Blue Star Gold Corp. announced the results of preliminary metallurgical testing conducted on the Gnu (Nutaaq) Zone on the Ulu Gold Project (the "Project"), located in the west Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. Preliminary mineralogical and metallurgical test work was initiated with the completion of Blue Star's 2022 exploration campaign. Objectives of this study included the analysis of mineralogical characteristics of Gnu (Nutaaq) Zone mineralisation and the preliminary assessment of gold metallurgical performances to various process flow sheets evaluating the Flood Zone Gold Deposit. The amenability for potential co-processing with nearby advanced base metal projects was also assessed. The study was coordinated by Tetra Tech Canada Inc. and carried out by SGS Canada Inc. A single master composite sample of approximately 30kg was assembled from coarse rejects of two slightly different mineralization styles, one being a quartz-rich portion of the vein bearing sulphide minerals and local free gold, the other being a polymetallic sulphide rich portion of the vein. The master composite was composed of half split NQ sized drill core sample coarse rejects from 46 individual assay samples from 10 drill holes. The composite was made by crushing material to finer than 10 mesh (a split was taken for bond ball mill work index determination at 6 mesh), thoroughly blending the crushed material, and then rotary split into test charges. One test charge was used to determine head assay, X- ray diffraction (XRD) and mineralogical analysis by quantitative evaluation of minerals by scanning electron microscopy (QEMSCAN). The grindability test shows the standard bond ball mill work index of 16.3 kWh/t which is classified as a moderately hard material to ball mill grinding. The metallurgical performances were investigated for: whole-ore cyanidation, bulk sulphide flotation followed by cyanidation of the flotation concentrate and the flotation tails, and gravity separation followed by cyanidation. The test results are summarized in Table 2. Bottle roll cyanidation of ground whole mineralization for 48 hours at grind size varied from 41 microns to 72 microns yielded encouraging gold recoveries of 91.8 to 94.0% with a sodium cyanide strength of 1.0 g/L and 40% wt. solids. Gravity separation resulted in the collection of 31.3% of the gold which was followed by cyanidation of the gravity tails, resulting in a total gold recovery of 91.6%. Sulfide flotation was able to recover 90.4% gold into a flotation concentrate grading 39.4 g/t Au and representing 11.9% of feed mass. Cyanidation of approximately 10 µm reground flotation concentrate at
approximately 40% wt. solids and 3 g/L NaCN for 48 hours achieved a promising Au extraction of 96.8%. An overall gold extraction of 93.8% was produced from the combination of flotation + cyanidation process route.