Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. (“Cornerstone” or “the Company”)
(TSXV:CGP) (Frankfurt:GWN) (Berlin:GWN) (OTC:CTNXF) is pleased to
announce the following update on the status of the Pre-feasibility
Study (PFS) on the Alpala Project at its Cascabel copper-gold
porphyry joint venture project in northern Ecuador in which
Cornerstone has a 15% interest¹ financed through to completion of a
feasibility study plus 7.5% of the shares of joint venture partner
and project operator SolGold Plc, for a total direct and indirect
interest in Cascabel of 21.4%.
The Alpala Project Committee (the “Committee”),
chaired by SolGold Non-Executive Director Keith Marshall, has
reviewed the work undertaken to date on the PFS and provided its
recommendation to the Board on the next steps to complete it.
The Committee determined that additional work is
required to sufficiently address a number of mine development and
metallurgical alternatives and potential upsides, including the
resource potential on other targets within the Cascabel concession.
The objective of a revised PFS encompassing all of the Cascabel
targets is to reduce the risk of a very large initial capex on a
large underground development and deliver a study that demonstrates
a lower technical risk through better defined upsides in resources,
operating costs and recoveries.
With the extra work required, the publication of
a PFS is not expected until late 2021. SolGold and Cornerstone will
update the market in due course on progress of the PFS.
The Committee has identified the key work
required and advises adjusting the current draft mine development
plan and draft mine production plan to de-risk the project with a
view to both expediting, and reducing capital requirements of, the
Project.
On the basis of the report of the Committee, the
Board of Directors of SolGold has requested the SolGold team to
review both draft plans, specifically to:
- examine an alternative mine access
to accelerate the development of the cave,
- examine the draft mine production
plan with a view to ascertaining the optimum production rate, with
the most likely scenario being a reduction of the previously
contemplated mining rate but at higher grades from a reduced
footprint in the early stages of operations,
- study an optimized block cave
footprint targeting higher grade material in the early stages,
while maintaining expansion capabilities through plant and
infrastructure addition strategies,
- correspondingly optimize the
capital cost and construction schedules of all related downstream
milling, processing and tailings operations,
- undertake a thorough re-assessment
of all potential near-surface mining options at the Alpala Deposit,
and
- investigate the resource potential
at satellite targets, including Tandayama-America, Aguinaga and
Moran.
The team is also investigating other options and
scenarios to deliver further value, including adoption of dedicated
hydro-power plants, and the improvement of metallurgical
recoveries.
SolGold has reported it is confident that the
additional time and work to complete a PFS on the scope of the
entire Cascabel concession will result in the delivery of a PFS
that has the benefit of the consideration of a broader range of
production and development scenarios than is currently
available.
Further Drilling
Further drilling, including the collection of a
more extensive geotechnical, hydrogeological and metallurgical
dataset, has been underway over the last six months. The provision
of a more extensive data set will address uncertainties, which are
typical for a project of this scale and stage.
Exploration drilling completed at the
Tandayama-America target, situated 3km north of the Alpala deposit,
in the last three months, and at the Aguinaga target in Q2 & Q3
of 2018, has intersected mineralized porphyry copper-gold systems
with potential to ultimately yield further resources which may be
included in the development plan.
The Company has taken this opportunity to commit
a portion of its drilling fleet to a planned 28,795m resource
extension program at the Alpala Deposit, with the remaining portion
of the drilling fleet committed to a planned 19,250m resource
delineation program, at the three satellite prospects for 2021.
Quality Assurance / Quality Control on
Sample Collection, Security and Assaying
Primary sample collection involves secure
transport from the Cascabel concession in Ecuador, to the ALS
certified sample preparation facility in Quito, Ecuador. Samples
are then air freighted from Quito to the ALS certified laboratory
in Lima, Peru where the assaying of drill core, channel samples,
rock chips and soil samples is undertaken. Exploraciones Novomining
S.A. (“ENSA”) utilises ALS certified laboratories in Canada and
Australia for the analysis of metallurgical samples.
Samples are prepared and analysed using 100g
4-Acid digest ICP with MS finish for 48 elements on a 0.25g aliquot
(ME-MS61). Laboratory performance is routinely monitored using
umpire assays, check batches and inter-laboratory comparisons
between ALS certified laboratory in Lima and the ACME certified
laboratory in Cuenca, Ecuador.
In order to monitor the ongoing quality of its
analytical database, ENSA’s Quality Assurance and Quality Control
(QA/QC) protocol encompasses standard sampling methodologies,
including the insertion of certified powder blanks, coarse chip
blanks, standards, pulp duplicates and field duplicates. The blanks
and standards are Certified Reference Materials supplied by Ore
Research and Exploration, Australia.
ENSA’s QA/QC protocol also monitors the ongoing
quality of its analytical database. The protocol involves
Independent data validation of the digital analytical database
including search for sample overlaps, duplicate or absent samples
as well as anomalous assay and survey results. These are routinely
performed ahead of Mineral Resource Estimates and Feasibility
Studies. No material QA/QC issues have been identified with respect
to sample collection, security and assaying.
SolGold has disclosed that the data aggregation
method for calculating Copper Equivalent (CuEq) for down-hole
drilling intercepts and rock-saw channel sampling intervals are
reported using copper equivalent (CuEq) cut-off grades with up to
10m internal dilution, excluding bridging to a single sample and
with minimum intersection length of 50m.
SolGold has disclosed that Copper Equivalent is
currently calculated (assuming 100% recovery of copper and gold)
using a Gold Conversion Factor of 0.751 (CuEq = Cu + Au x 0.751),
calculated from a current nominal copper price of US$3.30/lb and a
gold price of US$1700/oz.
Qualified Person
Yvan Crepeau, MBA, P.Geo., Cornerstone's Vice
President, Exploration and a qualified person in accordance with
National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the
exploration program at the Cascabel project for Cornerstone and has
reviewed and approved the information contained in this news
release.
________________________
¹ See “About Cornerstone” below.
About Cornerstone
Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a mineral
exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in
Ecuador and Chile, including the Cascabel gold-enriched copper
porphyry joint venture in northwest Ecuador. Cornerstone has a
21.4% direct and indirect interest in Cascabel comprised of (i) a
direct 15% interest in the project financed through to completion
of a feasibility study and repayable at Libor plus 2% out of 90% of
its share of the earnings or dividends from an operation at
Cascabel, plus (ii) an indirect interest comprised of 7.5% of the
shares of joint venture partner and project operator SolGold Plc.
Exploraciones Novomining S.A. (“ENSA”), an Ecuadoran company owned
by SolGold and Cornerstone, holds 100% of the Cascabel concession.
Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including
SolGold’s fully funding the project through to feasibility, SolGold
Plc will own 85% of the equity of ENSA and Cornerstone will own the
remaining 15% of ENSA.
Further information is available on
Cornerstone’s website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on
Twitter. For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact
ir@cornerstoneresources.ca, or:
Investor Relations: Mario Drolet; Email:
Mario@mi3.ca; Tel. (514) 904-1333
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Cautionary Notice:This news
release may contain ‘Forward-Looking Statements’ that involve risks
and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstone’s beliefs,
plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The
words “potential,” “anticipate,” “forecast,” “believe,” “estimate,”
“intend”, “trends”, “indicate”, “expect,” “may,” “should,” “could”,
“project,” “plan,” or the negative or other variations of these
words and similar expressions are intended to be among the
statements that identify ‘Forward-Looking Statements.’ Although
Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these
‘Forward-Looking Statements’ are reasonable, such statements may
involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in
our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at
www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of
financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological
phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional,
and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic,
natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory
nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to
be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking
Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information
contained in this news release to be as correct and current as
possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation
as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or
information contained herein and these statements should not be
relied upon as representing its views after the date of this news
release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may
cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to
update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where
outcomes have varied materially from the original statements.
On Behalf of the Board, Brooke
MacdonaldPresident and CEO
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.
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