HIGHLIGHTS:
- 4-km long by 285-m wide, 30-5,210 ppb gold averaging 412 ppb gold-in-soil anomaly across entire length of Fremont property located in the prolific Mother Lode Gold Belt of central California
- 1.14 km2 (282 acres) anomaly confirms, connects and overlies the strike continuity of the Mother Lode structure that hosts four gold-mineralized zones on the Fremont Property, including;
- The current NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate1) (“MRE”) of 0.526 Moz at an average grade of 1.60 g/t Au in the Indicated, plus 0.452 Moz at an average grade of 1.29 g/t Au in the Inferred categories, respectively at Pine Tree-Josephine
- The NI 43-101 MRE is defined over only 1-km strike length of the entire new 4-km anomaly.
- Trenching and drilling planned to expand resources beyond current MRE limits.
Figure 1. Fremont Gold-in-Soil Anomalies
To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4064/114546_d3579d4fd4fde8ff_002full.jpg
Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – February 23, 2022) – Stratabound Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SB) (OTCQB: SBMIF) (“Stratabound” or the “Company”) is pleased to report a large gold-in-soil anomaly extending across the entire 4-kilometre property length averaging 285 metres in width at its Fremont Gold Project located in the prolific Mother Lode Gold Belt of central California. Offset by an interpreted fault, the property-wide soil geochemical survey defines nearly continuous gold-in-soil mineralization of greater than 30 ppb (parts per billion) up to 112,491 ppb gold, (112.5 g/t or 3.281 ounces per ton) covering an area of 1.14 km2 or 282 acres. Excluding the highest value, the remaining 102 samples within the anomaly range up to 5,210 ppb and average 412 ppb gold, a multiple of 61.5 times above the average background value of 6.7 ppb gold outside the anomaly. The excluded high value is located within 15 metres of the historically mined high-grade Josephine Lode Gold Vein where it outcrops at surface and may be reflective of mineralization related to it. Results of the survey are displayed in Figure 1 above.
*(1 ppb=0.001 g/t gold)
The surface gold-in-soil anomaly encompasses, and now links, three historic producing gold deposits, the Pine Tree, Josephine and Queen Specimen mines plus the two more recently identified and undeveloped Crown Point and Chicken Gulch gold zones. Though all zones are hosted within the same continuous geological domains featuring similar drilled gold mineralization, the individual deposits and zones previously remained materially unconnected for the lack of intervening assay information prior to this soil geochemical survey.
NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Defined Across Only 1 km at Centre of Anomaly
Most significantly, the 4-km soil anomaly is centred atop the Pine Tree-Josephine (“PTJ”) Deposit which hosts a current NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate1) (“MRE”) of 526,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.60 g/t Au in the Indicated, plus 452,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.29 g/t Au in the Inferred MRE categories, respectively. The current MRE covers a strike length of only one km and extends approximately 300 metres below average surface elevation. Even so, the historic Pine Tree and Josephine Mines within the MRE were historically mined beyond that depth to 590 metres below average surface elevation producing 126,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 8 g/t gold, (0.266 ounces of gold per ton) between 1849 and 1942 before WWII forced legislated closure of all gold mining in the United States at a then gold price of US$35 per ounce.
1)(Technical Report on the Fremont Gold Project, Central California, USA. Report for NI 43-101 Stratabound Minerals Corp. SLR Project No: 233.33360.R0000 September 30, 2021, SLR Consulting (Canada) Ltd. Filed on SEDAR.
Mr. R. Kim Tyler, President and CEO of the Company stated, “We are pleased to report that this compelling new evidence significantly strengthens the case for resource potential much beyond that already defined by the current MRE at Fremont. The soil anomaly clearly highlights this upside potential beyond and between the limits defined by drilling and historical mining to date. We look forward to executing on trenching and drilling plans this year to further prove up that potential on, and now in between, the other known gold zones flanking the main Pine Tree-Josephine Deposit.”
The Company plans to test between and on the other zones to expand the Mineral Resource Estimates across the remaining 3 km of strike. Drill highlights for each undeveloped zone are summarized below:
Queen Specimen:
- 25 reverse circulation (“RC”) and diamond drill holes (10,000m) tracing gold mineralization over 750 m of strike and over 240 m deep
- Similar results to PTJ include:
- 2.33 g/t Au/15.2m (RC-86-133)
- 2.11 g/t Au/24.4m (RC-86-139)
- 1.25 g/t Au/29.1m (DD-17-007)
- 10.07 g/t Au/4.1m including 20.75 g/t Au/1.5m (DD-18-03)
- Open in all directions, 1 km north along strike of PTJ Deposit
Crown Point:
- 10 RC holes (1,100m) tracing gold mineralization over 300 m of strike and over 135 m deep
- Similar results to PTJ include:
- 1.20 g/t Au/9.0m (RC-085-082)
- 0.77 g/t Au/4.6m (RC-085-096)
- Open in all directions, 0.4 km north along strike of PTJ Deposit
Chicken Gulch:
- 9 RC holes (1,500m) tracing gold mineralization over 300m strike and over 240 m deep.
- Similar results to PTJ include:
- 2.38 g/t Au/6.1m (RC-86-110)
- 2.17 g/t Au/27.4m (RC-86-111)
- 4.40 g/t Au/6.1m (RC-86-122)
- Open in all directions, 1 km south along strike of PTJ.
High-grade >200ppb Gold Core within Oxide Cap Zone
A high-grade, greater than 200 ppb gold-in-soil core within the larger anomaly defined by 31 soil samples averaging 1,097 ppb gold (1.097 g/t gold) excluding the high value sample, lies also in an oxidized surface cap zone. In 2014 Inspectorate Metallurgical Division of Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd. completed bottle-roll metallurgical testing on oxide samples from the Pine Tree-Josephine deposit that concluded 93% gold recoveries could be attained in a 10-day period.
Field Procedures:
The soil geochemistry survey covered the entire Fremont Property with 1,364 samples including 51 field duplicate samples collected on a 100m-by-100m grid. The soil samples were collected in canvas sacks by qualified independent contract exploration personnel with UTM grid coordinates provided to them. Garmin etrex 20 GPS units were used to locate and record actual sample sites. The survey was conducted between 2016-2017 but results were never previously compiled nor reported.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control
Chain of Custody included bagging the samples into rice sacks and delivering to the on-site mine office where they were subsequently shipped to American Assay Laboratories of Sparks, Nevada for processing. 51 field duplicates were included in the submission.
The laboratory prepared 30-gram sub-samples and processed each sub-sample in a fire-assay digestion followed by an ICP-OES finish. Results that exceeded the procedure limit of 10 ppm by this method were re-assayed by a gravimetric finish method. In addition to gold, 12 other element analyses were conducted by the ICP method.
American Assay Laboratories is an ISO 17025 accredited facility with internal QA/QC procedures. In addition to the quality assurance and quality control program including certified blanks and standards inserted into the sample stream performed by American Assay Laboratories, field duplicates were collected at regular intervals and inserted into the sampling stream.
ABOUT STRATABOUND
Stratabound Minerals Corp. is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company that is developing its advanced-stage flagship Fremont Gold Project in the Mother Lode Gold Belt of California. The Project includes the Pine Tree/Josephine Deposit hosting an NI 43-101 Mineral Resource estimate of 526,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.60 g/t Au in the Indicated, plus 452,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.29 g/t Au in the Inferred Mineral Resource categories, respectively. Additionally, Fremont also hosts three undeveloped gold occurrences across four kilometres of strike along the prolific Mother Lode Gold Belt. (See Stratabound press release of Oct. 15, 2021)
The Company is also advancing its pipeline of other early-stage gold exploration projects including the Golden Culvert, YT, McIntyre Brook, NB, and Dingman, ON, gold projects in Canada. Additionally, the Company holds a significant land position in the Bathurst camp of New Brunswick that hosts three base metals deposits including the Captain Copper-Cobalt-Gold Deposit with a Measured and Indicated Resource prepared following CIM (2014) Definition Standards.
Mr. R. Kim Tyler, P.Geo., President and CEO of Stratabound, and a “Qualified Person” for the purpose of NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents and technical information of this news release.
For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.stratabound.ca or contact: R. Kim Tyler, President and CEO 416-915-4157 [email protected]
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
WARNING: The Company relies upon litigation protection for “forward-looking” statements. The information in this release may contain forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. This forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking information. Factors that may cause actual results to vary materially include, but are not limited to, inaccurate assumptions concerning the exploration for and development of mineral deposits, currency fluctuations, unanticipated operational or technical difficulties, changes in laws or regulations, failure to obtain regulatory, exchange or shareholder approval, the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits, changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets and the inability to raise additional financing. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information. The Company does not assume the obligation to revise or update this forward-looking information after the date of this release or to revise such information to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
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