VANCOUVER, BC, June 16, 2021 /CNW/ - Essex Minerals Inc. (the
"Company" or "Essex"), (TSXV: ESX) is pleased to provide an update
on its Australian gold exploration earn-in joint venture with KNX
Resources Ltd ("KNX") and the Company's plans to spin out a new
streaming and royalty company with a focus on income from renewable
energy and battery materials.
Highlights
- Crews have been mobilized in preparation for drilling of the Mt
Turner gold project in north Queensland,
Australia.
- The extension to the Mt Turner tenement granted to the joint
venture in late 2020, has now been permitted for drilling bringing
together over 19 km of mineralized strike length in the eastern
Drummer Fault.
- 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.
- A drill rig has been secured for late July (on standby for
earlier) to compete the initial six-hole 800 metre program to test
the width and plunge of the down-dip extension of the gold and
silver bearing shoots mined in the open pits.
- While access roads for the rig and drill pads are prepared, the
field crew has secured an excavator and is undertaking trenching
and channel sampling along structure from the open pits.
- In parallel, a soil sampling program over the nearby Mt Turner
porphyry copper-molybdenum target will be undertaken to better
define drill targets.
- The Company has received 100% acceptance from the shareholders
of KNX for its offer to acquire all the issued and outstanding
shares in KNX in exchange for five million shares in Essex, which will result in Essex owning 100% of the Mt Turner project and
83% of the Cumberland and Compass
Creek gold projects.
- The Company is pursuing a number of other project opportunities
in the precious metals and battery material sectors as part of its
on-going strategy of building up a diversified portfolio of option
and earn-in joint venture agreements.
- Essex shareholders have also
approved a special dividend of shares in Optegra Capital Corp
("Optegra"), a new streaming and royalty company, with a focus on
income from renewable energy and battery materials.
Essex Minerals President and CEO Paul
Loudon: said: "After a long wet season, we are pleased our
field crew is back on the ground in north Queensland and that a rig has been secured to
initiate drilling this potentially large near surface gold
target.
"We look forward to an exciting few months ahead of us as we
report results from the Mt Turner drilling, plan additional
exploration programs on the Company's Cumberland and Compass Creek Australian gold
projects, and investigate additional option and earn-in joint
venture opportunities for the Company."
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 by Union Mining to a maximum of
20m depth 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. The 44 aircore holes reported by Union Mining returned on
average 8.6m intercepts averaging
1.95 g/t Au.
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, sub-parallel 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 1-4).
Initial surface sampling of the target zone was reported on
January 28, 2021,
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.
The first phase drilling program is planned to test the width
and plunge of the gold and silver bearing shoots. In addition to
drilling on the Drummer Fault, a detailed soil sampling program is
now underway on the Mt Turner porphyry copper-molybdenum target
with a view to defining drill targets.
KNX Joint Venture
Essex and KNX each own 50% of
the Mt Turner property and now each own 41.5% of the Cumberland and Compass Creek properties as a
consequence of private company AMD Resources Ltd electing to dilute
rather than contribute to property expenditures.
On 29 March 2021, Essex announced that it had agreed to acquire
all the issued and outstanding shares in KNX in exchange for the
issuance of five million ordinary shares in Essex to the shareholders of KNX. KNX has
advised Essex that 100% of KNX
shareholders have accepted the acquisition.
The purchase shares will be subject to a statutory four-month
hold period and an additional voluntary escrow until Oct. 24, 2021. The purchase is subject to the
approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.
The acquisition of KNX will result in Essex owning 100% of Mt Turner and 83% of the
Cumberland and Compass Creek
properties.
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
www.essexminerals.com
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 Essex Minerals Inc