Gowest Demonstrates Potential to Reduce Capital and Operating Costs Through Successful Completion of Commercial Scale Ore Sorting Test

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 10, 2012) - Gowest Gold Ltd. ("Gowest" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:GWA)(OTCBB:GWSAF) is pleased to report that its recently completed testing of commercial scale, Dual Energy X-ray Transmission (DEXRT) ore sorting equipment and has clearly demonstrated the amenability of the Frankfield East mineralization to separation using this technology.

• The implementation of commercial ore sorting equipment provides significant economic upside opportunities:
  
  
  • Mine cut-off grades can be lowered, thereby increasing overall resource ounces;
    
    
  • Cheaper bulk mining techniques can be utilized;
    
    
  • Hauling and transportation costs between mine and processing facilities can be reduced; and,
    
    
  • Overall capital and operating costs are reduced.
    
    
• At typical mine grades, DEXRT effectively separates waste rock (50% or more of total) present in the crushed rock from the gold-bearing material;
  
  
• The potential exists to more than double the gold content in the crushed rock sent to the processing facilities from 6 g/t to 12-15 g/t; and,
  
  
• Gold losses during sorting are minimal as the effectiveness of the DEXRT system is extremely high with the Frankfield East style mineralisation.
  
  

This recent testwork was a follow-up to the Company's previously announced bench scale 5kg test sample results (see Gowest release dated February 1, 2012). Work was conducted in Germany using a 1,000kg bulk sample taken from the Frankfield East deposit, by Commodas Ultrasort Inc, the world market leader in the production of ore sorting equipment with over 50% market share.

During the recent tests using production scale DEXRT ore sorting equipment under commercial operating conditions, more than 50% of the waste rock from the crushed material was automatically rejected from the ore stream, thereby sharply reducing concerns over mining dilution and milling costs. At the same time, the overall gold content of the mined rock more than doubled with only a minor impact on the quantity of contained gold.

Broadly speaking, rejecting 50% of the rock could be expected based on the current Preliminary Economic Assessment to result in an immediate reduction of approximately 5% in the cash costs per ounce of gold. This reduction is solely based on reduced handling, transportation and mill power expenses. More importantly, there would also be the potential for significant additional savings in capital requirements related to the sizing of milling equipment and underground mining costs. Further engineering work is currently underway to properly quantify the detailed economic impacts in these areas.

Metallurgical testing has shown that the gold in the Frankfield East deposit is closely associated with arsenopyrite (FeAsS) (see Figure 2). During ore sorting, the crushed material is transferred at high speeds along a conveyor belt in front of an x-ray sensor that analyzes the signatures of individual rocks to detect the FeAsS content in the crushed ore. The sensors then trigger a series of individually controlled air jets to separate the barren rocks from the gold-bearing material. Work to date has shown that the equipment used in Germany was able to detect arsenopyrite contents down to as little as 0.1-0.2%, a sufficiently low level to provide reliable operational control and ensure that as little of the economic gold as possible is sent to the waste stream. In essence, any rocks containing in excess of 0.3 g/t gold can be effectively recovered and sent for downstream processing while the remaining material remains at the mine as waste rock.

Greg Romain, President and CEO of Gowest, said, "Now that we have verified how effectively this approach works on a commercial scale, we have taken one more important step towards our goal of demonstrating the economic viability of the Frankfield East deposit. We remain confident that we will be able to aggressively advance the development of the project towards production over the next few years, while continuing to expand its resource potential in the near future with a resource upgrade, a revised Preliminary Economic Assessment and more exploration work on our enlarged property area."

To view the figure associated with this press release, "Commodos Ore Sorting Test-Recovery" please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Commodos.pdf.

The above figure shows the results from the initial lab scale sorting that was the basis for the recent commercial scale testwork. Composite averaged 4 g/t (crushed to a diameter of approximately 0.75 inch) and consisted of a wide range of Frankfield East drill core intersections ranging in gold content from 0 g/t (waste rock) to over 10 g/t (high grade main zone). Despite the relative low gold content of the composite, results from the testwork confirmed an extremely efficient separation. Greater than 50% of the rock mass was rejected resulting in a final crushed rock product containing 12-15 g/t gold with only 2-3% gold losses.

To view the figure associated with this press release, "Gold Associated with Arsenopyrite" please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Arsenopyrite.pdf.

The above figure shows the correlation of gold and arsenopyrite in the drill core from the Frankfield east deposit.

Qualified Person

This press release has been reviewed by Mr. Darren Koningen, P. Eng., Gowest's Vice President of Technical Services. Mr. Koningen is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

About Gowest

Gowest is a Canadian gold exploration and development company focused on the delineation and development of its 100% owned Frankfield East gold deposit, part of the Company's North Timmins Gold Project (NTGP). Gowest is exploring additional gold targets on the 90-square-kilometre NTGP land package and continuing to evaluate area, which is part of the prolific Timmins, Ontario gold camp.

Forward-looking statements

This news release contains certain "forward looking statements". Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. The results or events depicted in these forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.