International Cobalt Secures New Cobalt Projects Doubling Land Position in Prolific Idaho Cobalt Belt
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 12, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- International Cobalt Corp. (CSE:CO) (the “Company” or “International Cobalt”) is pleased to announce that it has acquired two additional projects in the prolific Idaho Cobalt Belt, USA
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The two projects, the Formation North Project (“Formation North”) and the Blackbird South Project (“Blackbird South”), total approximately 1,760 acres (713 hectares), bringing the total area the Company controls in the belt to 3,480 acres (1,408 hectares). Formation North is located approximately 5km north of eCobalt Solutions’ Ram Deposit and the Blackbird South claims are located south of and adjacent to the Company’s existing Blackbird Creek Project.
Blackbird North and Formation South are being acquired together via the acquisition of 100% of the issued capital of 1142888 BC Limited, the beneficial owner of a 100% interest in the mineral tenures, for a consideration of C$120,000 in cash and 12,000,000 shares of the capital stock of the Company.
Formation North Project
The Formation North Project consists of 58 Lode claims totalling approximately 1,160 acres (470 hectares). Formation North is located within 5km of eCobalt Solution’s Ram deposit and centered on the Idaho Cobalt Belt within highly prospective geology.
Historical work on the property has identified several mineralized zones, including the Bonanza Zone, where drilling returned 17.8 meters of 0.24% Co and 0.15% Cu (including 4.9 meters of 0.41% Co and 0.22% Cu) and 18.2 meters of 0.18% Co and 0.34% Cu (including 3.7 meters of 0.30% Co and 0.03 % Cu).
The Tinkers Pride Zone was also drilled in 1995 where the best drill intercept returned 6.9 meters of 0.41% Co and 2.01% Cu, and a separate 1.5-meter-wide zone of 0.76% Co and 5.15% Cu.
The two mineralized zones have only been tested with limited exploration of 7 drill holes, and there is an approximately 1.5 kilometre separation between the two zones. Additional historic work bolsters the discovery potential of the property with several wide-spread soil sample anomalies with values of greater than 150 ppm cobalt.
Although there is no record of gold assays in reports from the 1955 work, a 1982 sample taken from the Bonanza Zone by the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) assayed 4.4 g/t Au.
The results reported herein are historic in nature and while the Company has not completed sufficient work to confirm the foregoing results, the Company considers the historic information to be both relevant and reliable.
Legal Dispute Relating to the Formation North Claims
The Company notes that some of the tenure of the Formation North claims is subject to a legal dispute as outlined below.
Arizona Lithium Company Ltd. (“Arizona Lithium”) staked the Formation North Claims on 26th to 30th September 2016, consisting of 58 lode mining claims located in Lemhi County, Idaho (referred to as the “BOCO Claims”). At the time Arizona Lithium staked the BOCO Claims, it encountered mining claim posts lying on the ground within a portion of the area encompassing the BOCO Claims. These posts, and the attached identification tags, allegedly evidenced the location of certain mining claims previously located on September 7, 2016 (referred to as the “BATT Claims”). Due to apparent inadequacies in the staking of the BATT Claims (including the failure to properly place the posts in the ground or at the corners of the claims), Arizona Lithium asserts that the BATT Claims are void and is pursuing legal action against the owner of the BATT Claims (Battery Minerals Resources, Inc.) in the United States District Court for the State of Idaho to have the BATT Claims declared invalid. Arizona Lithium has paid all BLM and registration fees on its BOCO Claims and believes its claims have been validly staked and will proceed with legal action to invalidate the competing claims.
Arizona Lithium is in the process of filing amended location notices for the BOCO Claims to cure minor deficiencies in the BOCO location notices. The amendment will not modify the filing date, nor should it impact Arizona Lithium’s ability to pursue its claims against the BATT Claims.
Upon finalizing the acquisition of the Formation North Project, International Cobalt will take on all legal matters and costs relating to the disputed tenure of the Formation North Project on behalf of Arizona Lithium.
Blackbird South Claims
The acquisition of the Blackbird South Claims greatly complements the Company’s existing land position. The 30 lode mining claims total approximately 600 acres (343 hectares) south of and adjacent to the Company’s existing Blackbird Creek Cobalt Project.
Mapping by Noranda in1980 of the area covered by the Blackbird South claims identified several cobalt bearing tourmaline breccia outcrops. Also contained within the new claims is the Patty B prospect which Anderson (1943) described as “This zone may be as much as 60 or 70 feet wide but the more highly mineralized part may not exceed 10 feet… containing minute crystals of tourmaline and disseminated grains of cobaltite”
The Company also notes the Blackbird South Property covers highly prospective ground proximal to the Company’s high priority Ludwig Prospect. Soil sampling indicates that this area may represent a southern extension of the Ludwig Prospect.
IDAHO COBALT BELT
The new acquisitions position the Company well with two highly prospective projects, the Formation North Project and the Blackbird Creek Project (encompassing the new Black Bird South claims) in the prolific Idaho Cobalt belt.
The two projects bookend and are each within 5 km from eCobalt Solutions advanced stage Idaho Cobalt Project. eCobalt Solutions has recently released a positive Feasibility Study with highlights that include a Pre-Tax NPV of $176 million (discounted at 7.5%) and IRR of 25% .
ABOUT THE BLACKBIRD CREEK COBALT PROJECT
The 1,720-acre Blackbird Creek Cobalt Project is located adjacent to and along strike from eCobalt Solution’s advanced stage Idaho Cobalt Project (ICP) as well as the former producing Blackbird Co-Cu-Ag Mine. Despite cobalt mineralization having been recognized at Blackbird Creek as early as the 1940’s, the area only witnessed intermittent exploration in the late 1970’s. International Cobalt will be the first Company to bring modern exploration techniques to the Project. The Blackbird Creek Cobalt Project contains several historical cobalt showings including the Ludwig Main prospect, where surface sampling of an exploration adit returned 0.71% cobalt over 7.0 meters and a historic drill hole returned 0.4% cobalt over 7.9 meters. In addition to the historical showing several newly discovered geochemical anomalies require immediate follow-up.
ABOUT THE COBALT MARKET
Cobalt prices recently reached an 9 year high of $34.00 US per pound and have shown a steady increase since the mid point of 2015. Cobalt is an important component of many of the lithium-ion batteries used in a wide range of applications from cell phones to electric vehicles (EV) and the home energy storage market. Driven primarily by the EV market demand for cobalt is expected to remain strong and growing for the near future. Currently over 60% of the global supply of cobalt is sourced from mines operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Political instability in the DRC coupled with social-economic issues surrounding mining in the country including reports of child labour have led many tech companies to seek supplies of the metal from more stable jurisdictions.
ABOUT INTERNATIONAL COBALT CORP
International Cobalt Corp. (CSE:CO) is a Canadian based mineral exploration and development business focusing on the burgeoning cobalt sector. The rapidly growing large battery industry, a major consumer of cobalt, makes cobalt an appealing sector of focus. The Company seeks to add shareholder value by sourcing and developing projects in safe, progressive jurisdictions adhering to strict environmental and social standards.
On behalf of:
INTERNATIONAL COBALT CORP.
“Timothy Johnson”
Timothy Johnson, President
The technical information in this news release has been reviewed by Neil McCallum, P.Geol., of Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future production, reserve potential, exploration and development activities and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward‑looking statements. Although management 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 or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see our public filings at www.sedar.com for further information.
International Cobalt Corp.
Suite 810
789 West Pender Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6C 1H2
T: 604-687-2038
F: 604-687-3141
www.internationalcobalt.com