Kintavar obtains up to 59% Copper grade in concentrate and up to 80% recovery in addition to Silver and Cobalt from preliminary metallurgical study

MONTRÉAL, April 24, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kintavar Exploration Inc. (the “Corporation” or “Kintavar”) (TSX-V: KTR) (FRANKFURT: 58V), is pleased to announce the results of its preliminary metallurgical test work for samples from drill hole MS-18-36 in the Sherlock area of the Mitchi project in Quebec, Canada. The objectives of this test work are to demonstrate that the Sherlock mineralized materials are amenable to the production of high-grade copper concentrates using traditional mineral processing techniques. Results demonstrate that a very high-quality copper concentrate of up to 59% copper, and without any deleterious metals, can be produced, well above the global average of 25% copper¹ and above the 32% copper concentrate often required to obtain a premium on concentrates. Recoveries of up to 80% were achieved and it is believed that it should be possible to increase the recoveries to the global average of 84%¹ or above after performing additional optimization and testwork.

Test work has been completed at ALS Metallurgy in Kamloops, British Columbia and supervised by Novopro Projects, Inc. from Montreal, Quebec, both independent of Kintavar Exploration. Test work followed industry standard methods and procedures commonly used for the design and development of copper recovery processes, including mineralogy, Bond Work Index testing, flotation testing and assaying of metallurgical products.

One NQ diamond drill hole was drilled in the Sherlock zone, specifically to obtain representative material for use in metallurgical testing. Three main metallurgical composites were prepared from whole core obtained from this drilling and the composite samples are outlined in Table 1.

Table 1: Summary of material used for metallurgical testing

The mineralization of the Sherlock area is hosted in marbles and typically contains approximately 1 to 2 percent total sulphide minerals made up of predominantly bornite and lesser amounts of chalcocite and then chalcopyrite. Pyrite occurs in trace amounts of below 0.1% allowing flotation to be easily performed. As the primary copper bearing minerals are bornite and chalcocite, a very high-grade concentrate is achievable by flotation.

The copper rich zones of the Mitchi project typically contain silver which reported together with cobalt in the concentrate with up to 644 g/t Ag and up to 190 g/t Co. Detailed chemical analyses were performed on the concentrates produced from the test work programs, with the results indicating that there appears to be no impurity elements present at a concentration that would incur smelter penalties.

The results of the metallurgical bench scale test work are summarized in Table 2 and 3. These results consider only basic optimization that was performed to date. In order to assess the effect of a cleaner scavenger on concentrate grade and recoveries, a locked cycle test would need to be completed.

Mineral sorting test work has begun and will continue during summer 2019 on fresh samples (non core) that will be collected in small test pits to simulate representative material that could come from an open pit operation. Further metallurgical test work to optimize those results and to develop a flow sheet will then be planned accordingly based on those results and other exploration activity.

"We are at an early stage of development for the Mitchi project but this preliminary metallurgical test work just gave an enormous boost to the project. In a world where average grades of copper deposits and purity of concentrates are dropping while capital costs of copper mines and the geopolitical and social acceptability risks are rising, the easily accessible Quebec based Mitchi project delivered a very high-quality copper concentrate of up to 59% without any deleterious metals. Furthermore, the potential to recover cobalt in the same concentrate is of significant interest and additional work will be done to evaluate the potential value and if any higher grade cobalt zones could be present at the Mitchi project.” comments Kiril Mugerman, President & CEO of Kintavar.

Table 2: Summary of flotation testing

Table 3: Summary of assays for deleterious metals in Zone 5 and 7 composites

NI-43-101 Disclosure

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101") and supervised, reviewed and verified by Antoine Lefaivre, P.Eng., Lead Process Engineer, of Novopro Projects Inc., a "Qualified Person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101 and the person who oversees metallurgical developments for Kintavar Exploration.  Mr. Lefaivre is independent of Kintavar Exploration Inc, and has been involved in the planning, observation and reporting all test work. 

About Kintavar Exploration & the Mitchi Property

Kintavar Exploration is a Canadian mineral exploration Corporation engaged in the acquisition, assessment, exploration and development of gold and base metal mineral properties. It’s flagship project is the Mitchi property (approx. 30,000 hectares, 100% owned) located west of the Mitchinamecus reservoir, 100 km north of the town of Mont-Laurier. The property covers an area of more than 300 km² accessible by a network of logging and gravel roads with a hydro-electric power substation located 14 km to the east. The property is located in the north-western portion of the central metasedimentary belt of the Grenville geological province. Many gold, copper, silver and/or manganese mineralized showings have been identified to date, with many characteristics suggesting of a sediment-hosted stratiform copper type mineralization (SSC) in the Eastern portion of the property and Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) and skarn type mineralization in the Western portion. Osisko holds a 2% NSR on 27 claims of the southern portion of the Mitchi property, outside of the sedimentary basin.

For further information contact:

Kiril Mugerman, president and CEO
Phone : +1 450 641 5119 #5653
Email : kmugerman@kintavar.com
Web: www.kintavar.com

Forward looking Statements:

Neither 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 contains statements that may constitute “forward-looking information” or “forward looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information and statements may include, among others, statements regarding future plans, costs, objectives or performance of the Corporation, or the assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. In this news release, words such as “may”, “would”, “could”, “will”, “likely”, “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “plan”, “estimate” “target” and similar words and the negative form thereof are used to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times at or by which, such future performance will be achieved. No assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information will transpire or occur, including additional closings of the private placement referred to above, or if any of them do so, what benefits the Corporation will derive. Forward-looking statements and information are based on information available at the time and/or management's good-faith belief with respect to future events and are subject to known or unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond the Corporation’s control. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to, those described under “Risk Factors” in the Corporation’s management’s discussion and analysis for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com; they could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. The Corporation does not intend, nor does the Corporation undertake any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements contained in this news release to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except if required by applicable laws.

¹ ICSG presentation - Impurities in Copper Raw Materials and Regulatory Advances in 2018: A Global Overview, October 2018