Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 27, 2021) - Battery Mineral Resources Corp. (TSXV: BMR) ("Battery" or "BMR" or the "Company") announces that it has commenced a grid-based three dimensional distributed induced polarization ("3D IP") survey on the Gowganda East target as a precursor to final target selection for the forthcoming core drill program of up to 2,000 meters.
Highlights
This 3D IP geophysical survey is targeting the east limb of the Nipissing diabase sill which remains largely unexplored despite its geological similarity to the historic producers in the camp. The underlying geology in the survey area is similar to the near-by Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc. Castle East Robinson zone which recently announced a maiden silver-cobalt mineral resource.
The Castle East Robinson zone hosts a total inferred mineral resource of 32,900 tonnes grading 7,149g/t silver for a total of 7,567,000 ounces of silver with significant reportable cobalt values (May 28th, 2020 Press Release: "Maiden NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate for Castle East Robinson Zone" Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc.).
The Gowganda East target is available to Battery as a part of the Gowganda joint venture with Transition Metals Corp (TSXV: XTM), ("Transition"). The Gowganda property is located about 125 kilometers northeast of Sudbury and 75 km southwest of town of Kirkland Lake (Figure 1). Battery entered into a joint venture option with Transition on March 2, 2019, amended on March 24, 2021, whereby BMR can earn a 60% interest in 3,372 hectares of Transition claims by providing $250,000 in cash and expend $2 million in exploration on /or before March 2nd, 2022.
The historic silver-cobalt production at Gowganda was sourced from veins hosted in or near the west limb of a Nipissing diabase sill. The total Gowganda Camp production from 1910 - 1989 is estimated at: 60.1 million ounces of silver and 1.3 million pounds of cobalt (Reference: 1978, W H McIlwaine Ontario Geological Survey OGS Report 175: Gowganda Lake - Miller Lake Silver Area Ontario).
Once the geophysical survey field data collection phase is completed the data will be processed and a 3D inversion model will be created which will form the basis for detailed geological interpretation and development of further drill targets.
BMR has contracted Canadian Exploration Services Limited to conduct a grid-based 3D IP survey on the Gowganda East Target (Figure 2) which is part of the Gowganda Joint Venture with Transition Metals Corp. Crews have completed the grid line-cutting phase of the program and 3D IP data collection has commenced.
Battery CEO Martin Kostuik states; "We are excited to commence the 3D IP survey at Gowganda East as it represents our first step in the evaluation of the east limb of the Nipissing diabase sill. The vast majority of the historic silver-cobalt production at the Gowganda Camp was sourced from veins hosted in or near the west limb of the Nipissing diabase. Moving immediately to the east, the recent high-grade vein discovery at Castle East Robinson zone by Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc has demonstrated the potential for significant high-grade silver-cobalt at Gowganda East. We anticipate that the data generated by this survey will enhance existing BMR drill plans and possibly add new drill targets."
History and Setting
The Gowganda Property comprises claims located in Chown, Corkill, Haultain, Knight, Lawson, Milner, Nicol, and Van Hise townships of Northeastern Ontario, about 125 kilometres northeast of Sudbury and 35 kilometres west of Elk Lake (Figure 1). The Gowganda Project totals 1,138 mining claims and 4 mining leases covering 18,508 hectares (185 square kilometres).
The Gowganda Project is accessible via Highway 560, which traverses local roads around the town of Gowganda to provide access to most of the cobalt and silver prospects. The Property is accessible via a number of gravel and logging roads west and east of the village of Gowganda, Ontario.
The history of the Gowganda Project area is extensive and BMR controls a large portion of the historic Gowganda mining camp. The BMR holdings include several of the past producing mines clustered along the west margin of the Nipissing Diabase sill. These include, the shaft accessed Capitol, Miller Lake-O'Brien-Millerette and the ramp accessed Bonsall workings. Thirty-seven mineral occurrences are present on the claims which have an extensive silver-cobalt exploration and mining history dating back to 1908 when silver was first discovered at Miller Lake. The discovery prompted a staking rush, the creation of the village of Gowganda, and the establishment of the Gowganda-Miller Lake area as satellite camp to the Cobalt Mining Camp. The first ore production of the Gowganda Camp came from the Bartlett claims, located west of Gowganda Lake in Milner township. By 1910 several properties in this area and around the Miller Lake basin were shipping ore. By 1925, the Gowganda area had produced 8,420,509 ounces of silver from 14 properties, with over half of this coming from the Miller Lake O'Brien Mine, which BMR owns. It operated until 1939 when it was closed for the duration of the war; 17,555,646 ounces of silver had been produced to that date. During the war years, lessees were reported to have taken 620,000 ounces of silver from the mine. Siscoe Metals of Ontario Limited purchased the property in 1945. The total Gowganda Camp production from 1910 - 1989 is estimated at: 60.1 million ounces of silver and 1.3 million pounds of cobalt.
Geology
The Gowganda Property is predominantly underlain by undifferentiated Huronian metasedimentary rocks of the Cobalt Group, with lesser amounts of Nipissing Diabase. Localized outliers of Archean basement in the area consists of massive granite to granodiorite, metavolcanic rocks and ultramafic rocks. The Gowganda Formation occurs on the western side of the smaller Gowganda claim block. Late diabase dykes cut all Archean and Proterozoic lithologies and are north-south, northwest-southeast and northeast-southwest striking.
Sedimentary rocks of the Cobalt Group include conglomerate, feldspathic and micaceous sandstones. Broadly north-striking bodies composed mainly of pyroxene gabbro with local granophyric phases are recognized as parts of the Nipissing Diabase. A single sheet in the Miller Lake area has a thickness of 284 metres.
Most of the polymetallic silver-cobalt-nickel vein occurrences are hosted in the Nipissing Diabase although both Archean metavolcanic and Cobalt Group sedimentary rocks have also been recorded to host veins. Most of the productive veins were hosted in the upper half, or hangingwall, of the sill. Mineralized quartz-calcite veins are typically vertical to steeply dipping which range from mm-scale to 1 metre in width. Mineralized veins occur as sheets of native silver and finer-grained iron-cobalt-nickel arsenide minerals in calcite gangue.
Figure 1: Gowganda Location Map
To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:
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Figure 2: Satellite Image Gowganda East - 3D IP Grid Layout
To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:
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Qualified Persons
P. J. Doyle, FAusIMM (#208850), Battery Mineral Resources Corp. - Vice President Exploration - Canada, supervised the preparation of and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release pertaining to the Canada Exploration Program. Information about data verification procedures used to support scientific and technical information on the Company's Canadian properties presented herein, as well as with respect to the results of, processing and interpretation of exploration data.
About Battery Mineral Resources Corp.
Battery is a Canadian-based, multi-commodity resource company. Battery is engaged in the discovery, acquisition, and development of battery metals (cobalt, nickel & copper) and precious metals (silver & gold) mining projects in Canada, with additional cobalt, lithium and graphite projects in the United States and South Korea. Battery is the largest mineral claim holder in the historic Gowganda Cobalt-Silver Camp, Canada, with various high-grade primary cobalt silver-nickel-copper targets located in the Cobalt Belt of Ontario and Quebec. In addition, Battery owns approximately 89.2% of ESI Energy Services, Inc., a pipeline equipment rental and sales company with operations in Leduc, Alberta and Phoenix, Arizona.
For further information, please contact:
Battery Mineral Resources Corp.
Martin Kostuik
Phone: +1 (604) 229 3830
Email: info@bmrcorp.com
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, which may relate to the Company's future outlook and anticipated events or results. In some cases, but not necessarily all cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, predictions, indications, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts but instead represent management's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events.
Forward-looking statements in this presentation may include statements regarding management's beliefs, expectations or intentions regarding the size, completion, expenses and timing of the closing of the Offering, industry trends, market growth rates and the Company's future growth rates, plans and strategies, projections of commodity prices and costs, the future financial or operating performance and condition of the Company, including its business, operations and properties, planned exploration and development activities and the costs and timing thereof, the intended use of the net proceeds of the Offering, trends in the global cobalt, lithium and graphite markets, the adequacy of the Company's financial resources, timing, receipt and maintenance of approvals, consents and permits under applicable legislation. The foregoing list should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the information in the prospectus under the heading "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information".
These statements and other forward-looking information are based on opinions, assumptions and estimates made by the Company in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that the Company believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances as of the date of this presentation, including, without limitation, assumptions about the ability to raise additional capital; future prices of cobalt, lithium and graphite; the Company's competitive advantages; current market dynamics; the timing and results of exploration and drilling programs; and the availability and amenability of metallurgical and processing technologies for processing extracted minerals;. There can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. If any of the assumptions or estimates made by management prove to be incorrect, actual results and developments are likely to differ, and may differ materially, from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Accordingly, prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. The foregoing list of assumptions should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the information in the prospectus under the heading "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information".
While such opinions, assumptions and estimates are considered reasonable by the Company as of the date such statements are made, they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to future requirements for additional capital, a limited operating history, the demand for and prices of lithium, cobalt and graphite, property title risk, exploration risk, mineral processing risk, uncertainty in relation to Inferred Mineral Resources, a negative cash flow; governmental regulation of the mineral exploration and development industry; the loss of an investor's entire investment; an arbitrary offering price; volatility in the price of the ordinary shares; the potential for additional dilution; absence of a market for the ordinary shares and future sales of ordinary shares by directors and officers of the Company. These factors and assumptions are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors and assumptions that could affect the Company. Refer to "Risk Factors" in the prospectus.
The forward-looking statements included in this presentation are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are made as at the date of the prospectus. The Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.
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