Gold Standard Ventures Corp. announced assay results from DS15-13, a Phase 2 core hole drilled to twin reverse-circulation (RC) hole DS15-11 at the recently discovered North Dark Star oxide gold deposit on its 100%-owned/controlled Railroad-Pinion Project in Nevada's Carlin Trend. DS15-13 returned multiple, significant, oxidized intercepts containing gold values above the cut-off grade of 0.14 g Au/t established by APEX Geoscience Ltd. of Edmonton, Canada in its Dark Star NI43-101 resource estimate announced on March 3, 2015 including 15.4 meters of 1.85grams gold per tonne (g Au/t) and 97.0 meters of 1.61 g Au/t. DS15-13 successfully confirmed RC hole DS15-11 which intersected 157.0m of 1.51 g Au/t. The DS15-10, 15-11 and 15-13 drill intercepts represent the discovery and confirmation of a new gold zone that has grade/thickness profiles that are an order of magnitude greater than the gold zones in the existing Dark Star resource located 515 meters to the south.

DS15-13 intersected vertically-extensive, oxidized intercepts of 15.4m of 1.85 g Au/t and 97.0m of 1.61 g Au/t, approximately 515m north of the Dark Star maiden resource, confirming the thick zone of oxidized gold mineralization originally identified by RC hole DS15-11. Higher grade intervals exist within the 97.0m zone including 18.0m of 3.36g Au/t from 182.9m to 200.9m. Gold mineralization is open in multiple directions.

Core confirms the presence of favorable carbonate host rocks bioclastic limestone, silty limestone and calcareous sandstone within a coarse conglomerate debris flow unit. This Pennsylvanian-Permian unit also hosts the Dark Star deposit to the south and represents a new, unconventional host on the Carlin Trend. Regardless of age and convention, these carbonate rocks react in a chemically similar fashion to more well-known Carlin host formations in which early stage decalcification (carbonate removal) is followed by silicification.

Rocks of similar age and composition host large, disseminated gold deposits further west in Nevada on the Getchell Trend and in the Battle Mountain district. As is typical of core twins of RC holes, DS15-13 intersected higher gold grades over narrower intervals. Difficult drilling in strongly fractured rock and the presence of high gold grades appear to have resulted in the displacement of some of the gold in RC DS15-11 down the hole into the gap between 125.1 to 149.0 meters and below 246.0 meters.

Gold mineralization is hosted in a multi-stage breccia and is associated with limonite, decalcification, silicification, quartz stringers, drusy quartz, hematite, clay and barite. The brecciation is more pervasive and complex than is apparent in the DS15-11 reverse-circulation cuttings. Mineralization occurs within a horst (uplifted block) of permissive host rocks, in the footwall of a large-displacement normal fault.

This favorable geologic pattern is a well-documented control to gold mineralization on the Carlin Trend. Phase 2 Dark Star drilling, which included 3,480 m in 8 holes, was designed to: extend areas of known gold mineralization along strike of the Dark Star structural corridor to the north of DS15-03, a Phase 1 drill hole that intersected two zones of gold mineralization including 32.0m of 0.58 g Au/t and 21.3m of 1.90 g Au/t; follow-up on 15.2m of 0.62 g Au/t in DS15-05, the initial test of the up-dip potential to the east of an existing historic intercept in WR9105 in the area of the North Dark Star discovery; and, test the intersection of the district-scale South fault and the Dark Star structural corridor, to the south of the Dark Star holes. Gold at Dark Star occurs in an underappreciated host rock for the Carlin Trend, a Pennsylvanian-Permian unit composed of bioclastic-bearing debris flow conglomerate with interbeds of calcareous sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.

These rocks dip to the west within the north-trending Dark Star structural corridor, which is bounded to the east by a large displacement, normal fault. Phase 2 intercepts in DS15-06, -09, -10, -11 and -13 confirm the upside exploration and expansion potential within the Dark Star structural corridor, north of the Dark Star maiden resource. Further, the 6 km strike length of the Dark Star structural corridor as defined by geologic mapping, geophysics and soil geochemistry, remains largely untested by drilling.