QMC Mobilizes Diamond Drill to Irgon Lithium Mine Project
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NetworkWire: QMC Quantum Minerals Corp., (TSX.V: QMC) (FSE: 3LQ) (OTC PINK: QMCQF) (“QMC” or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has now mobilized a diamond drill and support crew to the company’s 100% owned Irgon Mine Project located within the prolific Cat Lake-Winnipeg River rare-element pegmatite field of S.E. Manitoba, which also hosts Cabot Corporation’s nearby Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada (“TANCO”) rare-element pegmatite.
QMC is initiating a two-phase drill program designed to confirm, and subsequently expand, the historic resource published for the Irgon Property (1.2 million tons grading 1.51% Li2O as previously calculated for Lithium Corporation of Canada). The initial Phase One of the QMC program will consist of 1500m of NQ drilling in 12 holes; the first 8 will confirm the grades and widths of the 1953/54 drill results used to calculate the initial, historic resource which used data obtained in the 1950s derived by sampling both the initial drill core and underground channel samples that were taken across the dike from within the currently inaccessible, water-filled workings. The remaining 4 proposed holes will chase the Irgon Dike westward from the area hosting the original resource to test the spodumene-bearing pegmatites identified as the Western Extension of the Irgon Dike thus confirming the westward continuity of the Irgon Dike.
With the results of the Phase One drilling in hand, QMC has instructed SGS to produce an updated, NI 43-101 compliant, inferred resource for the central, previously developed part of the Irgon Dike. Testing the westward extension of the Irgon Dike is expected to add additional inferred tonnage available on the property.
The NQ core will be secured in core boxes at the drill site and transported at the end of each shift to a secure, heated facility. Here it will be logged, sawn, sampled, bagged and shipped to SGS Labs in Lakefield, Ontario for analysis. The remaining core will be temporarily stored in the Lac du Bonnet warehouse facility, to be subsequently moved to a secure storage facility currently onsite at the Irgon Mine as the weather improves.
As with the previous Irgon channel sampling program, QMC will be requesting analysis for 56 elements using a sodium peroxide fusion followed by Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES / ICP-MS).
HISTORICAL RESOURCE
Between 1953-1954, the Lithium Corporation of Canada Limited drilled 25 holes into the Irgon Dike and subsequently reported a historical resource estimate of 1.2 million tons grading 1.51% Li20 over a strike length of 365 meters and to a depth of 213 meters (Northern Miner, Vol. 41, no.19, Aug. 4, 1955, p.3). This historical resource is documented in a 1956 Assessment Report by B. B. Bannatyne for the Lithium Corporation of Canada Ltd. (Manitoba Assessment Report No. 94932). This historical estimate is believed to be based on reasonable assumptions, and neither the company nor the QP has any reason to contest the document’s relevance and reliability. The detailed channel sampling and a subsequent drill program will be required to update this historical resource to current NI 43-101 standards. Historic metallurgical tests reported an 87% recovery from which a concentrate averaging 5.9% Li2O was obtained.
During this historical 1950s era work program, a complete mining plant was installed onsite, designed to process 500 tons of ore per day, and a three-compartment shaft was sunk to a depth of 74 meters. On the 61-metre level, lateral development was extended off the shaft for a total of 366 meters of drifting, from which seven crosscuts transected the dike. The work was suspended in 1957 awaiting a more favourable market for lithium oxides. During this time, the mine buildings were removed.
The mineral reserve cited above is presented as a historical estimate and uses historical terminology which does not conform to current NI43-101 standards. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Although the historical estimates are believed to be based on reasonable assumptions, they were calculated prior to the implementation of National Instrument 43-101. These historical estimates do not meet current standards as defined under sections 1.2 and 1.3 of NI 43-101; consequently, the issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves.
Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Bruce E. Goad, P. Geo., who is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
About the Company
QMC is a British Columbia based company engaged in the business of acquisition, exploration and development of resource properties. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious, base, rare metal and resource properties of merit. The Company’s properties include the Irgon Lithium Mine project and two VMS properties, the Rocky Lake and Rocky-Namew, known collectively as the Namew Lake District Project. Currently, all of the company’s properties are located in Manitoba.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of
QMC QUANTUM MINERALS CORP.
“Balraj Mann”
Balraj Mann
President and Chief Executive Officer
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
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