Abacus Mining & Exploration Corporation (“Abacus” or the
“Company”) (TSXV: AME) is pleased to announce an extension to the
earn-in period on the Willow porphyry copper project in the
Yerington copper camp, southeast of Reno, Nevada.
The Company originally optioned the Willow
property from Almadex Minerals Ltd. in 2017 with an obligation to
issue shares and to spend USD 3 million over five years to earn an
initial 60% interest in the project. Further expenditures would
allow Abacus to increase their interest to 75%, whereupon a Joint
Venture with Almadex would be established.
Due to market conditions, the Company finds
itself just short of the required USD 3 million spending
requirement and has negotiated an extension with Almadex. Abacus
now has until December 31, 2025, to earn the initial 60% interest
in Willow, for the issuance of 2,000,000 shares and for the
expenditure of an additional USD 2 million. All other terms of the
option remain the same, and the amendment is subject to regulatory
approval.
“I am pleased to extend the Willow option
period,” commented Paul G. Anderson, President and CEO of Abacus,
“as the property has an excellent potential to host a new porphyry
copper-molybdenum (Cu-Mo) deposit in the Yerington camp. The
Company has identified the granite on Willow which hosts the other
four known porphyry Cu-Mo deposits at Yerington and has assayed low
grade Cu-Mo over considerable drilled intervals. This is a
significant new discovery in the camp, and more work is definitely
merited. Porphyry copper systems are large in extent, and much of
Willow remains untested.”
To date, Abacus has completed a comprehensive
program of geological, geochemical and geophysical work on Willow,
identifying an extensive zone of intense silicic and advanced
argillic alteration, marked by coincident geological, geochemical
and geophysical signatures typical of a porphyry Cu-Mo deposit.
The Company has also completed two core drilling
programs on Willow, which identified the Luhr Hill granite, which
is the host to the other known porphyry deposits in the camp. You
cannot have a porphyry deposit at Yerington without the presence of
this host rock. The granite on Willow contains significant
composited intervals of low-grade copper and molybdenum
mineralization, including:
-
0.11% Cu over 72.2 m *
-
0.12% Cu over 57.5 m (including 0.37% Cu over 1.1 m and 0.19% Cu
over 34 m)
-
0.1% Cu over 37.9 m within a longer intercept of 0.08% Cu over
308.4 m
-
0.38% Cu over 0.2 m
-
0.24% Cu over 2.3 m
-
0.17% Cu over 1.8 m
-
True widths are estimated at 80-85% of the drilled interval
In addition, molybdenum (Mo) values are elevated
in all holes and are a particularly strong indicator that you are
close to a porphyry copper center, although this center has not yet
been intersected on Willow.
Cu-Mo porphyry deposits at Yerington occur at
the contact of the Luhr Hill granite porphyry and surrounding
volcanic rocks, or else close to the granite but associated with
porphyry dyke swarms off the granite that extend further into the
volcanic package. As there are no known instances of this granite
in the camp without an associated porphyry, the discovery of Luhr
Hill granite on Willow marks a key new discovery, which means that
there is a very high likelihood of a Cu-Mo deposit being found on
Willow.
The Company’s target is essentially identical to
the two largest porphyry deposits in the Yerington camp, namely the
past-producing Yerington mine and the undeveloped Ann Mason
deposit. Because the target at Willow is covered by later
volcanism, prospecting by drill and sampling for geochemistry is
the only effective means of trying to locate a porphyry center, and
this often takes several drill campaigns to achieve, with each
successive campaign vectoring closer to a porphyry center.
Of the Porphyry Cu-Mo deposits in the camp, the
Ann Mason deposit lies adjacent and east of Willow and is held by
HudBay Minerals. In 2021, Hudbay announced an updated PEA on Ann
Mason with a revised M&I resource of 2.2 billion tonnes at
0.34% Cu. Lion Copper and Gold (formerly Quaterra Resources)
control the Yerington, Bear and MacArthur porphyries further to the
east. Anaconda mined the Yerington porphyry between 1952 until
1978, producing 1.6 billion pounds of copper. MacArthur (M&I of
159MT at 0.212% Cu) * has seen some past production and is
currently undergoing a Prefeasibility Study. In March of 2022, Lion
announced that Rio Tinto had taken an option on the company’s
Yerington assets. Nevada Copper is in production to the southeast
at its Pumpkin Hollow skarn (P&P of 572 MT at 0.4% Cu).
Abacus has the right to earn a 75% ownership
interest in the Willow property from Almadex America Inc, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Almadex Minerals Ltd. The Company also has a
lease on the contiguous Nev-Lorraine claims giving it the right to
explore and to elect to purchase these claims outright over a
ten-year period. The entire claim group is known as the Willow
Property.
Abacus also holds a 20% ownership interest in
the Ajax copper-gold porphyry 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**.
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.
* Data is from the respective Company websites.
The Quaterra report is by M3 Engineering and Technology Corp, May
23, 2012. Amended NI 43-101 Technical Report Preliminary Economic
Assessment Lyon County, Nevada, US.
** 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, P.Geo.President and CEO
About Abacus
Abacus is a mineral exploration and mine
development company currently focused on copper and gold in B.C.
and Nevada. The Company’s main asset is a 20% ownership interest,
together with KGHM Polska Miedź 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. KGHM
have recently reopened an office in Kamloops, B.C. to facilitate
First Nation, community and governmental engagement in order to
advance the project towards a potential resubmission of the
environmental application.
Abacus also holds an option on the 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.
For the latest reports and information on
Abacus’ projects, please refer to the Company’s website at
www.amemining.com.
Forward-Looking InformationThis
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: info@amemining.com
website: www.amemining.com
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