Desert Gold Ventures Inc. announced the resumption of drilling at its SMSZ project in Western Mali. This phase 2 program will focus on the Gourbassi West North gold discovery that had previously returned 1.94 g/t gold over 30 metres and 2.75 g/t gold over 12 metres. This open ended 1.6 km long zone, has been tested to just 35 metres depth, is open to depth and is up to 90 metres wide.

This gold zone appears to be one of the larger gold systems on the property and has seen only limited testing. A total of 5,400 metres of drilling has been planned to test the Gourbassi West North Zone for approximately 1,900 metres along strike. The phase 2 program will consist of 2 diamond drill holes totaling 400 metres, 16 reverse circulation holes totaling 2,345 metres and 35 air core holes totaling 2,650 metres.

The RC and diamond drill holes will test the zone to approximately 100 metres depth for 1,000 metres along strike. One diamond drill hole will test the zone to 150 metres depth. All air core holes are designed as infill holes and holes to test for extensions of the gold mineralization both along and across strike.

One line of air core holes will test for inferred northwest-trending mineralization proximal to the original discovery. Four air core holes will test below grab samples that returned 11.03 g/t gold and 6.05 g/t gold, from an artisanal mining area located approximately 3,000 metres to the northwest of the Gourbassi West North Zone. Auger drilling, to test below anomalous gold-in-soil values and geological target areas, north and west of the Gourbassi West North Zone, will restart with approximately 1,000 metres of drilling in 113 holes.

Additional holes will test the Linnguekoto West Zone where an open pit constrained, inferred mineral resource of 66,200 ounces of gold in 1.39 million tonnes grading 1.48 g/t gold, was defined. This zone is open to depth and along strike mostly to the south and returned drill intercepts to 16.07 g/t Au over 7 metres (estimated true width of 4.0 metres), 7.78 g/t Au over 19 metres (estimated true width 4.9 metres) and 3.51 g/t Au over 29 metres (estimated true width of 8 metres). The Gourbassi West North and Linnguekoto West zones are located in the southwestern portion of Desert Gold's SMSZ property.