Nickel Processing Technology & Julie Nickel Exploration Update

2020-12-08 / @thenewswire

(TheNewswire)

Montréal - TheNewswire - December 8, 2020 - St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE:SX) (CNSX:SX.CN) (OTC:SXOOF) (FSE:85G1) announces an extension to the term of 11,855,500 common share purchase warrants originally issued as part of a private placement with the final tranche closed on January 17, 2020. The expiry date will be extended as follows:

Number of Warrants:	Revised Expiry Date of Warrants:	New Expiry Date of Warrants:
4,400,500	February 29, 2021	November 29, 2021
2,780,000	March 18, 2021	December 18, 2021
3,025,000	March 23, 2021	December 23, 2021
1,000,000	April 3, 2021	January 3, 2022
650,000	April 17, 2021	January 17, 2022

All other terms of the Warrants will remain unchanged. The Extension is subject to the approval of the CSE.

Issuance of Stock Options

The Company also announced the issuance of a total of 7,150,000 stock options for Management, Directors, and certain consultants at an execution price of $0.20 and an expiry date of December 7, 2025.

Julie Nickel Project Progress Update

St-Georges has completed a total of 9 surface test holes in the current on-going exploration campaign on the Julie Nickel Project. These holes were completed using a hammer drill (DTH) and extending to average depths of 21 meters. Three historical trenches were the targets of the current drill pattern. The Company’s geological team tested several different types of known mineralization previously identified at the surface. This work will assist in identifying and understanding the relationship and potential for targeting these different mineralized areas within the project area.

The material collected is in the form of fine rock chips and fine dust. It was bagged and sealed at every 1.5 meters of hole length. The bags were transported and stored securely by the Company’s contractor and brought to a secure warehouse under the supervision of the contracted geologist. These bags have now been processed. The material in each bag was spread over a small grid, and multiple readings were taken with a handheld XRF Analyzer Spectrometer conducting X-Ray Diffraction Elemental Analysis. When the content of the bags returned readings in excess of 1% nickel, the entire bag’s content was fed into a rippler device to mix the material in order to generate two representative samples that will be sent to an independent laboratory for analysis.

Click Image To View Full Size

Picture 1. Content of one bag from a DTH hole drilled on Julie Nickel

At this stage of exploration, the Company believes that a significant amount of surface work is still required. The Company has designed a second phase exploration campaign to follow up on the results from the current program. The second phase is expected to start in May or June 2021, dependent on weather and other significant events. This campaign is fully paid for, and diamond drilling should follow quickly hereafter. The second phase will further explore the relationship between completed geophysical surveys and localization of shallow surface nickel mineralization. The next phase should help model where thicker zones of nickel may occur.

Julie Nickel Metallurgical Update

The Company collected over 100 kg of material from Julie’s trench #1 to conduct a small bulk processing program. Characterization and metallurgical testing were conducted, as well as tests with St-Georges’ developmental green nickel processing initiative.

Further optimization of the metallurgy for the material encounter will be underway in the coming weeks, with a primary focus on nickel and copper recovery with the addition of the optimization of the recovery of the by-products identified, such as sulfur that may provide sulfuric acid to third-party industrial projects being developed on the Québec North-Shore. The Company expects to present its findings in this regard in the coming weeks to the Québec government’s Northern Plan Agency.

The metallurgical work is conducted with Co;alia at their installations under the supervision of St-Georges’ VP of Exploration, Mr. Enrico Di Cesare. A portion of the work completed falls within the research initiative for which the Company received a governmental grant.

The data obtained comes from the bulk samples chosen for their known content in nickel and copper within trench #1. It is too early in the project’s exploration and development to know if these results could be considered representative of the project’s general metallurgy.

Below is Figure 2. This chart represents the characterization of one batch processed.

Click Image To View Full Size

The nickel found in the historical and recent assays seems to be located almost exclusively in the pentlandite found in the system. The recrystallized nature of the pentlandite on Julie seems to indicate an easy crystal to recover with flotation, and the early microscopic evaluation indicates it should not be difficult to process the nickel out of it. This crystal chemistry is (NiFe)9S8. This type of nickel has the ideal ratio of 1 to 1 for nickel to iron which helps reduce chemical costs lost to the iron. These formations also contain cobalt that will be focused on in later stages. Ideal for battery grade nickel.

This type of nickel can also complement ferro nickel projects, including the BCM Foundry Project being proposed on the North-Shore. Over the next few months, the Company will conduct trials for ferro alloys and will optimize total recovery of experimentation.

The recrystallized copper-bearing chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is expected to be a candidate for recovery by flotation, making it potentially an important credit to any proposed industrial processing operation. St George intends to evaluate different options to optimize the value of the copper units.

Below is Figure 3. This chart represents the elements in % identified in the same batch of material processed.

Click Image To View Full Size

The technical information in this release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Herb Duerr, P. Geo. St-Georges' director, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

“Enrico Di Cesare”

ENRIO DI CESARE
VP Research & Development

About St-Georges

St-Georges is developing new technologies to solve some of the most common environmental problems in the mining industry. The Company controls all the active mineral tenures in Iceland. It also explores for nickel & PGEs on the Julie Nickel Project and the Manicougan Palladium Project on the Québec’s North Shore. Headquartered in Montreal, St-Georges’ stock is listed on the CSE under the symbol SX, on the US OTC under the Symbol SXOOF and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 85G1.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the contents of this release.