MacDonald Mines Expands 2,000-Meters Drill Program at the SPJ Project by 7,500 Meters

2019-11-19 / @nasdaq

TORONTO, Nov. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. (TSX-V: BMK) (“MacDonald Mines”, “MacDonald” or the “Company”) announces that it has expanded its current 2,000-meters drilling program (see Aug. 1, 2019 news release) with plans to drill an additional 7,500 metres at its SPJ Project, 20 kilometres east of Sudbury, Ontario. The Company has now completed 15 holes and reported assays from 5 holes of the August program (see Nov. 6, 2019 news release) with remaining assays pending. The larger extended drill program will continue to focus on expanding the footprint of the Scadding Deposit.

Quentin Yarie, MacDonald’s President and CEO commented: “Based on the positive results to date, MacDonald’s objective is to continue to expand the footprint and the extent of the high-grade gold mineralization around the Scadding Mine deposit and further explore regional targets, well beyond the mine area, where current and historic prospecting exhibit significant gold, copper, cobalt and nickel showings that may be indicative of a much larger gold-rich Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold system at work in the region.

Our on-going exploration work indicates that the high-grade gold zones of the Scadding Deposit are hosted in N-oriented structures. Combined with historical data, our exploration program to date has traced gold mineralization over a lateral E-W width of 500 metres and a N-S strike length 650 metres. Our upcoming drilling program will explore other prospective areas of the Scadding Deposit such as the EW and South pits and the historic Currie Rose Zone where additional zones of high-grade gold mineralization is predicted to exist.”

As previously announced, MacDonald Mines will launch two geophysical surveys in the coming weeks – an airborne EM survey and a 3D IP survey. The Company believes these targeted investigations will outline gold-bearing structures within the large uranium/thorium anomalies identified on the SPJ property and assist in identifying drilling targets for the expanded drilling program.

Proposed Exploration Program
MacDonald’s drilling to date has already identified several gold-bearing structures at the Scadding Deposit. Additional exploration will be undertaken to identify the northern and southern extensions of the N-S structures associated with high-grade gold mineralization in the deposit, and discover new mineralized structures east and west of the Scadding Deposit.

Because 75-95% of the bedrock on the property is covered by overburden, the high-resolution aeromagnetic survey and induced polarization survey will be used to identify areas and structures that have the potential to host gold mineralization. Following the identification of positive anomalies at surface, surface mapping and mechanized stripping, where possible, will be used to validate the anomalies at surface. Diamond drilling will test anomalies where the overburden is too deep.

The large SPJ Property hosts many compelling exploration targets (Figure 1). This includes the Alwyn Mine where significant gold and copper mineralization was intersected in historic diamond drilling, the Ashigami Pits where gold-copper mineralization was historically mined, and the polymetallic Ag-Au-Co-Cu-Ni showings of the Jovan Property. Regional prospecting and surface mapping, from MacDonald and previous workers, uncovered multiple corridors of sodic alteration on the SPJ Property. As sodic alteration is the immediate host of all the zones of mineralization identified so far, targeted exploration along regional corridors of sodic alteration has the potential to discover new zones of polymetallic mineralization.

Figure 1. SPJ Property is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3e1e6b1f-eaa2-437b-b80a-3a253d85aa59

SPJ Property highlights

100% ownership
17,720 hectares, 20 kilometres from Sudbury, ON
In excellent mining jurisdiction and close to infrastructure
Hosts the high-grade past producing Scadding Gold Mine
Evidence of polymetallic mineralization at the Scadding Deposit indicative of IOCG potential
Significant gold, cobalt-copper, silver, nickel and rare earth showings outside of the current Scadding Deposit footprint

Historically, the Scadding Mine produced 914 kilograms of gold from 127,000 tonnes of mineralized material grading 7.2 g/t (OFR 5771). MacDonald’s reinterpretation of the geological model at the Scadding Deposit and larger SPJ property indicates that it could host a gold-rich Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold deposit and that significant gold structures may have been missed by previous operators’ drilling campaigns (2009-2011).

Qualified Person
Quentin Yarie, P Geo. is the qualified person responsible for preparing, supervising and approving the scientific and technical content of this news release.

About MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd.
MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. is a mineral exploration company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario focused on gold exploration in Canada. The Company recently acquired the high-grade past-producing Scadding Gold Mine and is focused on developing its large SPJ Project in Northern Ontario.

The Company's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "BMK".

To learn more about MacDonald Mines, please visit www.macdonaldmines.com

For more information, please contact:

Quentin Yarie, President & CEO, (416) 364-4986, qyarie@macdonaldmines.com

Or Mia Boiridy, Investor Relations, (416) 364-4986, mboiridy@macdonaldmines.com

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 forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may”, “should”, “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “estimates”, “predicts”, “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry’s actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.