VANCOUVER, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Great Basin Gold Ltd. ("Great Basin Gold" or the "Company") (TSX: GBG; NYSE Alternext: GBG; JSE: GBG) announces the results of its ongoing underground exploration and development (inclusive of trial mining and metallurgical test work) at Hollister for the year ended December 31, 2008. During the period under review, the Company continued with infrastructure establishment which included the completion of an expanded waste rock disposal facility, a third rapid infiltration basin and commissioning of the water desilting facility. Different stoping methods were also under trial at Hollister during 2008. The results of the shrinkage and cut/fill methods yielded an average gold equivalent grade of 1.6 oz/ton(1). The average minimum mining widths for both the shrinkage and cut and fill stopes was 42 inches (3.5 feet). Vein recovery in the surveyed shrinkage and cut/fill stopes was 99%. A third stoping method, thermal fragmentation, is being tested at Hollister as a research and development project. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOLLISTER RESULTS AND RELATED COSTS for bulk sampling and trial mining to December 31, 2008 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTUAL COMMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ore extracted (tons) 50,161 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ore treated (tons) 33,830 Under Processing Agreements ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Extracted equivalent In line with management forecast ounces 80,305 of 80,000 equivalent ounces ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average grade extracted (gold Higher than management forecast equivalent oz/ton) 1.60 of 1.1 gold equivalent oz/ton ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recovered equivalent ounces for the year from processing agreements 38,465 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average grade Gold recovery percentage in the ore recovered (gold purchase agreement with Midas negatively equivalent oz/ton) 1.14 impacted on the ounces recovered ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash cost per equivalent gold ounce, excl. milling and haulage charges (US$ per equivalent Milling and haulage costs are excluded gold ounce) 300 due to various options evaluated ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Milling and haulage costs (US$ per Costs were mainly affected by the terms equivalent gold ounce) 215 of the Midas ore purchase agreement ------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Material processed contains gold and silver. Gold equivalent was calculated using Au price of US$650/oz & Ag price of US$10/oz. During 2008, ore was shipped to two separate facilities for further metallurgical testing. The metallurgical results are reported in the table below. Material is pending treatment from the November Newmont Midas tests and the Kinross Republic facility, so the final milling results have yet to be determined. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AU HEAD AG HEAD AU AG GRADE GRADE VOLUME RECOVERY RECOVERY (oz/ton) (oz/ton) (dry tons) (%) (%) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newmont Midas (May) 1.15 9.53 4,737 84.7 94.3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newmont Midas (June) 0.75 9.70 3,906 88.2 92.6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newmont Midas (Sept) 1.43 12.07 10,907 88.1 91.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Newmont Midas (Nov) 2.02 16.2 12,075 **OPA **OPA ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Kinross Republic (Nov) 2.34 20.14 4,692 N/A N/A ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Actual assays not yet processed. ** Actual recoveries not available as it was based on ore purchase agreement with Newmont At the end of December 2008, an additional approximately 10,273 gold equivalent ounces were held in various stockpiles. Under the current Plan of Operations approved by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Company is permitted to undertake underground exploration and development inclusive of the taking and removal of bulk samples, and doing trial mining. An amended Plan of Operations to approve full production was submitted to the BLM in March 2008. After evaluating the Company's proposal for full-scale production, the BLM determined that the environmental analysis required for the Plan of Operations amendment is an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The initiation of the EIS process in conjunction with the BLM is currently underway. Prior to the completion of the EIS process and receiving BLM's approval of the amended Plan of Operations, the underground exploration and development activities at Hollister must be conducted within the limits set out in the current BLM permit and in the renewed Water Pollution Control Permit that the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) recently issued. The ongoing trial mining operations will be conducted in a manner that will protect the environment - including the important archaeological resources near the mine - and will not create any additional surface disturbance or other new environmental impacts. During 2008 a total of 17,111 feet of lateral and vertical development were excavated in waste and ore (see below). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ORE DEVELOPMENT EXPLORATION WASTE DEVELOPMENT (feet) DRIFTS, INCL RAISES (feet) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11,057 6,054 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The development is a critical phase of the detailed evaluation of the vein systems and has enabled commensurate delineation drilling, channel sampling and mapping. Using the existing infrastructure, the planned 2009 underground program will develop approximately 260,000 tons of rock (both waste and ore) - similar to the volume of rock developed and removed from the underground workings in 2008. Up to 275,000 tons of ore per annum is allowed to be processed off-site in accordance with the NDEP Water Pollution Control Permit to determine the metallurgical characteristics. During December 2008, the Company announced that it had purchased the Esmeralda Mill in Nevada, which it is planning to refurbish at a cost of US$8.0 million. This facility will be redesigned to test the Hollister bulk samples so that gold recoveries can be optimized and revenues will closer reflect the spot price of gold and silver. Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO, commented, "A number of achievements have been made at our Hollister Project over the past year. It was the first year that the current management team evaluated the in-situ mineralization through a focused development and trial mining program. A significant amount of exploration development was required to gain access to a number of veins to determine the mineability of the vein material. This was subsequently followed up by metallurgical testing at a number of sites, with mixed results. 2009 will be another exciting year, with more exploration and trial mining planned to enable Great Basin Gold to gain a better understanding of the optimal exploitation of the Hollister deposit." Johan Oelofse, PrEng, FSAIMM, Chief Operating Officer for the Company and a qualified person, has reviewed this news release on behalf of Great Basin. No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this news release. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address possible future commercial production, reserve potential, exploration drilling results, development, feasibility or exploitation activities and events or developments that Great Basin Gold expects to occur 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 the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, geopolitical uncertainty, changes in government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, Investors should review the Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and its home jurisdiction filings that are available at http://www.sedar.com/. DATASOURCE: Great Basin Gold Ltd. CONTACT: on Great Basin Gold Ltd. and its gold properties, please visit the Company's website at http://www.grtbasin.com/ or contact Investor Services: Tsholo Serunye in South Africa, +27 (0)11 301 1800; Michael Curlook in North America, 1-888-633-9332; Barbara Cano at Breakstone Group in the USA, (646) 452-2334

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