VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Abacus Mining & Exploration Corporation (“Abacus” or the “Company”) (TSXV: AME) is pleased to announce that a program of ground IP geophysics is about to begin at its Jersey Valley gold property, within the Battle Mountain trend of north-central Nevada.
The new high-resolution Time Domain Induced Polarization survey will consist of six lines of two kilometres each bracketing four historic lines of IP done by a previous operator in 2005. The historic IP has extensive, virtually untested anomalies, and limited past drilling shows that these are gold and silver bearing. The work is scheduled to commence near the end of September and once complete, an initial program of drilling will be undertaken.
Jersey Valley is underlain by an uplifted range of sediments and intrusives to the east and an extensive basin covered by gravels to the west, separated by a prominent, brecciated range front fault. A distinctive sinter associated with hot springs activity is exposed out in the valley gravels. The previous operator completed a large-scale ground magnetic survey in the early 2000’s which extended well beyond the current property and then initiated a limited four-line northwest oriented IP survey over the valley gravels.
Abacus recently reprocessed the IP data, which very clearly shows two flat-lying anomalies marked by moderate to high chargeability and low resistivity (see Company website). Both targets are open along strike to the northeast and southwest. The largest target is approximately 600 metres long by 500 metres wide. The Company doubled the claim size in July of 2020 in order to cover the southwest strike extent of these anomalies.
Past drilling was neither extensive enough, deep enough nor optimally placed to adequately test the system. Despite this, three historic diamond drill holes appear to have just grazed these two anomalies. All three holes contained >1% pyrite, occasional realgar and stibnite, and numerous additional gold-silver intercepts associated with elevated levels of arsenic, antimony and mercury. The best results were:
- Drill hole 06JC014C intersected 1.18 g/t silver over 13.1 m near the top and then 0.19 g/t gold over 13.4 m near the end of the hole.
- Drill hole 06JC015C assayed 0.18 g/t gold and 3.6 g/t silver over 6.09 m part way through the hole and then 1.58 g/t gold over 1.52 m near the end of the hole.
- Drill hole 06JC017C, hit narrow zones of anomalous gold and silver throughout, and then 0.18 g/t gold over 29.87 m. at the end of the hole.
- Note that all intercepts are down hole lengths as insufficient drilling was done to determine true widths. Note further that these results are historic in nature and although the author was not involved in the original work, proper industry standard sampling and data verification procedures appear to have been followed.
The Company believes that the reprocessing has highlighted the fact that the best portions of the IP targets are essentially untested, although past drilling clearly indicates that they contain gold and silver, along with a suite of other elements typical of these precious metal bearing systems. The reprocessing also identified several high angle chargeability anomalies that may be feeders to the extensive flat lying anomalies, along with structures parallel to and at high angles to the range front fault. Of note is the fact that structures appear to bracket both resistivity anomalies, possibly indicating sub-basins within the larger basin.
As demonstrated by past operators, the Jersey Valley property is prospective for both intrusion-related sediment hosted, and for epithermal precious metal mineralization, within the Battle Mountain trend of north-central Nevada. Jersey Valley is in close proximity to both the Phoenix/Fortitude mine complex (approximately 14 Moz gold plus significant Ag and Cu past production and a proposed mine life to 2063) and the Cove/McCoy Mine: 3.4 Moz gold and 110 Moz Ag past production. (Data is from the Newmont Mines and Premier Gold Mines websites. The reader is cautioned that the mineralization hosted on nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company’s Jersey Valley gold property). The Jersey Valley property has a well-maintained sealed road running through it, which provides access to a 15 MW geothermal power plant located on the edge of the claim group.
The Company also has additional properties of merit in Nevada. The Willow and adjacent Nev-Lorraine copper-molybdenum properties are in the Yerington copper camp, southeast of Reno. Drilling by the Company in 2018 intersected a key intrusive rock unit on Willow that hosts all known porphyry Cu-Mo deposits at Yerington. This rock unit was not previously known to exist on the Company’s property, and it represents a significant new discovery. The target is large and robust, and it remains essentially untested.
In addition, Abacus holds a 20% ownership interest in the Ajax copper-gold project, located near Kamloops, British Columbia., which is managed by base metal major KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., who hold the remaining 80%. The Ajax Project contains significant quantities of copper and gold, within a NI 43-101 Proven and Probable Mineral Reserve of 426 Mt at 0.29% Cu, 0.19 g/t Au and 0.39 g/t Ag. Contained metal is in the order of 2.7 Bil lbs Cu, 2.6 Moz Au and 5.3 Moz Ag*. KGHM has recently hired a new Ajax Superintendent (see News Release dated September 1, 2020), whose duties will initially be focused on First Nations, on community and on governmental engagement in order to advance the project towards a potential resubmission of the environmental application.
The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul G. Anderson, M.Sc., P.Geo., a Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101.
* Wardrop Engineering Inc. 2012. Ajax Copper/Gold Project, Kamloops, British Columbia – Feasibility Study Technical Report. Doc. No. 1054610300-REP-R0004-02. January 2012.
On Behalf of the Board,
ABACUS MINING & EXPLORATION CORPORATION
Paul G. Anderson
President and COO
About Abacus
Abacus is a mineral exploration and mine development company currently focused on its optioned Willow copper-gold property located near Yerington, Nevada in which it can acquire up to a 75% ownership interest, and the contiguous Nev-Lorraine claims subject to a ten-year lease agreement. Abacus also holds a 15-year lease on the Jersey Valley gold property, near Battle Mt., Nevada. The Company’s main asset is a 20% ownership interest, together with KGHM Polska Meidz S.A. (80%), in the proposed copper-gold Ajax Mine located southwest of Kamloops, B.C., which has undergone a joint provincial and federal environmental assessment process. On December 14, 2017, a decision was made by the B.C. Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum resources to decline to issue an environmental assessment certificate for the Project. For the latest reports and information on Abacus’ projects, please refer to the Company’s website at www.amemining.com.
Forward-Looking Information
This release includes certain statements that are deemed “forward-looking statements”. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that Abacus expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward- looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “potential” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “could” or “should” occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include changes to commodity prices, mine and metallurgical recovery, operating and capital costs, foreign exchange rates, ability to obtain required permits on a timely basis, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward- looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company’s management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management’s beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
Neither 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.
Tel: 604.682.0301 email: [email protected] website: www.amemining.com
