came to an agreement with another of the major shareholders, Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. to buy out Osisko’s entire shareholding – some 154 million common shares.

In the press release announcing the transaction, McConnell is quoted as saying, “Victoria was pleased to play a small part in assisting Orion and Osisko as they re-balanced their equity portfolios to facilitate Orion’s renewed equity commitment to the Company’s strategic direction with respect to the Eagle Gold Mine. We are grateful for their combined support in funding the development of the Eagle Gold Project and, notwithstanding its equity divestment, Osisko remains a valued partner with a major economic interest in the mine via its royalty.”

In our conversation, McConnell said, “This was a complete surprise. We knew that Orion was impressed with the mine build and they indicated that they wanted to increase their holding. But they did not tip their hand at all about Osisko.”

“We were able to get language into the agreement to protect the other shareholders,” said McConnell. “Orion is friendly hands, great, long term, shareholders. They are really smart guys. Some of the best minds in the business.”

As a bonus, Osisko Chairman, Sean Roosen will remain on the Board. “Sean is a good friend and very strong technically and financially. And Orion likes him.”

That surprise out of the way we got onto Victoria’s share price. “Look, compared to our peers we are fairly valued,” said McConnell. “People are saying “Show me.” But our price as a producer should be different. Orion bought the Osisko shares at $0.46 which means they hold 38% at an average price of $0.48. They’re savvy investors and they see the payday. There will be stumbles at the startup. I get asked about the share price all the time and eventually, you get a bit numb. But shareholders have the right to ask.”

“There have been ups and downs the whole way. But we are four weeks ahead of schedule, we have an excellent safety record, good relations with our First Nation and with the Territorial  Government. 50% of our employees are Yukoners and a high percentage of them are First Nation,” said McConnell.

“Right now, we are in a perfect storm for gold,” said McConnell. “I’m happy when gold is at $1250 and the Canadian dollar is at $0.80 USD. All our planning was based on those numbers. 70% of our costs are in Canadian.”

Gold over $1400 and the Canadian dollar at $0.76 makes John McConnell’s new gold mine a very profitable venture right from the go. The market will figure that out, eventually.

I am just finishing writing up my interview with John McConnell, CEO of Victoria Gold (VIT). As an aside in this interview, I complimented John on the excellent update videos he has been posting as the Eagle Mine goes forward. I kidded him about the fact that “the explosions” were the best part.

Five days later John posted this video and the explosion, lovingly filmed, is right up front. Coincidence? I think not.

Enjoy!

I happen to like the Victoria Gold mine building videos a lot. Here’s the new one.

Excellent article on Victoria Gold’s incredible effort to bring home the mine at Dublin Gultch.

“While temperatures at Eagle Gold average a bone chilling -24 degrees Celsius (-10.3 degrees Fahrenheit) in December and an even colder -27 degrees Celsius (-16.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in January, Victoria Gold President and CEO John McConnell told Mining News that development remains on schedule for the next large-scale gold mine in the Yukon to deliver its first gold in the second half of this year.

He credits the roughly 450 men and women working at the site, more than half from the Yukon, for this success.

“There is a tremendous team of people on site with over 25 contractors fully engaged to transform the Eagle Gold Project into the Eagle Gold Mine,” McConnell said at the time. “The progress to date is impressive and we have the construction and operations teams in place to deliver Canada’s next gold mine.” Mining News North

Bundle up and read the whole thing.

It may be cold and dark in the Yukon but that is not stopping the construction of Victoria Gold’s mine at Dublin Gulch.

Here’s this month’s video:

In an era of internet communication and instant information why would you go to a conference? This is the challenge Cambridge House has to meet every year for its Vancouver Resources Conference.

This year the Cambridge Conference had the great advantage that the junior resource companies attending seemed to be up beat. After two years on the mat, the TSX-V is showing signs of life. Precious metals prices are a bit firmer. Governments are realizing the value of their mining companies.

Of course there was a lot of buzz around the Goldcorp/Newmont merger. Both these majors have taken and kept strategic positions in many junior explorers. With the merger it is not clear what will be done with these positions. So far neither company has said anything publicly on the question and, so far as I was able to tell, have not said anything privately either. However, a newly larger company is going to need big, solid, projects and for companies like Western Copper and Gold (V.WRN) which is sitting on a multi-million ounce gold/copper project in the Yukon, this may be a huge opportunity.

Other than looking at various company’s projects and actually meeting current and potential clients face to face, my objective was to have a few, off the record, chats with some of the companies motherlodetv.net has been following.

A lot of those companies were in a single aisle I called Yukon alley. John McConnell from Victoria Gold had the latest video from the Eagle project. It looked cold. Very cold. But the project is on schedule and John assured me that gold would be poured in September. I was also able to speak to Victoria Gold’s VP Exploration, Paul Gray about his discoveries at the Nugget target several miles away from the actual mine. Paul has always said that the Dublin Gulch property, geologically, is boringly consistent. Drill almost anywhere and you get a gram per ton or slightly better. But at Nugget trenching has produced 124 meters of 3.5 gpt. Geologists like to be wrong on the upside.

I’d been on the phone with Toronto based White Gold CEO David D’Onofrio on Friday afternoon so it was great to spend fifteen minutes with V.WGO director Bob Carpenter. D’Onofrio is a finance guy, Carpenter is a geologist to his fingertips. We talked about the fact that the White Gold ground likely holds five or six mineable deposits and maybe more. We also talked about the benefits of having two majors, Agnico Eagle and Kinross as strategic partners and being able to draw on their experience.

I broke away from the Yukon for a walk around the rest of the conference and spoke with Dustin Angelo CEO of Anaconda Mining (V.ANX). Anaconda has the great advantage of actually being a gold producer with its Point Rousse Project in Central Newfoundland producing 15-16,000 ounces of gold per year. Which, as Dustin explained, allows the company to find more reserves without having to go to the market for more financing.

(Part II of Cambridge shortly)

Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX.V-VIT) “Victoria” or the “Company” is pleased to provide a construction update for the Eagle Gold Project, Yukon Canada. Full construction commenced on March 15, 2018 with first gold pour scheduled for the second half of 2019.

John McConnell, President & CEO commented, “I am very pleased to welcome Dave Rouleau, Vice-President & General Manager, to the senior management team. Dave is a seasoned mine operator and an exceptional addition to the team as we gear up for operations in 2019.” John McConnell continued, “Construction activities are progressing very well and I am encouraged with our on-going success engaging Yukon based companies and First Nation partnered businesses resulting in a high level of Yukon based employment, an important component of building Eagle, Yukon’s next gold mine.”

Recruitment
The Company is pleased to announce David Rouleau has recently joined the senior management team as VP Operations & General Manager for Eagle.

David is a Mining Engineer with over 30 years of operational and management experience. He was recently the VP of Operations with Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. and prior to that, spent 5 years with Taseko Mines Limited as VP of Operations primarily responsible for the open pit Gibraltar Mine in central British Columbia. David was also a key member of Canadian Natural Resources Limited senior management team while developing the Horizon Oil Sands Project in Fort McMurray. David’s background further includes 17 years with Teck Cominco in various operations and engineering roles at a number of their mine sites. David holds a B. Sc. Mine Engineering Degree from South Dakota School of Mines and a Mine Technology Diploma from the Haileybury School of Mines.

Victoria has recently bolstered its senior project team through the additions of Maintenance, Process and HR Managers; Douglas Desaulniers, Barry Carlson, and Eileen Olivier respectively. Ongoing discussions with candidates to round out the senior project team are progressing well and the Company expects to have the full owner’s team in place in the very near future.

During the month of August, 250 Yukon residents worked on the project representing approximately 44% of the total work force. To date, the average Yukon resident employment at site is approximately 56% with 10% of the total representing local employment from the Mayo area.

Engineering
Overall engineering is now approximately 89% complete and the remaining engineering work is not critical to meet the operations schedule. Engineering remains on track to be substantially complete in October 2018, save for minor engineering support for the remainder of construction through mechanical completion.

Procurement
Total project commitments through the end of August 2017 was C$304 million with C$178 million incurred cost. To date, approximately C$129 million in commitments have been awarded to Yukon based or First Nation partnered companies.

Procurement remains on track with all major procurement packages now complete. All major long lead items have been procured, materially reducing the risk of schedule delays for construction completion and first gold pour in H2 2019. The majority of remaining procurement packages carry short (<8 week) lead-times and enough float that they do not impact the construction schedule.

Primary mobile mining equipment has been delivered to site. Both CAT 6040 front shovels and six of eleven CAT 785 haul trucks have been assembled and commissioned. The balance of the haul truck fleet is in active assembly with the remaining truck boxes currently on route to site.

Major crushing equipment for the primary, secondary and tertiary crushers are all in transit with the majority of equipment now in country and continually being delivered to site.

The overland conveyor and mobile conveying equipment for the course ore stock pile and heap leach facility are currently in manufacturing as are major components of the gold recovery plant.

Site Construction
Total on-site construction work to date exceeds 540,000 hours. There are approximately 380 construction personnel current at site and will reach 430 people in the coming weeks. A strong health, safety and environmental program and culture have been established at site. The Total Recordable Incident Frequency and Lost-Time Incident Frequency Rate were 2.01 and 0.40 respectively as of August 31, 2018.

Major earthworks are well advanced on site. The crusher, gold plant and on-site access road earthworks are substantively complete with only minor work remaining in these areas. The heap leach facility earthworks (including the embankment, pad area and event pond) are advancing well and currently slightly ahead of schedule. This has enabled an early start to liner placement on the heap leach pad which began in early September with nearly 10,000 m² of the heap leach pad now covered.

Structural concrete emplacement is well advanced and major concrete for the gold and crushing plants are scheduled to be complete by the end of October. Structural steel deliveries have started arriving at site and steel erection at the gold plant has begun.

The power line right of way has been cleared, poles have been delivered and pole placement is set to begin shortly.

About the Dublin Gulch Property
Victoria Gold’s 100%-owned Dublin Gulch gold property is situated in the central Yukon Territory, Canada, approximately 375 kilometers north of the capital city of Whitehorse, and approximately 85 kilometers from the town of Mayo. The Property is accessible by road year-round, and is located within Yukon Energy’s electrical grid.

The Property covers an area of approximately 555 square kilometers, and is the site of the Company’s Eagle Gold Deposit. The Eagle Gold Mine is under construction and is expected to be Yukon’s next operating gold mine. The Eagle and Olive deposits, include Proven and Probable Reserves of 2.7 million ounces of gold from 123 million tonnes of ore with a grade of 0.67 grams of gold per tonne, as outlined in a National Instrument 43-101 feasibility study. The NI 43-101 Mineral Resource for the Eagle and Olive deposits has been estimated to host 191 million tonnes averaging 0.65 grams of gold per tonne, containing 4.0 million ounces of gold in the “Measured and Indicated” category, inclusive of Proven and Probable Reserves, and a further 24 million tonnes averaging 0.61 grams of gold per tonne, containing 0.5 million ounces of gold in the “Inferred” category.

Qualified Person
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Tony George, P.Eng., as the Qualified Person. For additional information relating to the Property, refer to the technical report entitled “NI 43-101 Feasibility Study Technical Report for the Eagle Gold Project, Yukon Territory, Canada”, with an effective date of September 12, 2016, which is available on the Company’s profile at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. All statements in this discussion, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities, anticipated metal production, internal rate of return, estimated ore grades, commencement of production estimates and projected exploration and capital expenditures (including costs and other estimates upon which such projections are based) and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include metal prices, exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

For Further Information Contact:
John McConnell
President & CEO
Victoria Gold Corp
Tel: 416-866-8800
Fax: 416-866-8801
www.vitgoldcorp.com

View construction progress photos:

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Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX-V: VIT-V) The Board of Directors of Victoria Gold Corp. (the “Company”) has granted 4,020,000 options to employees, consultants, directors and officers of the Company. The option grant is in connection with the addition of an officer, two new directors and numerous new employees as the Company continues to build its operations team while constructing the Eagle Gold Mine. The issuance is made under the stock option plan of the Company. This plan was approved by shareholders on September 11, 2017 and allows the Company to issue a number of options up to 10% of its rolling issued and outstanding common shares. Including this issuance, outstanding options represent approximately 3.8% of issued common shares. The options have an exercise price of $0.50 and are exercisable for a period of 3 years from the date of the grant thereof with a vesting period of 12 months.

About the Dublin Gulch Property
Victoria Gold’s 100%-owned Dublin Gulch gold property is situated in the central Yukon Territory, Canada, approximately 375 kilometres north of the capital city of Whitehorse, and approximately 85 kilometres from the village of Mayo. The Property is accessible by road year-round and is located within Yukon Energy’s electrical grid.

The Property covers an area of approximately 555 square kilometres and is the site of the Company’s Eagle Gold Deposit. The Eagle Gold Mine is expected to be Yukon’s next operating gold mine and, between the Eagle and Olive deposits, include Proven and Probable Reserves of 2.7 million ounces of gold from 123 million tonnes of ore with a grade of 0.67 grams of gold per tonne, as outlined in a National Instrument 43-101 feasibility study. The NI 43-101 Mineral Resource for the Eagle and Olive deposits has been estimated to host 191 million tonnes averaging 0.65 grams of gold per tonne, containing 4.0 million ounces of gold in the “Measured and Indicated” category, inclusive of Proven and Probable Reserves, and a further 24 million tonnes averaging 0.61 grams of gold per tonne, containing 0.5 million ounces of gold in the “Inferred” category.

Qualified Person
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Tony George, P.Eng., as the Qualified Person. For additional information relating to the Property, refer to the technical report entitled “NI 43-101 Feasibility Study Technical Report for the Eagle Gold Project, Yukon Territory, Canada”, with an effective date of September 12, 2016, which is available on the Company’s profile at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. All statements in this discussion, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities, anticipated metal production, internal rate of return, estimated ore grades, commencement of production estimates and projected exploration and capital expenditures (including costs and other estimates upon which such projections are based) and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include metal prices, exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

For Further Information Contact:

John McConnell
President & CEO
Victoria Gold Corp
Tel: 416-866-8800
Fax: 416-866-8801
www.vitgoldcorp.com

When you are going to take down a mountainside you need a big shovel. Victoria Gold (V.VIT) is building its Eagle Creek project and, yes, it is taking down a mountainside and it is using not one but two giant shovels nicknamed “Beauty” and “The Beast”.

The hydraulic shovels were built in Germany and have been shipped to the Eagle Project near Mayo in the Yukon.

The CBC covered the shovel story and quoted Victoria CEO John McConnell on the overall project:

“”You know I think we have just over 300 people, men and women workers, at camp now, spending $1.1 million a day, significant expenditure and we are getting a lot of work done.”

You can read the CBC piece here. 

And here is one of the shovels – it is not clear if this is “Beauty” or “The Beast”.

Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX.V-VIT) “Victoria” or the “Company” is pleased to announce that the 2018 Dublin Gulch exploration campaign is well underway. This season’s exploration activities are supported by satellite camps that have been built to allow exploration to proceed without impact to the on-going construction of the Eagle Gold Mine.

Two diamond drills and associated heavy equipment to support 2018 exploration initiatives at Dublin Gulch are on the property and will be fully engaged for the duration of the 2018 program. Exploration is expected to proceed throughout the remainder of the field season, and will concentrate on the Olive-Shamrock, Bluto, Nugget and VBW targets and include mapping, prospecting, surface trenches, soils geochemistry, geophysical surveys and diamond drilling.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dcf589f4-7552-4c9f-8c57-ad5612612f25

“While mine construction is Victoria’s primary focus this year, the Company does not intend to let the untapped mineral potential of the Dublin Gulch property remain untested,” stated John McConnell, President & CEO. “The 2017 Dublin Gulch exploration program was highly successful. Through the drill-bit, the Company was able to demonstrate that there is much more to the Eagle Gold Mine than captured in the 2016 Feasibility Report in terms of gold mineralization and potential for extra mine life. Additionally, last season’s work successfully advanced known areas of gold mineralization such as Olive-Shamrock as well as opened access for the first time to a series of new mineralization targets including Spinach, Bluto and Nugget.  Any of these target areas have the potential to host another Eagle or Olive-Shamrock style deposit, and we look forward to demonstrating additional, definable gold deposits across the highly prospective Dublin Gulch Property in the coming years.”

The Company plans to continue step-out and definition drilling at Olive-Shamrock-Spinach with the intention of expanding the known, near-surface, minable tonnage along the mineralized shear zone. Additionally, two first-order targets on the 13 kilometer plus Potato Hills Trend; Bluto and Nugget, will undergo advanced exploration. In addition to their geological potential, these targets are each accessible from Eagle Mine infrastructure by an existing access trail network.

Victoria’s exploration efforts at Eagle and Olive-Shamrock over the last several seasons have greatly advanced the Potato Hills Trend mineralization model which defines intrusion-related mineralization along a general northeast-southwest contact across the entirety of the Dublin Gulch and adjacent VBW claim blocks. It was the application of this mineralization model that drove the definition of the Olive-Shamrock zone.

2017 Dublin Gulch Exploration program highlights* included:

• 34,000 meters of exploration diamond drilling and over 5,600 meters of surface trenches
• confirmation of Eagle mineralization persisting to the North, West and to depth with successful drilling of the Eagle West, Eagle Extension and Eagle Deep zones
• drillhole DG17-930C, the deepest hole ever drilled at Eagle, returned 104.6 meters of 1.20 g/t Au to depth, below the current Eagle Mine pit while also demonstrating the validity of the Eagle Resource Model and additional resources within the Eagle mine pit
• the establishment of on-surface, Eagle-style mineralization at the Eagle West target through a 50 x 50 meter drill-out delineating a potential location for mineralized overliner material for the Eagle Gold Mine heap leach facility
• >20,000m of post 2016 Feasibility Study drilling completed on the Olive-Shamrock Deposit targeting resource expansion
• trench and drillhole gold mineralization discoveries on the Catto, Spinach and Bluto targets; including Bluto trench TR17-16 which returned 30 meters of 2.5 g/t Au
• property wide airborne geophysics, detailed LiDAR topographic surveys and orthophotography
• targeted geophysical and geochemical surveys (~6,500 soils samples) to expand upon and identify high priority areas for exploration (Dublin Gulch and VBW Claims)
• over 40 kilometers of reestablished and newly constructed exploration access trails, affording first time ever vehicular access to Spinach, Bluto, Rex and Nugget targets

*(See the Company’s 2017 Exploration News Releases)

About Olive-Shamrock-Spinach
The Olive-Shamrock-Spinach targets are defined by a broad gold/arsenic in-soils geochemical anomaly and lie on the intrusive-sediment contact of the Potato Hills Trend (as does the Eagle Deposit) and are punctuated by several historically exploited high-grade sulphide veins. The area was mined on a small scale from shallow shafts and adits in the early 1900’s and via placer mining in creeks draining the area. The Olive-Shamrock-Spinach vein system is located near the top of Olive Gulch and consists of gold-bearing quartz-scorodite-arsenopyrite vein material centralized in a shear zone structure.

At Spinach, 2017 diamond drilling activities totaled 6,265 meters from twenty-two drillholes that targeted an area north of the Olive-Shamrock zone along the northern margin of Dublin Gulch intrusive stock. An increase in silver content associated with the gold mineralization at Spinach was noted and is interpreted to represent a secondary mineralization event with respect to the Olive-Shamrock deposit, a fact that highlights the mineral potential of this new area.

The Company will continue step-out and definition drilling at Olive-Shamrock-Spinach towards expansion of the known, near-surface, minable tonnage along this mineralized shear zone trend, particularly within the Shamrock-Spinach portion of the Olive Shamrock zone where 2017 drilling demonstrated mineralization continuity; including:

Spinach 2017 Highlighted Drill Results

*Apparent true widths are estimated at approximately 70% to 80% of intersection lengths

About Bluto Zone
2.5 kilometers east of the Olive-Shamrock-Spinach zone and on strike with the Potato Hills Trend lie a series of Cretaceous granodiorite intrusions that have seen only limited exploration work until 2017. A suite of historic stream sediment samples identified the creek draining this zone as highly anomalous in arsenic and gold. A summer 2013 exploration program, designed to test this area as a possible extension, returned grab samples up to 8.2 g/t Au in the quartzite host rock. A detailed, grid-based soils geochemical program was subsequently conducted and a strong gold+arsenic-in-soils anomaly associated with the intrusive stocks was identified. This drill ready target is now readily accessible and will be a focus of the 2018 Dublin Gulch exploration program.

A total of 29 trenches consisting of approximately 3,300 meters were tested by 1,444 assay samples during the 2017 Bluto surface sampling campaign followed up by approximately 3,300 meters of diamond drilling from 18 holes.

The 2017 Bluto Zone trenches represented a combination of targeted trenches constructed across the Bluto gold+arsenic-in-soils geochemical anomaly, trenches designed to expose the intrusive-metasedimentary contacts as well as trenches built in conjunction with access construction trails where bedrock exposure was evident.

Diamond drilling targeted the mapped intrusive-metasedimentary contacts within the two kilometer by one kilometer gold+arsenic-in-soils anomaly and was further refined to test mineralized veins identified from initial trench activities. Bluto is a main focus for 2018 exploration activities.

Nugget
The Nugget target, the second largest Cretaceous granodiorite intrusive on the Dublin Gulch Property (second only the Dublin Gulch Stock that hosts the Eagle Gold mine), consists of a 2.2 kilometer by 1.2 kilometer, medium to coarse grained granodiorite stock of the Cretaceous age Tombstone Plutonic Suite. The Nugget stock is hosted in the Earn Group and the Keno Hill Quartzite lithologies. Coincident gold+arsenic-in-soils anomalies occur along the contact margins of the Nugget stock. This intrusion is akin to the Eagle Deposit, and has been the subject of only limited historic exploration work due to the previous inaccessibility of the area.

Historically, a defined gold-in-soils geochemical anomaly that graded up to 1.12 g/t in soils has been defined along with trench samples that graded up to 5m of to 2.38 g/t Au and grab samples up to 1.35 g/t Au.

During the 2017 Program an approximately 5 kilometer long access trail was constructed and has, for the first time ever, allowed vehicular access to this high priority target. A grab sample collected in 2017 from a vein uncovered during Nugget access construction consisted of primarily galena and returned values of 1,440 g/t Ag, 63.44 % Pb, 1.435 % Zn. Another 2017 grab sample from a vein consisting of primarily sulphosalts (jamesonite) returned values of 0.515 g/t Au, 82 g/t Ag 20.3% Pb, 8.34 % Sb, and 4.2 % As. Lastly, a 2017 grab sample from an historic trench on the Nugget stock returned 0.202 g/t Au, 3.7 g/t Ag and 1.3 % As.

Mineralization encountered within the Nugget target thus far consists of polymetallic veins occurring within the host rocks peripheral to the Nugget stock as well as disseminated arsenopyrite within in the granodiorite.

The Nugget target, including those areas of highly anomalous gold+arsenic-in-soils and within historic trenches has never been drilled and has been largely assessed only for tungsten mineralization potential. Nugget will be a high priority for 2018 exploration efforts with a full series of drilling, mapping, geochemical and geophysical surveys planned.

About the Dublin Gulch Property
Victoria Gold’s 100%-owned Dublin Gulch gold property is situated in the central Yukon Territory, Canada, approximately 375 kilometers north of the capital city of Whitehorse, and approximately 85 kilometers from the town of Mayo. The Property is accessible by road year-round, and is located within Yukon Energy’s electrical grid. The Company has constructed and maintains a 210 person all-season camp at the project site.

The Property covers an area of approximately 555 square kilometers, and is the site of the Company’s Eagle Gold Deposit. The Eagle Gold Mine is expected to be Yukon’s next operating gold mine and, between the Eagle and Olive deposits, include Proven and Probable Reserves of 2.7 million ounces of gold from 123 million tonnes of ore with a grade of 0.67 grams of gold per tonne, as outlined in a National Instrument 43-101 feasibility study. The NI 43-101 Mineral Resource for the Eagle and Olive deposits has been estimated to host 191 million tonnes averaging 0.65 grams of gold per tonne, containing 4.0 million ounces of gold in the “Measured and Indicated” category, inclusive of Proven and Probable Reserves, and a further 24 million tonnes averaging 0.61 grams of gold per tonne, containing 0.5 million ounces of gold in the “Inferred” category.

Analytical Method
All exploration drill core from the 2017 program was logged and prepared for shipment on-site and Victoria’s Eagle Camp where they were subsequently delivered to the Whitehorse, Yukon, sample preparation facility of ALS Minerals. There, samples were crushed with prepared samples sent to ALS Minerals’ preparation laboratory facilities in Vancouver where they were analyzed by 33 element ICP-AES package ME-ICP61 with a 50 gram Fire Assay Au finish (AU-AA24). A comprehensive system of standards, blanks and field duplicates was implemented for the 2017 Dublin Gulch drilling programs and were monitored as chemical assay data became available.

All exploration trench samples from the 2017 program were collected in-situ from constructed trenches and prepared for shipment on-site and Victoria’s Eagle Camp where they were subsequently delivered to the Whitehorse, Yukon, sample preparation facility of ALS Minerals. There, samples were crushed, with prepared coarse samples rush sent to ALS Minerals’ analytical laboratory facilities in Vancouver where they were analyzed by 33 element ICP-AES package ME-ICP61 with a 50 gram Fire Assay Au finish (AU-AA24). A comprehensive system of standards, blanks and field duplicates was implemented for the 2017 Dublin Gulch trench programs and were monitored as chemical assay data became available.

Qualified Person
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul D. Gray, P.Geo., as the Qualified Person. For additional information relating to the Property, refer to the technical report entitled “NI 43-101 Feasibility Study Technical Report for the Eagle Gold Project, Yukon Territory, Canada”, with an effective date of September 12, 2016, which is available on the Company’s profile at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. All statements in this discussion, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities, anticipated metal production, internal rate of return, estimated ore grades, commencement of production estimates and projected exploration and capital expenditures (including costs and other estimates upon which such projections are based) and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include metal prices, exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

For Further Information Contact:
John McConnell
President & CEO
Victoria Gold Corp
Tel: 416-866-8800
Fax: 416-866-8801
www.vitgoldcorp.com