TMAC Initiates Madrid North Underground Portal
TMAC Resources Inc. (TSX: TMR) (“TMAC” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that construction has started on the Madrid North underground portal. The portal and underground development is targeting the Naartok West zone, enabling access to first production stopes in late 2020.
Jason Neal, President and Chief Executive Officer of TMAC, stated, “We are pleased to announce breaking ground on the Madrid underground portal. This is an important milestone as Madrid North development will provide both near-term operational flexibility and enable medium-term potential growth alternatives at Hope Bay. The Naartok West zone will be the first underground area developed within the overall Madrid North deposit, which as at December 31, 2018 had a defined reserve of 2.17 million ounces of gold, almost entirely above the 400 metre level. Near surface, the Naartok West zone includes a wide, high-grade core as demonstrated again by the results of the 2018 surface drilling program. Drilling results in 2018, targeted from surface to the 150 metre level, include drill-hole intersections up to 7.4 g/t Au over 65.7 metres, including 14.4 g/t Au over 26.1 metres and 12.9 g/t Au over 50.0 metres, including 60.1 g/t over 8.0 metres. The Naartok West deposit lends itself to efficient mining via conventional long-hole stopes, with increased mining widths and ounces per vertical metre.”
Jason Neal continued, “To provide further future operational flexibility, this Madrid North underground portal can also be used to drive exploration drifts towards Naartok East, Suluk, Rand and Spur deposits for future bulk samples and exploration. Also, opening the underground mine provides for the establishment of key infrastructure that will be leveraged against further development at Madrid North overall. Both surface infrastructure and the underground development will also improve exploration efficiency. This is in addition to the development that has been completed to initiate the Naartok East crown pillar recovery from surface that is currently underway. The 2019 capital expenditure guidance has previously been increased by $4 million to purchase equipment for delivery as part of the 2019 sealift and will be increased by a further $6 million for the cost to commence construction of surface infrastructure and to commence the portal and ramp during the remainder of 2019.”
Jason Neal concluded, “TMAC is fully permitted for underground mines at Doris, Madrid North, Madrid South and Boston, including surface crown pillar recoveries at Madrid North. We have also permitted infrastructure well beyond our 2015 Preliminary Feasibility Study including 6,000 tonnes per day processing capability across the Hope Bay belt, tailings capacity, port expansion, and wind power generation which puts the company in a strong position to evaluate the future potential of the Hope Bay belt. The strength of our permitting position is also a key advantage as we evaluate potential medium-term growth opportunities.”
Please refer to news releases dated June 14, 2018, titled “TMAC Provides Exploration Update Highlights Include 261.4 g/t Au over 7.1 metres at Doris North BTD Extension” and November 8, 2018, titled “TMAC Provides an Update on 2018 Exploration Activity; Drilling Continues to Intersect High-Grade Gold Over Significant Widths at Both Doris and Madrid North” for complete 2018 drilling results of Madrid North Naartok West. Intersection lengths stated in this release are downhole lengths and true widths are estimated to be approximately 50% to 85% of downhole lengths.
ABOUT TMAC RESOURCES INC.
TMAC operates the Hope Bay property located in Nunavut, Canada. The property and operations are remote but not isolated, serviced by both a port and airstrip. Hope Bay is an 80 km by 20 km Archean greenstone belt that has been explored by BHP, Miramar, Newmont and TMAC over a period spanning more than 30 years. In that time, more than $1.5 billion of expenditures have been spent in exploration and evaluation, surface infrastructure, and mine and process plant development. TMAC began producing gold in early 2017 from Doris, its first mine at Hope Bay, and processed gold at the Doris Plant which originally had nameplate capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day and expanded to 2,000 tonnes per day midway through 2018. Hope Bay has 4.8 million ounces of Measured and Indicated Resources at Doris, Madrid and Boston deposits, largely within 350 metres of surface. There is potential to grow these established deposits considerably at depth, and then grow resources further through the prioritized exploration of the more than 90 other identified regional targets. TMAC is now permitted to produce from both Madrid and Boston.
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
This release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws that is intended to be covered by the safe harbours created by those laws. “Forward-looking information” includes statements that use forward-looking terminology such as “may”, “will”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “continue”, “potential” or the negative thereof or other variations or comparable terminology.
“Forward-looking information” is not a guarantee of future performance and management bases forward-looking statements on a number of estimates and assumptions at the date the statements are made. Furthermore, such “forward-looking information” involves a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied. See “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Information Form dated March 11, 2019 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks.
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Contact
TMAC Resources Inc.
Jason Neal
President and Chief Executive Officer
Phone: 416-628-0216
Lisa Wilkinson
Director, Investor Relations and Strategic Development
Phone: 647-480-3110
Email: Lisa.Wilkinson@tmacresources.com
www.tmacresources.com