Essex Defines Large Drill-Ready Gold Targets at MT Turner and Compass CK. Plans for Second Stage of Option and Earn-In JV

VANCOUVER, BC, March 4, 2021 /CNW/ - Essex Minerals Inc. (the "Company" or "Essex") (TSXV: ESX) is pleased provide an update on Australian gold exploration earn-in joint venture with KNX Resources Ltd ("KNX").

Highlights

Integration of historical exploration data with initial surface sampling from the Mt Turner project area has defined drill-ready targets in the eastern Drummer Fault zone with the potential to host a >1,000,000-ounce gold resource with associated high-grade silver.
In addition, re-interpretation of historical aeromagnetic and ground magnetometer data has highlighted the importance of E-W structures in controlling the precious metal mineralization in the entire Cumberland-Mt Turner region.
This reinterpretation is considered of particular significance as:
- E-W structures played a key role in gold mineralization mined at the historical Cumberland Mine.
- The Drummer Fault zone is a major E-W structural zone hosting uranium and gold mineralization.
- E-W structures also appear to play an important role at the RBZ South Zone (Cumberland Project) where Hole 1 encountered 18.8 g/t gold and 160 g/t silver over 6.4m from 139.5m downhole, and follow-up Holes 7 & 8 intersected 12.2 g/t gold and 13.4 g/t silver over 0.5 m and 3.2 g/t gold and four g/t silver over 0.5 m respectively.
At the Cumberland Project, additional detailed structural analysis and geophysics will be undertaken to better define fluid flow and the best trap sites for significant economic gold and silver mineralization.
At the Compass Creek Project, integration of last year's airborne LiDAR survey with data from previous ground and airborne geophysical surveys has defined three large drill ready orogenic gold targets.
Discussions are underway with KNX Resources to acquire their remaining property interests for shares in a separate, jointly-owned company ("SpinCo"). The proposal includes a plan to list SpinCo on the TSX Venture Exchange to fund future exploration on the properties.

Essex Minerals President and CEO Paul Loudon: said: "The initial AUD$1 million of exploration expenditure we have invested in the KNX joint venture has resulted in ownership by Essex of significant equity interests in three large gold and gold-silver projects, each of which have the potential to host multi million -ounce deposits.

"As the company's first deal where we are incubating advanced stage exploration projects through the option and earn-in joint venture model, we are delighted with the value that has been created and the assets in our portfolio.

"We are now looking carefully at how we best leverage these assets to further maximize value for Essex shareholders, and for this reason we have initiated discussions with KNX Resources on the potential for combining our respective joint venture interests in SpinCo to fund future exploration."

Mount Turner

The Mt Turner Project, 15 km northwest of the Georgetown, comprises a 48 sq km exploration permit granted to KNX in 2019. An additional license was granted in November 2020 bringing the total project area to 96 sq km. The property contains the Permo-Carboniferous Mt Turner, multi-phase intrusive complex, associated with a porphyry copper-molybdenum system with classic zoned polymetallic mineralization and associated gold in peripheral breccias and veins. The property also contains the 19 km long Drummer Fault, which cuts across the northern part of the porphyry and contains epithermal gold and silver mineralization in veins and shear zones.

The eastern 14 km of the Drummer Fault is characterized by several open pits mined for gold by Union Mining NL to a depth of 20m in oxide material in the early 1990s. Historical drilling to a maximum of 30m is recorded within the mined pits, which generally range in strike from 200m to 300m, while no drilling was ever undertaken below or between the various mined out pits. Limited data on the tonnage and grade processed by Union Mining is available, however, surface sampling by the joint venture within the Union Mining pits have returned assays up to 29 g/t gold in sulfides.

Integration of historical data with the initial surface sampling by the joint venture suggests the gold and silver mineralization in the eastern zone is contained within multiple, steeply dipping shoots. The same structures in the western part of the Drummer Fault were drilled by Esso Minerals in the 1970s for uranium. Some of the shoots reach the surface and some are under soil cover, making the entire length of the Drummer Fault between the historical pits prospective for gold mineralization with associated high-grade silver (see Figures 1-3).

Initial surface sampling of the target zone was reported last month, and included rock chip sampling in and around Union Mining's pits which averaged 5.11 g/t gold and 24 g/t silver (12 samples ranging from 0.4 g/t to 29.4 g/t Au and 2.0 to 49.6 g/t Ag), and surface sampling of untreated sulfide dumps and exposed pit walls which averaged 9.85 g/t gold and 23.9 g/t silver (eight samples ranging from 3.8 g/t Au to 19.8 g/t Au and 10.0 g/t to 40.9 g/t Ag). Five of the samples were from the sulfide dumps and averaged 10.1 g/t Au and 25.5 g/t Ag.

A first phase drilling program is planned to test the width and plunge of the gold and silver bearing shoots. If the geological model holds true, the Drummer Fault target has the potential to host a >1,000,000-ounce gold resource with associated high-grade silver.

In addition to drilling on the Drummer Fault, a detailed soil sampling program is planned on the Mt Turner porphyry copper-molybdenum target with a view to defining drill targets.

Cumberland

At the Cumberland property, 17 km southwest of Mt Turner, the 2021 program will commence with geophysics and detailed structural analysis to better understand fluid flow in this large, complex epithermal system, to better define the potential trap sites for economic mineralization ahead of the next round of drilling (see Figure 4). The Cumberland work program will also include additional surface sampling on the numerous untested prospects on the property which are yet to be drill tested.

The Cumberland property comprises four granted exploration permits covering 250 sq km, 70 km northwest of the former 5 million-ounce Kidston gold mine. Hole 1 encountered 18.8 g/t gold and 160.6 g/t silver over 6.4m from 139.5m down hole (announced in September 2020), and 9 additional stratigraphic and follow-up drill holes over 6 km of structure encountered epithermal gold and silver grades of varying tenor within wide zones of hydrothermal alteration with late-stage carbonate (epithermal) overprint.

Compass Creek

In November 2020, a LiDAR survey was flown over the Compass Creek property to better define drill targets. Analysis of the LiDAR derived digital terrain model (DTM) indicates the project area contains a series of north plunging anticlines occupied by Proterozoic meta sediments adjacent to the regional Pine Creek Fault Zone – host to a large number of orogenic gold deposits with historical production in excess of 5 million ounces (see Figure 5).

The sediments and fault zone within the Compass Creek property have been cut by a series of later WNW structures which appear to have localised breccia pipes at structural intersections. Integration of the LiDAR analysis with data from previous geophysical surveys has defined three drill ready targets capable of hosting large orogenic gold deposits within a major anticlinal structure displaying favourable stratigraphy, cut by NNW faulting related to the Pine Creek Shear Zone.

Each of the targets are between 1km to 2km long and 300m to 500m wide, and are coincident with strong multi-discipline geophysical anomalies (including IP, AEM and ground magnetics), strong hydrothermal alteration associated with veins and two known breccia pipes, and very high pathfinder geochemical assays (As, Pb, Ag, Bi & Sb). Two of the three targets contain significant gold and tin anomalism (up to 1.28 g/t gold and 3.02% tin) in rock chips.

The Compass Creek property comprises two granted exploration permits covering 48 sq km in the Pine Creek goldfield, 28 km north of Kirkland Lake's 2.5Mtpa Union Reefs mill in the Northern Territory.

KNX Joint Venture

Essex and KNX each own 50% of the Mt Turner property and 41.65% of Cumberland and Compass Creek properties. Essex has the right to offer to acquire all the shares in KNX at independent valuation, or earn an additional 25 per cent interest in Mt Turner and 20 per cent interest in Cumberland and Compass Creek by financing a further AUD $3,000,000 on exploration.

Discussions are now underway with KNX regarding merging the joint venture interests in a separate listed company to fund future exploration.

About Essex

Essex Minerals is an exploration and development company focused on mineral exploration and development opportunities where it can adopt an option earn-in and joint venture model without the issuance of vendor shares. By identifying geological teams that have already expended the time and capital to assemble top quality, advanced projects, with a particular emphasis on gold projects in Tier 1 jurisdictions. Management's time is shared across several different projects, as the geological teams already in place manage the approved exploration and development programmes. This strategy has the potential to accelerate the growth in shareholder value for Essex by earning an interest in a range of projects of merit in a much shorter time frame than otherwise would be possible.

Competent Person

All of the scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and/or prepared by Mr Lee K. Spencer, BSc (Hons), MSc, MAusIMM, a "Qualified Person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Minerals Projects.

ISSUED ON BEHALF OF ESSEX MINERALS INC.

Paul Loudon
President & CEO

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.

FIGURE 1 - DRUMMER FAULT STRUCTURE

FIGURE 1 - DRUMMER FAULT STRUCTURE (CNW Group/Essex Minerals Inc)