Mr. Darin Wagner reports
BALMORAL COMMENCES SUMMER-FALL 2018 DRILL PROGRAM
The summer-fall 2018 drill program on Balmoral Resources Ltd.'s Detour gold trend project in Quebec has commenced. The minimum 7,500-metre program will include:
Expansion drilling of the 3.45-million-tonne Grasset nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE (platinum group elements) deposit;Follow-up drilling of nickel discoveries and new target testing in the Grasset ultramafic complex;First-pass drilling of a number of nickel, gold and copper-zinc targets throughout the Detour trend project, including the LAM, Niquet, Detour East and Harri areas.
Grasset
Drilling on the Grasset ultramafic complex will be the largest component of the upcoming program and is slated to commence in mid-September. The goal of the drilling program is threefold: to continue to expand the Grasset nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE deposit, to follow up drill numerous nearby nickel sulphide discoveries in the host Grasset ultramafic complex, and to complete first-pass drilling of new nickel targets within the Grasset ultramafic complex. All of these activities were suspended in late 2015 due to low metal prices, which have now recovered to -- or above -- 2015/2016 levels.
The first-priority target for expansion drilling at the Grasset deposit is the high-grade, massive to semi-massive, 7.5-metre-wide intercept of nickel sulphide breccia zone grading 10.5 per cent nickel discovered in the deposit's footwall in one of the last and deepest holes drilled into the deposit in late 2015 (see news release dated Nov. 16, 2015). This new discovery and the Grasset nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE deposit remain open for expansion.
Balmoral published an initial indicated resource estimate for the high-grade core of the Grasset deposit of 3.45 million tonnes grading 1.56 per cent nickel, 0.17 per cent copper, 0.03 per cent cobalt, 0.34 gram per tonne platinum and 0.84 g/t palladium in March, 2016 (see news release dated March 7, 2016). This high-grade core lies within a much larger nickel sulphide body totalling over 15 million tonnes.
Other targets
Drill testing on the Martiniere property is currently under way. Drilling will target the LAM gold zone, located four kilometres northwest of the Bug gold deposit where geological mapping has outlined a gold-mineralized system flanking the margins of a north-northwest-trending quartz porphyry dike, or series of dikes -- a geological setting strongly analogous to the Bug gold deposit.
Drill testing at Martiniere will also include the first-ever drill testing of the Niquet ultramafic intrusion for nickel-copper-cobalt PGE mineralization. Results from the recently completed induced polarization survey over the Niquet intrusion indicate the presence of a greater-than-two-kilometre-long chargeability anomaly associated with the marginal and central phases of the intrusion, suggesting the potential for sulphide mineralization along the entire length of the intrusion. The Niquet intrusion also shows geochemical affinities to the Grasset ultramafic complex.
Drill testing of exploration targets on the Detour East and Harri properties is also planned during the summer-fall 2018 drill program.
Quality control
Darin Wagner, PGeo, president and chief executive officer of the company, is the non-independent qualified person for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Mr. Wagner has supervised the work programs on the company's properties since inception, visited the properties on multiple occasions, examined the drill core from the holes summarized in this release, discussed, reviewed the results with senior on-site geological staff, and reviewed the available analytical and quality control results.
About Balmoral Resources Ltd.
Balmoral is a well-financed, Canada-based exploration company. Balmoral's 1,000-square-kilometre Detour gold trend project is home to the resource-stage Bug and Martiniere West gold and Grasset Ni-Cu-Co-PGE deposits, and several other gold and base metal discoveries.
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