Desert Gold Ventures Inc. announced that it has completed its metallurgical and geotechnical drill program. This work was carried out to provide fresh core for metallurgical testing and geotechnical samples that are needed to support the processing and open pit designs for mining of oxide and transition mineral resources. A total of 12, 50 metre to 160-metre-deep holes totaling 905 metres, were completed over the Barani East (five holes), Gourbassi West (four holes) and Gourbassi West North (3 holes) zones.

The Barani East and Gourbassi West zones contain, oxide and transition measured and indicated mineral resources of 131,000 ounces of gold grading 1.41 g/t Au and inferred mineral resources of 55,000 ounces of gold grading 1.22 g/t Au. A resource estimate will be prepared for the 1.6 km-long Gourbassi West North zone. Oxide and transition resources at all three zones will be part of the PEA, which is currently in progress.

With the completion of the PEA portion of the drill program, the drill has now commenced drilling of the first of four exploration holes at the Mogoyafara South and Frikidi Zones. The Mogoyafara South target contains open pit constrained inferred mineral resources 412,800 ounces of gold grading 1.05 g/t Au making it the known gold deposit on the SMSZ Project to date. This deposit is open along strike and to depth and lies within a 2 km by 3 km area of structural rotation, which is a feature deemed positive for the gold deposition in most structurally-related gold camps.

The Frikidi gold target returned 61 rock samples containing more than 5 g/t Au, five of which returned 100 g/t Au or greater. Frikidi represents an area of numerous artisanal mine workings within a 5 km by 2.5 km, cross-cutting, magnetic anomaly.