Monarques Gold Provides an Update on its Production Activities

 

• Production activities at the Beaufor Mine will be temporarily suspended as of December 14, 2018, and the mine will be placed on care and maintenance.
  
  
• The Corporation will continue its exploration activities at the Beaufor Mine in order to increase its gold resource over the longer term, given the many high-grade results obtained since the end of 2017.
  
  
• Camflo's custom milling operations, which reported another consecutive increase in revenues in the fourth quarter of more than 31%, will not be affected.
  
  
• The Corporation will focus its efforts on developing and completing the feasibility study of its core asset, the Wasamac gold deposit, which contains measured and indicated resources of 2,587,900 ounces of gold (see Table 1 at the end of this release).
  
  
• The Corporation has acquired land adjacent to the Wasamac project, with more than 1 km strategically located along the Trans-Canada Highway and the Ontario Northland Railway.
  
  
• Monarques Gold has sold its 2% net smelter return royalty in the East Amphi property to Canadian Malartic GP for $250,000.

MONTREAL, Aug. 30, 2018 /CNW/ - MONARQUES GOLD CORPORATION ("Monarques" or the "Corporation") (TSXV:MQR) (OTCMKTS:MRQRF) (FRANKFURT:MR7) announced today that production activities at the Beaufor Mine will be temporarily suspended as of December 14, 2018. The suspension is primarily due to the low grades of the ore mined at Beaufor in recent quarters, combined with the persistent weakness in the price of gold and difficulties recruiting qualified manpower in the region. As a result, the mine's workforce will be cut to around ten employees who will be assigned to care and maintenance of the mine and its facilities.

"This decision was necessary for the future of the Corporation," said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and Chief Executive Officer of Monarques. "With the persistent weakness in the gold price and lower-than-expected grades, operations at the Beaufor Mine have been challenging in the last two quarters, a situation that had to be corrected at all costs. Over the coming quarters, we will be looking for ways to improve the mining grade while pursuing our exploration activities, which have generated very promising results. Our goal is to restart the Beaufor Mine as soon as we are able to ensure that our operations will be profitable."

"We will also step up our efforts to develop Monarques' main asset, the Wasamac gold deposit, which, by using the latest technology, has the potential to become a mine. We will soon issue an update on the status of the Wasamac feasibility study, where we are seeing some very encouraging developments. In terms of operations, it is important to underscore that our custom milling operations at the Camflo mill are growing every quarter and are expected to continue contributing positively to our results," Mr. Lacoste added.

Exploration program and strategy at the Beaufor Mine

The new exploration strategy at the Beaufor Mine will aim to grow the high-grade gold resource over a longer-term horizon, in order to ensure greater operating profitability.

The many factors leading the Corporation to continue exploring at Beaufor, which has produced more than 1.1 million ounces over its lifetime, include the multiple high-grade results obtained since the end of 2017 and the fact that the mine still has excellent exploration potential along strike and at depth.

Along these lines, the Corporation has obtained new results from its 2018 drilling program. The results are for a total of 3,220 metres of drilling in 14 exploration holes. Nine of the holes intersected mineralization, including hole 18-150-68A, which returned 10.38 g/t Au over 7.65 metres, including 100.50 g/t Au over 0.50 metres in the QF1 vein. The QF veins generated other significant results, including 84.80 g/t Au over 1.65 metres, 59.45 g/t Au over 0.50 metres, 58.30 g/t Au over 0.50 metres, 32.51 g/t Au over 1.2 metres and 26.50 g/t Au over 0.50 metres. The drill results are summarized in Table 2 at the end of this release.

Acquisition of strategic land adjacent to the Wasamac project

On August 24, 2018, Monarques acquired a property next to the Wasamac project to serve as the site of the project's mining facilities. Located further away from the local community, the property has the added strategic advantage of including a stretch of more than 1 kilometre along the Trans-Canada Highway and the Ontario Northland Railway, easing transportation logistics for the mined material.

Sale of the East Amphi property royalty to Canadian Malartic GP

On August 21, 2018, the Corporation sold its 2% net smelter return royalty on the East Amphi property to Canadian Malartic GP for the sum of $250,000. The royalty was among the assets acquired from Richmont Mines but did not fit into the Corporation's development plans.

Quality control and qualified person

Sampling normally consists of sawing the core into two equal halves along its main axis and shipping one of the halves to Val-d'Or for assaying at the ALS Geochemistry laboratory, which is fully accredited under ISO 17025. The samples are crushed, pulverized and assayed by fire assay with atomic absorption finish. Results exceeding 10.0 g/t are re-assayed using the gravity method. Certified standards and blanks are inserted into the sampling stream for quality control purposes.

The technical and scientific content of this press release has been reviewed and approved by Marc-André Lavergne, P.Eng., the Corporation's qualified person under National Instrument 43‑101.

ABOUT MONARQUES GOLD CORPORATION

Monarques Gold Corporation (TSXV:MQR) is a mining company focused on pursuing growth through its large portfolio of high-quality gold projects in the Abitibi mining camp in Quebec, Canada. The Corporation currently owns close to 300 km² of gold properties (see map), including the Wasamac deposit (measured and indicated resource of 2.6 million ounces of gold), the Beaufor Mine, the Croinor Gold (see video), McKenzie Break and Swanson advanced projects and the Camflo and Beacon mills, as well as six promising exploration projects. It also offers custom milling services out of its 1,600 tonne-per-day Camflo mill.

Forward-Looking Statements

The forward-looking statements in this press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Monarques' actual results, performance and achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied therein. 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 press release.

Table 1 – Monarques Gold Measured and Indicated Resource

 

Table 2 – Summary of exploration drilling results at the Beaufor Mine

 

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SOURCE Monarques Gold Corporation

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