Marifil Reports a Positive Opening NI 43-101 Resource at San Roque

 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Marifil Mines Limited (TSXV: MFM) (OTC: MFMLF) ("Marifil" or the "Company") announces that it has received the first mineral resource estimate from Tetra Tech Canada Inc. ("Tetra Tech"), a prominent, global geologic and engineering consulting firm, for the Company's San Roque property ("San Roque" or, the "Property"), located in Rio Negro Province, Argentina that has been prepared in accordance National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM") Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves.

Resource Summary

The Property contains a deposit of low-sulphidation epithermal polymetallic mineralization with gold and zinc as the principal economic commodities accompanied by important values of silver, indium and lead. These have all been integrated into a conceptual open pit constrained Inferred Mineral Resource of 32,891,400 tonnes of 1.42 grams per tonne gold equivalent ("g/t AuEq") containing 1,499,900 ounces of AuEq of which the gold constituent is 486,600 troy ounces as displayed in the estimates provided in Tables 1A and 1B. The zinc constituent of 566,930,300 pounds is as economically important as is the gold at this level of resource evaluation. The estimated silver content is 12,770,600 troy ounces. Notably, the estimated indium content, an element vital to the global digital electronics industry, is 12,586,000 troy ounces. The estimated lead content is 279,788,900 pounds. The substantial base metal content amounts to about 384,000 tonnes.

The effective date of the mineral resource estimate is July 22, 2019. A NI 43-101 technical report will be filed with SEDAR within 45 days of the effective date.

The mineral resource estimate is reported as a pit constrained resource using Whittle software optimization.

TABLE 1A

San Roque Estimated Inferred Resource Summary – All Zones Tonnage & Grade

 See "Tetra Tech Resource Estimation Parameters" section below for Table 1A explanations. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves, and do not have demonstrated economic viability.

TABLE 1B

San Roque Estimated Inferred Resource Summary – All Zones Metal Content

See "Tetra Tech Resource Estimation Parameters" section below for Table 1B explanations. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves, and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Sensitivity analyses done by Tetra Tech were used to resolve appropriate cut-off grades for mineralized material both in the surface oxide and underlying sulfide, or un-oxidized, realms. That analyses shows the Inferred Mineral Resource estimate is included within a consolidated mineralized domain as shown on the following sensitivity graph.

San Roque Tonnage-Grade Gold Equivalent Sensitivity Graph

"We are incredibly excited about these NI 43-101 resource results and believe they strongly support our efforts to aggressively pursue the development of this large polymetallic mineral deposit discovery," stated Robert Abenante, President and CEO of Marifil, "We are grateful to Tetra Tech for their timely, high quality work, which we expect will be reflected in their final technical report in the weeks ahead," added Mr. Abenante.

Property Ownership

The Property is held by Minas San Roque S.A. ("MSRSA"), which is jointly owned by the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary Marifil Mines S.A. (51%) and NOVAGOLD RESOURCES INC.'s (TSX: NG) ("NovaGold") wholly-owned subsidiary, NovaGold Argentina Inc. (49%). The Company currently acts as project operator for the Property.

Property Setting

The Property is located in a coastal desert in northeastern Patagonia near the Atlantic Ocean within a zone of well-developed infrastructure where development costs are expected to be comparatively low. The Company and Tetra Tech are at this time unaware of any risk factors related to environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing, or political issues which could materially adversely affect the potential development of the Property.

Property Description

San Roque is a district scale, advanced exploration stage project comprising 73,915 hectares of consolidated mine rights, of which 9,449 hectares are perfected for possible exploitation (referred to as "Minas"). The remaining claimed area surrounds the Minas, and is held by temporary exploration permits. MSRSA owns the Minas mining concessions, which are subject to a government mandated 3% production royalty. There are no other royalties on the Property.

Resource Zone Components

The estimated inferred mineral resource is comprised of four zones as presented in Tables 2A and 2B and as shown on the following Isometric View illustration.

TABLE 2A

San Roque Estimated Inferred Resources by Zone – Tonnage & Grade

 See "Tetra Tech Resource Estimation Parameters" section below for Table 2A explanations. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves, and do not have demonstrated economic viability.

TABLE 2B

San Roque Estimated Inferred Resources by Zone – Contained Metal

See "Tetra Tech Resource Estimation Parameters" section below for Table 2B explanations. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves, and do not have demonstrated economic viability.

ISOMETRIC VIEW

Component Zones of San Roque Estimated Inferred Resources and Conceptual Whittle Pits

Tetra Tech Resource Estimation Parameters

Tetra Tech completed the mineral resource estimate based on 10,755 assays obtained from 112 drill holes (totaling 16,586 meters) and 58 trenches (totaling 1,509 meters).

The Tetra Tech mineral resource estimate is based on the combination of detailed geological modeling conducted in Aranz Leapfrog 3D software, along with geostatistical and conventional block modeling using the Inverse Distance Squared method of grade interpolation in Datamine Studio RM software. Leapfrog 3D software employs advanced implicit modeling techniques to generate geological models from drill holes and trenching data. The mineral resources were estimated using a non-rotated block model with parent blocks of 5m x 5m x 5m with 5 sub-cells allowed in the X, Y, and Z directions. Block sizes were rounded to the nearest 0.5 m.

The Company's QAQC protocols and corresponding sample preparation and shipment procedures have been reviewed by Tetra Tech, with no detrimental issues identified.

During the Tetra Tech site visit, a total of 28 quarter cut core duplicates and 28 coarse reject samples were collected and sent to ALS Labs in North Vancouver, B.C. for third-party sample verification. Results of these assays have been reviewed and verified by Tetra Tech.

Mineral Resources were estimated in conformance with the CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. In order to test the economic potential of the modeled mineralization, the reported mineral resources have been analyzed by, and constrained to, conceptual pit shells generated in Whittle.  In addition to the mineralization constrained within the Whittle shells, Tetra Tech has assessed the geological continuity of the zones, the near surface nature of the mineralization, and Property's proximity to local infrastructure.  Based on these considerations, the constrained mineralization presented is deemed to have reasonable prospects for economic extraction.

The estimated resource Cut-Off grades were derived from the following assumptions:

• Open pit with heap leaching and sulfide flotation processing
• Mining costs of US$1.50/t,
• Milling costs of US$10.00/t and US$16.00/t respectively for Oxide and Sulphide
• Gold price of US$1,267.00/oz
• US$5.00/t G&A
• Gold Equivalent (AuEq) based on the following metal value ratios to Gold: 1 (Au), 75 (Ag), 19,565 (Pb), 15,716 (Zn), and 117 (In) as calculated using three year trailing average metal prices of US$1,267.00/oz Gold, US$17.00/oz Silver, US$1.00/lb Lead, US$1.20/lb Zinc, and US$10.80/oz Indium
• AuEq Cut-Off grade calculation assumes 70% recovery for Oxide hosted metals and 80% recovery for all metals in the Sulphide realm for lack of metallurgical recovery test results
• Bulk density has been applied to all materials as 2.63 tonnes per cubic meter

The Mineral Resource Estimate has been constrained to a set of four conceptual Whittle pit shells and the economic potential tested using the above parameters.

Marifil's Discussion of Estimated Mineral Resources

Based on the geological and resource model generated by Tetra Tech, Marifil believes there is sufficient evidence at San Roque to imply that the multiple zones modeled are hosted along the same geologic trend and structure. Also notably, significant copper and molybdenum mineralization is present in some of the drill cores. These elements, however, were not included in this Inferred Mineral Resource calculation. Also not included is mineralization exposed by drilling to be deeper than the constrained Whittle open pits bottom levels that ultimately might be amenable to underground mining.

As a result, Marifil feels that with additional expansional drilling between the zones, the San Roque Property and Mineral Resource Estimate has continued potential to be rapidly and progressively expanded upon. Additionally, upon completion of addition drilling, inclusion of other elements present and extractive metallurgical testing, Marifil believes a significant amount of the currently defined Inferred Mineral Resources, and future resources will be able to be moved into higher resource categories.

The current Mineral Resource estimate is contained within a larger mineralized geologic structure. Analysis of the resource evaluation includes sensitivity to various cut-off grades as shown in the abovementioned graph. Improvement of metal prices and thus lower cut-off grades shows a correlation to increased mineral resource estimates to a maximum volume of the mineralized structure. This provides an assessment of Minerals Resource estimate increase with respect to an increase or decrease in metal prices.

"Neither the limits of the reported inferred resource, nor the larger body of mineralized material in which it is contained, have yet been found by exploration drilling. Many drill holes ended in good mineralization. We are therefore optimistic that an intensive drilling program would expand and improve the classification of the estimated inferred resources, join or connect up some of the individual resource zones, and in general enlarge the limits of the known mineralized body," stated Richard Walters, Executive V.P. of Marifil. "Beyond the zones that have already been drilled, we have identified several other terrific gold exploration drilling targets on the Property as announced in previous news releases; so, I am convinced this is a highly prospective venture with lots of blue-sky potential," added Mr. Walters.

Moving Forward

The full NI 43-101 technical report by Tetra Tech is in progress and is expected to be filed sometime during August 2019. Marifil looks forward to completing additional drilling on all the component resource zones in order to not only try to link zones together, but to also better define the internal trends of mineralization. Furthermore, the Company is commencing a program aimed at achieving bench-scale extractive metallurgical recovery test results in the coming months. These results of these activities will help to expand the estimated resources as well as upscale the current estimated resource classification.

Qualified Persons

The resource estimate herein was prepared by Tetra Tech of Vancouver, a company which is independent from Marifil. The technical information pertaining to the mineral resource estimate in this release was reviewed and approved by Cameron Norton, P. Geo, of Tetra Tech, who is an independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

The expressed opinions and factual and other information contained within this document has been prepared and approved by Richard R. Walters, Executive Vice President, Exploration and a director of the Company. Tetra Tech has contributed to and approved this document. Mr. Walters is a "Qualified Person" as defined under NI 43-101, and is the person under whose direction the San Roque, Argentina mineral exploration program has been carried out. Mr. Walters supervised the preparation of the information and approved the information in this news release. Mr. Walters is a certified Professional Geologist by the American Institute of Professional Geologists.

ON BEHALF OF MARIFIL MINES LIMITED
"Rob Abenante"
Robert Abenante, President & CEO

For further information regarding Marifil Mines Limited, please refer to the Company's filings available on SEDAR (http://www.sedar.com) or at Marifil's Website (http://www.marifilmines.com).

Forward-Looking Statements:

Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical, and consist primarily projections or statements regarding future plans, expectations and developments. Words such as "expects", "hopes", "intends", "plans", "may", "could", "potential", "should", "anticipates", "likely", "believes" and words of similar import tend to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: (i) the expected cost of development on the Property; (ii) risk factors related to environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing, or political issues which could materially adversely affect the potential development of the Property; (iii) the prospects of economic mineral extraction on the Property; (iv) the expectations that a majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources on the Property could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration; (v) the anticipated completion of the NI 43-101 technical report by August 2019; and (vi) the proposed bench-scale metallurgical recovery tests on the Property. All of these forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied, including, without limitation: (i) the risks that the Company may not find any minerals in commercially feasible quantities; (ii) that the Company may not raise enough money to fund its exploration plans;(iii) uncertainty of development plans and cost estimates; (iv) commodity price fluctuations; (v) political or economic instability and regulatory changes; (vi) currency fluctuations; (vi) the state of the capital markets; (vii) uncertainty in the measurement of mineral reserves and resource estimates; (viii) the Company's ability to attract and retain qualified personnel and management; (ix) potential labour unrest; (x) uncertainty as to reclamation and closure requirements for its mineral properties; (xi) unpredictable risks and hazards related to the development and operation of a mine or mineral property that are beyond the Company's control; and (xii) other risks and uncertainties identified under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's continuous disclosure documents filed on SEDAR. You are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used. The Company cannot assure you that actual events, performance or results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements, and management's assumptions may prove to be incorrect. The Company's forward-looking statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions should change other than as required by applicable law. For the reasons set forth above, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

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.

Contact Information:
Phone:1-833-669-MINE (6463)
Email: info@marifilmines.com  
Website: www.marifilmines.com