SUDBURY, ON, Sept. 20, 2018 /CNW/ - Transition Metals
Corp (XTM – TSX.V) ("Transition", "the Company") is pleased to
announce that it has entered into an option agreement to acquire a
100% interest in the >45 square kilometre Highland Gold property
located in the Cape Breton Highlands of Nova Scotia. The property covers an extensive
cluster of high grade gold occurrences that have seen very limited
exploration.
CEO Scott McLean commented,
"We think the potential for the area to host large deposits of
gold is strongly supported by the historical, highly anomalous
results coming from stream sediments, tills, soil and bedrock
samples. Rocks of similar age and formation are known to host
significant gold deposits in the Carolinas, Newfoundland, Ireland and Scotland. Cape
Breton has an overlooked district scale gold potential that
should be of interest to major gold producers looking for new
opportunities. We plan to initiate exploration work this
fall."
Transition retains the right and option to earn a 100% interest
in the property by completing $1.5
million of expenditures and issuing $170,000 in cash and $175,000 in shares to the Vendor over a 5 year
period. If the Company vests its interest, the Vendor would
retain a 2% Net Smelter Return royalty (NSR) with Transition
retaining the right to buy back 1% NSR for $1.25 million.
Work planned by the Company this fall includes till and soil
sampling, a high resolution airborne magnetic/conductivity survey,
and reverse circulation drilling. Additionally, the Nova Scotia
Mineral Resources Development Fund will provide up to $95,000 in exploration funding assistance which
will help the Company offset some of its costs. The funding
program provided by the government of Nova Scotia is designed to assist prospectors,
exploration companies, and researchers in the search for new
discoveries, to advance projects closer to production, and to
attract investment into the Province.
About The Highland Gold Property
The property is located approximately 60 kilometres northwest of
the city of Sydney, Nova Scotia in
the Cape Breton Highlands. It consists of staked mining licenses on
crown land that covers approximately 4,576 hectares in an area of
active forestry operations. The property can be easily accessed by
a major road (Highland Road) and network of logging roads that
provide truck access to most of this portion of the Cape Breton highlands.
The property straddles the Central Highland Shear that can be
traced along a northeast trend across the entirety of Cape Breton
Island. The structure separates Ordovician - Silurian rocks
of the western Gander terrane from the Neo-Proterozoic rocks of the
Avalon terrane to the east. The regional geologic framework is
analogous to that hosting First Mining Gold's Hope Brook deposit in Newfoundland (844,000 ounces of gold grading
4.77 g/t gold in the Indicated Resource category and 110,000 ounces
grading 4.11 g/t gold in the Inferred Resource category*) and
Oceana Gold's Haile Mine in
South Carolina (3.32 million
ounces grading 1.77 g/t gold in the Measured and Indicated Resource
category and 0.6 million ounces grading 1.4 g/t gold in the
Inferred Resource category)**.
Work to date on the property has led to the identification more
than 30 mineralized bedrock occurrences within an approximate 50
square kilometre area of which 9 returned bedrock assays greater
than 8 g/t gold and up to 104 g/t gold, and 23 returning higher
than 1.7 g/t gold¹ (Figure 1).
The initial discovery of gold-bearing quartz vein, mineralized
boulders in the area was made in 1986 by Scominex, a joint venture
between Nova Scotia Resources Ltd., Husky Oil and INCO during a
follow-up sampling program of gold anomalies in a regional stream
sediment sampling program conducted by the Nova Scotia Department
of Natural Resources. A total of 39 diamond drill holes totaling
2,574 metres were completed by Scominex targeting soil
anomalies/bedrock occurrences. Seventeen of the holes,
totaling 1,137 metres, were put down at the Main Zone where narrow
intervals of elevated gold were intersected. Extensive
oxidation and weathering near surface however, contributed to poor
overall core recoveries during the drill campaign. A composite bulk
sample collected by Scominex across a 70 metre section of weathered
veining averaged 26.5 g/t gold¹. At Zone 10, drilling intersected a
wide shear zone hosting quartz veining and disseminated sulphides
where hole 77359-0 intersected 0.8 g/t gold over 8.35 metres
including a 1.5 metre section averaging 3.4 g/t gold².
Mining licenses covering the area encompassing the Main Zone
were acquired by Lodestone Ltd. in 1995 which engaged in bulk
sampling and preliminary gold recovery test work from a 60 metre
long by 4 metre deep surface cut. Lodestone reported the average
feed grade from a cyanide leach test completed on a 1,000 kilogram
representative sample was 23 g/t gold³. Lodestone did not undertake
enough exploration or delineation drilling work to establish a
resource estimate for Main Zone showing.
Mining licenses surrounding the Main Zone were acquired by
award-winning Nova Scotia
prospector Joe Richman in 2009 with
the Main Zone being acquired in late 2015. Work completed by
Richman from 2009 to present highlighted the attractive potential
of areas in the central portion of the property and especially
around the Scominex Main Zone, 6A-B and Zones 1,2,3 Zones.
Channel samples from trenching completed on these zones in 2014
returned 12.8 g/t gold over 3.1 metres, 3.18 g/t gold over 3.3
metres, and 17.1 g/t gold over 0.7 metres⁴.
In 2014, IAMGOLD Ltd undertook a small program of drilling
consisting of 7 diamond drill holes totaling 1,059 metres. Results
from this drill program included an intersection of 4.95 g/t gold
over 3.0 metres at Zone 6B, and up to
2.52 g/t gold over 1.03 metres in a strongly altered pyritic shear
zone with quartz veining approximately 2 kilometres to the east of
the 6A and 6B Zones near Zones 1, 2
and 3⁴.
Recent grab sampling completed by the Geoscience and Mines
Branch, Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines Geological
Survey, returned values from nil to 71.6 g/t gold at the Main Zone,
0.03 to 28.0 g/t gold at Zone 6A, 0.01 to 80.3 g/t gold and 0.02 to
84.9 g/t gold at Zone 6B⁵. Grab sampling by Transition geologists
from the 6A Zone returned assays ranging from nil to 12.1 g/t
gold.
The Company views the property as a key gold asset
acquisition. The widespread occurrence of gold together with
the regional geologic context that is analogous to other
significant deposits in Newfoundland and the southeast USA make this overlooked area a prime
exploration opportunity for discovery. Under the Transition
business model, the Company will undertake sufficient exploration
to attract a Partner.
1 Source: Novascan report AR-ME-1987-204, Report
of Exploration on the Cape Breton Highlands Project,
Scominex.
2 Source: Novascan report
AR-ME-1990-161, Exploration Program 1990, The Cape Breton
Highlands, Scominex.
3 Source: Novascan
report AR-ME-1995-008, Work Report, The McMillan Flowage Gold
Project, Lodestone Ltd., 1995.
4 Source:
Novascan report AR-ME-1020615, Assessment Report on the 2014-2015
Exploration Programs License 50372 held by Joe Richman.
5 Source: 2018
Personal Communications, Economic Geologist, Geological Services
Division, Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mine.
*Source: First Mining Gold Website -
https://firstmininggold.com/projects/newfoundland/hope-brook-project/
*Source: Oceana Gold Media Release dated March 29, 2018
Qualified Person
The technical elements of this press release have been approved
by Mr. Greg Collins, P.Geo. (APGO,
APGNS), a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Grab
samples are selected samples and are necessarily representative of
the mineralization hosted on the property. Historical assay
results cited above have not been verified by the Qualified
Person. All analytical work performed on grab samples was
conducted at Agat Laboratories with analyses completed in
Mississauga, Ontario The quality
system used by Agat complies with international standards ISO
9001:2015 and ISO 17025:2005.
Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Information
Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the
information in this news release constitutes "forward-looking
information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such
forward-looking information may be identified by words such as
"plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes",
"may", "will" and include without limitation, statements regarding
estimated capital and operating costs, expected production
timeline, benefits of updated development plans, foreign exchange
assumptions and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance
that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and
future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors
that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among
others, metal prices, competition, risks inherent in the mining
industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside
the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put
undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise
required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, the
Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update
publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
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.
SOURCE Transition Metals Corp.