Granada Gold Mine Inc. Prepares for Extraction of 500-Tonne Bulk Sample on Extension of High-Grade Zone
Based on high-grade drill results, both down-dip within the structure and across the structure (see Press Release September 7, 2021 for detailed assay results), the Company outlined the zone for the recovery of a 500-tonne bulk sample of mineralized material on mining lease BM 813 in September 2022.
This work should enable extraction and sampling of the mineralized structures which links to the structure on the mining lease BM 852 where a previous bulk sample was taken 250m to the East (see Press Release June 16, 2021) and returned a grade 4.33 grams per tonne gold. The Company is targeting 500,000 ounces of pit-constrained resource (presently 425,000 ounces of gold M+I) with an average open pit grade of 2 grams per tonne gold.
The just-completed stripping of the area is now free of overburden. The final cleaning of the surface with a smaller excavator is also now completed. A geological team has been mobilized to conduct detailed surface mapping and identify the area for bulk sample.
Granada President and CEO Frank J. Basa, P.Eng., states: "The Company is working on multiple fronts to enable development of the Granada Gold Mine which was a former high-grade underground and open pit mine operation. Historically, the property has had two operating mills on the property and we may consider the building of an on-site mill for processing the mineralized material."
Location
The Granada Gold project is located in an established mining district 5 km south of Rouyn-Noranda adjacent to the prolific Cadillac Break shear zone, which is hosted in Pontiac metasedimentary rocks, granites, and younger syenite sills along the Granada shear zone (LONG Bars Zone). The project is located on the same side of the Cadillac Fault as the Canadian Malartic mine property, which has historically produced 12.7 million Ounces of gold from 1935 to 2010 with an additional 5 million ounces as of June 18, 2020 (Canadian Malartic Technical Report of March 25, 2021 & Le Citoyen June 19, 2020
Qualified person
The technical information in this news release has been reviewed by Claude Duplessis, P.Eng., GoldMinds Geoservices Inc., a member of the Québec Order of Engineers, and is a qualified person in accordance with the National Instrument 43-101 standards.
About Granada Gold Mine Inc.
Granada Gold Mine Inc. continues to develop and explore its 100% owned Granada Gold Property near Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, and is adjacent to the prolific Cadillac Break. The Company owns 14.73 square kilometers of land in a combination of mining leases and claims. The Company is currently undergoing a large drill program with 30,000m out of 120,000m complete. The drills are currently paused to provide the technical team with the necessary time to evaluate and assimilate existing data.
The Granada Shear Zone and the South Shear Zone contain, based on historical detailed mapping as well as from current and historical drilling, up to twenty-two mineralized structures trending east-west over five and a half kilometers. Three of these structures were mined historically from four shafts and three open pits. Historical underground grades were 8 to 10 grams per tonne gold from two shafts down to 236 m and 498 m with open pit grades from 3.5 to 5 grams per tonne gold.
The property includes the former Granada Gold underground mine which produced more than 50,000 ounces of gold at 10 grams per tonne gold in the 1930's from two shafts before a fire destroyed the surface buildings. In the 1990s, Granada Resources extracted a bulk sample (Pit #1) of 87,311 tonnes grading 5.17 g/t Au. They also extracted a bulk sample (Pit # 2) of 22,095 tonnes grading 3.46 g/t Au.
Mineral Resource Estimates - Gold and Rubidium
On August 20, 2022 the Company released an updated NI 43-101 technical report supporting the resource estimate update for the Granada Gold project (Please see July 6, 2022 news release) reporting that the Granada deposit contains an updated mineral resource, at a base case cut-off grade of 0.55 g/t Au for pit constrained mineral resources within a conceptual pit shell and at a base case cut-off grade of 2.5 g/t for underground mineral resources within reasonably mineable volumes, of 543,000 ounces of gold (8,220,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.05 g/t Au) in the Measured and Indicated category, and 456,000 ounces of gold (3,010,000 tonnes at an average grade of 4.71 g/t Au) in the Inferred category. Please see Table 1 below for full details. Report reference: Granada Gold Project Mineral Resource Estimate Update, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada authored by Yann Camus, P.Eng. and Maxime Dupéré, B.Sc, P.Geo., SGS Canada Inc. dated August 20th, 2022 and with an effective date of June 23rd, 2022.
Table 1: Mineral Resource Estimate Showing Tonnes, Average Grade, and Gold Ounces
Cut-Off (g/t Au) | Classification | Type | Tonnes | Au (g/t) | Gold Ounces |
0.55 / 2.5 | Measured1 | InPit+UG | 4,900,000 | 1.70 | 269,000 |
Indicated | InPit+UG | 3,320,000 | 2.57 | 274,000 | |
Measured & Indicated | InPit+UG | 8,220,000 | 2.05 | 543,000 | |
Inferred | InPit+UG | 3,010,000 | 4.71 | 456,000 |
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1. The 1930-1935 production was removed from these numbers (164,816 tonnes at 9.7 g/t Au / 51,400 ounces Au).
2. The Independent QP for this resources statement is Yann Camus, P.Eng., SGS Canada Inc.
3. The effective date is June 23rd, 2022.
4. CIM (2014) definitions were followed for Mineral Resources.
5. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. An Inferred Mineral Resource has a lower level of confidence than that applying to a Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration.
6. No economic evaluation of the resources has been produced.
7. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Totals may not add due to rounding
8. Composites have been capped where appropriate. The 2.5 m composites were capped at 21 g/t Au in the thin rich veins and at 7 g/t Au in the low-grade volumes.
9. Cut-off grades are based on a gold price of US$1,700 per ounce, a foreign exchange rate of US$0.78 for CA$1, a processing gold recovery of 93%.
10. Pit constrained mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.55 g/t Au within a conceptual pit shell
11. Underground mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 2.5 g/t Au within reasonably mineable volumes.
12. A fixed specific gravity value of 2.78 g/cm was used to estimate the tonnage from block model volumes
13. There are no mineral reserves on the Property.
14. The deepest resources reported are at a depth of 990 m.
15. SGS is not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues that could materially affect the mineral resource estimate.
16. The results from the pit optimization are used solely for the purpose of testing the "reasonable prospects for economic extraction" by an open pit and do not represent an attempt to estimate mineral reserves. There are no mineral reserves on the Property. The results are used as a guide to assist in the preparation of a mineral resource statement and to select an appropriate resource reporting cut-off grade.
The Company has also recently released a Resource Estimate for Rubidium (Press Release July 15, 2022). The Inferred underground mineral resources are estimated at 5,300,000 tonnes grading 295 grams/tonne rubidium, containing 1,600 tonnes rubidium. The inferred mineral resource was estimated using one zone of 21 zones of rubidium mineralization in one 1.6-kilometer-deep drill hole. A second drill hole, which was collared 1.6 kilometers away on strike and which also intercepted rubidium mineralization over multiple zones, was not used in the resource estimation. The inferred resource was estimated in a 185-meter zone around the drill hole.
Metallurgical tests conducted on drill core at SGS Lakefield facilities were positive and prove the rubidium can be recovered at a high recovery of 99 percent (Press Release January 11, 2022.) This result allowed the disclosure of the first (maiden) mineral resource estimate for rubidium reported herein. The potential In-Situ value of the inferred rubidium resource is the equivalent of 690,000 ounces gold (at 0.75 US$/g Rb) and 1,280,000 ounces gold (at 1.4 US$/g Rb) using a 1710.4 US$/oz Au for the comparison.
Rubidium Inferred Resource at different cut-off grades
Cut Off (g/t Rb) | Classification | Tonnes | Grade (g/t Rb) | t Rb |
Rb 100 | Inferred | 25,920,000 | 153 | 4,000 |
Rb 120 | Inferred | 12,180,000 | 203 | 2,500 |
Rb 150 | Inferred | 5,870,000 | 282 | 1,700 |
Rb 170(1) | Inferred | 5,300,000 | 295 | 1,600 |
Rb 180 | Inferred | 4,900,000 | 305 | 1,500 |
Rb 200 | Inferred | 4,860,000 | 306 | 1,500 |
Rb 250 | Inferred | 3,330,000 | 339 | 1,100 |
(1) The base case for the rubidium resource is at a 170 g/t Rb cut-off grade.
(2) The Independent QP for this resources statement is Yann Camus, P.Eng., SGS Canada Inc.
(3) The effective date is June 23rd, 2022.
(4) CIM (2014) definitions were followed for Mineral Resources.
(5) Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. An Inferred Mineral Resource has a lower level of confidence than that applying to a Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration.
(6) No economic evaluation of the resources has been produced.
(7) All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Totals may not add due to rounding
(8) Cut-off grades are based on a rubidium value of US$0.75 per gram
(9) The resources are reported as a potential for underground operation.
(10) A fixed specific gravity value of 2.78 g/cm3 was used to estimate the tonnage from block model volumes
(11) There are no mineral reserves on the Property.
(12) The deepest resources reported are at a depth of 1100 m at a 170 g/t Rb grade and 1550 m at a 100 g/t Rb grade.
(13) SGS is not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues that could materially affect the mineral resource estimate.
Table of in-situ values for different grades of rubidium.
Rb g/t | Estimated In-Situ Value | |
Grade | At 0.75 $/g Rb | At 1.4 $/g Rb |
50 | $37.50 | $70.00 |
70 | $52.50 | $98.00 |
100 | $75.00 | $140.00 |
120 | $90.00 | $168.00 |
150 | $112.50 | $210.00 |
170 | $127.50 | $238.00 |
180 | $135.00 | $252.00 |
200 | $150.00 | $280.00 |
250 | $187.50 | $350.00 |
+ The value of 10 grams of rubidium carbonate is 5.68 US Dollars (USGS 2021)
+ Given Stoichiometry, the value of 1g of Rubidium is 1.3214 x 0.568 = 0.75 US Dollars (scenario 1)
+ Another price found 1 gram of rubidium carbonate 1.05 US Dollars (InternationalLithium.com)
+ 1gram of Rubidium is 1.3214 x 1.05 = 1.39 US Dollars (scenario 2)
+ Value of a tonne at different grades with different price in situ value sensitivity
Limited analysis for rubidium mineralization was undertaken as it was an unexpected discovery. The Company has analyzed 2 holes in the Big Claim and one in the mining Lease BM 813 which all show rubidium mineralization of interest over an extensive surface area. A more extensive assaying program is to be put in place with the sampling of historic holes.
"Frank J. Basa"
Frank J. Basa, P. Eng.
Chief Executive Officer
For further information, Contact:
Frank J. Basa, P.Eng.
Chief Executive Officer
P: 416-625-2342
Or:
Wayne Cheveldayoff,
Corporate Communications
P: 416-710-2410
E: waynecheveldayoff@gmail.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. This news release may contain forward-looking statements which include, but are not limited to, comments that involve future events and conditions, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Except for statements of historical facts, comments that address resource potential, upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt and security of mineral property titles, availability of funds, and others are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may vary materially from those statements. General business conditions are factors that could cause actual results to vary materially from forward-looking statements.