Press Release
Kingston, Ontario, July 11, 2024 – Focus Graphite Inc. (TSXV: FMS; OTCQX: FCSMF; FRANKFURT: FKC) (Focus Graphite or the Company) announces that additional results from the 2022 exploration and definition drill program at its Manicouagan-Ouest Graphitic Corridor (MOGC) flake graphite deposit returned significant graphitic mineralization, demonstrated excellent continuity at depth, and showed potential for expansion. Significant mineralization is defined as a graphitic carbon (Cg) grading a minimum of 5.0% over at least 6.0 metres true thickness with internal dilution set at a maximum of 7.0 metres consecutive and no external dilution.
“We’ve now processed results of all 27 definition holes drilled along strike of our MOGC graphite deposit in 2022, a key milestone on our path to delivering an updated mineral resource estimate for our Lac Tétépisca project,” said Marc Roy, Focus Graphite’s President and CEO.
“Significant graphitic mineralisation has now been intersected at vertical depths ranging from 160 to 300 metres in all but one 50-metre spaced sections along a 950-metre strike length of our MOGC deposit. This demonstrates the excellent continuity of the mineralization at depth as well as the potential to extend the deposit below a vertical depth of 200 metres,” added Mr. Roy.
The MOGC flake graphite deposit is part of Focus Graphite’s 100% owned Lac Tétépisca graphite project, which is located southwest of the Manicouagan Reservoir in the Côte-Nord administrative region of Québec, on the Nitassinan of the Pessamit Innu First Nation. The MOGC is defined by a linear 1.5 km long geophysical magnetic-electromagnetic anomaly that trends N035°. It has a pit-constrained Indicated Resource of 59.3 million tonnes (Mt) grading 10.61% Graphitic Carbon (Cg) for an estimated content of 6.3 Mt of natural flake graphite (in-situ), and an Inferred resource of 14.9 Mt grading 11.06% Cg for an estimated content of 1.6 Mt of natural flake graphite.
This maiden resource—which positions the MOGC as one of the most significant flake graphite discoveries in Québec of the 2000s—is detailed in the NI 43-101 Technical Report Mineral Resource Estimate Lac Tétépisca Graphite Project, Québec, which was prepared by DRA Americas Inc. and is dated April 4, 2022. It is available on www.sedarplus.ca/ on the Company’s profile.
2022 exploration and definition drill program
Focus Graphite completed 14,900.5 metres of core drilling at the Lac Tétépisca project between March 3 and November 17, 2022. The main objectives of the exploration and definition drilling program were to:
To date, the Company has received and released analytical results for the 27 definition holes drilled along strike of the MOGC deposit, while analytical results for the first 11 exploration holes drilled at the Southwest MOGC target have been received and disclosed. Analytical results for the remaining 47 exploration drill holes from Southwest MOGC and West Limb are pending.
Today’s news release covers seven deep definition holes drilled along a 950-metre strike length of the MOGC flake graphite deposit to a minimum vertical depth of 300 metres vertical depth (Table 1, Figure 1) and six exploration holes drilled at the nearby Southwest MOGC target (Table 2, Figure 1).
Please consult the Company’s website at www.focusgraphite.com for previous news releases containing analytical highlights from the 2022 exploration and deep definition drilling program at the Lac Tétépisca project, as well as applicable location maps.
MOCG Deposit definition drill results
Drilling completed at MOCG in 2022 totaled 6,640.2 metres and included:
Highlights from the seven deep definition drill holes, which all returned significant graphitic mineralization, include:
Hole LT-22-176
Hole LT-22-177
Hole LT-22-174
Hole LT-22-175
Southwest MOCG exploration drill results
Drilling at the Southwest MOGC target consisted of 18 exploration holes totalling 2,838.8 metres, and results from six exploration holes drilled at the western end of the target are being reported today (Table 2). Only one drill hole intersected significant graphitic mineralization:
Hole LT-22-166
The graphitic zones so far intersected at the Southwest MOCG target are thinner than those in the MOGC deposit and are not located at the same stratigraphic levels. Detailed structural 3-D modelling is underway to try to connect the MOGC deposit with the SW MOGC target.
West Limb target exploration drill results
Drilling at the West Limb target consisted of 29 exploration holes totalling 5,421.6 metres. Results from drilling at this target are still outstanding and will be released once the Company has received and processed them.
Location of the drill holes and drill hole sections discussed in today’s news release
Highlights from the final seven drill holes from the 2022 deep definition core drilling program at the MOGC deposit
* Revised highlights following the reanalysis of selected drill core samples.
Highlights from the six exploration holes drilled at the Southwest MOGC target in 2022 released today
Notes:
(1) True thicknesses are reported in this news release and are based on the local dip of the mineralised envelope as calculated on 3-D model. Core descriptions, sampling information and analytical results were captured in Geotic™ core logging software, and then exported to LeapFrogtm software for three-dimensional (3-D) rendering. The 3-D mineralisation envelope of MOCG has an azimuth of N035.5° and dips at -58.5° to the south-east. The drill holes crosscut the envelope of the main mineralised zone’s strike (80°) and dips (60o) at high angle.
(2) “Best intercepts” and “significant graphitic mineralisation” are defined as Cg grading a minimum of 5.0% over at least 6.0 m with internal dilution set at a maximum of 7.0 m consecutive and no external dilution. “Best sub-intercepts” are defined as Cg grading a minimum of 10.0% over 6.0 m with same limitations on dilution. The 5% cg and 10% Cg cut-offs are used solely to delineate the extent of the mineralised envelopes corresponding to “Best intercepts” and “Best sub-intercepts”, respectively. Economic cut-offs based on geological, metallurgical, mining, and economic factors, parameters and considerations will be determined as part of the mineral resource estimate update planned for the Lac Tétépisca project later through subsequent technical studies.
(3) Barren core intervals within the mineralised envelope of the MOGC that were not analysed are considered as 0.0% Cg internal dilution.
(4) Analyses were performed by Activation Laboratories of Ancaster, Ont., an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 certified facility using combustion in induction furnace and infrared spectrometry (code 5D – C Graphitic) and are reported as graphitic carbon (Cg) and total sulphur.
(5) QA/QC program: IOS introduced 15.4% reference samples, including certified and internal reference materials, duplicates, and blank samples. Ten percent of the drill core samples were duplicated and analyzed by COREM for graphitic, total, organic and inorganic carbon as well as total sulphur. The same 10% of the drill core samples were also analysed by ACTLABS Laboratories of Ancaster, Ontario (ISO/IEC 17025:2005 with CAN-P-1579) for for trace metals by ICP-MS after aqua-regia digestion.
2022 drill program: design, operation, and quality control
The 2022 drilling program was designed and operated by IOS Géosciences Inc. (IOS) of Saguenay, Québec, under the supervision of Table Jamésienne de Concertation Minière (TJCM) of Chibougamau, Québec, acting as technical adviser to the Company. Drilling was performed by Forage G4 of Val-d’Or, Québec using a single drill rig.
Sample preparation and analysis
Starting in March 2022, drill core boxes for each hole were packaged by sequential numbers onto pallets in the field by IOS personnel and then shipped by truck every two weeks to IOS’s facilities in Saguenay where they are currently archived. Sampling has been conducted with a diamond saw, with NQ-diameter core from the Southwest MOGC and West Limb targets being halved, while all HQ-diameter core from the MOGC deposit was quartered. Sample preparation work at IOS consisting of crushing and grinding and the insertion in the sample sequences of QA/QC samples. A total of 1,005 pulverized splits from the currently disclosed set of drill holes were sent to Activation Laboratories in Ancaster, Ontario (ISO/IEC 17025:2005 with CAN-P-1579) for graphitic carbon (code 5D – C Graphitic) and total sulphur analysis (code 4F – S) using an Electra induction furnace with infrared spectroscopy. A subset of 10% of samples was analyzed for 35 trace element analysis using ICP-OES and ICP-MS after an aqua-regia digestion at Activation Laboratories (Code 1E2 – Aqua Regia). This brings the total number of core samples analyzed under the project to more than 9,800, excluding reference materials and duplicates.
Quality Assurance / Quality Control
The analytical quality control program for the Lac Tétépisca project has been implemented by an IOS-certified chemist and is identical to the one used for previous drill programs at Lac Tétépisca and at the Company’s Lac Knife project. Under the QA/QC program, the current set of analyses included 108 duplicates of the core samples, or about 10 % of the samples, which were analyzed by COREM for graphitic carbon duplicated analyses (code LSA-M-B10), total sulphur (code 4F – S), total carbon (code LSA-M-B45), organic carbon (code LSA-M-B58) and inorganic carbon (code LSA-M-B11). A total of 155 reference materials (about 15.4%) were inserted in the sample sequences, either certified or internal reference material samples (CDN-GR1, CMRI12, Oreas-723, OREAS-724, OREAS-725, CGL-003, CGL-004, NCS-DC-60119, NCS-DC-60120), duplicates (quarter-split core or grinding duplicates), and preparation and analyses blanks.
Qualified Persons
The technical content disclosed in this news release was reviewed and approved by Réjean Girard, P.Geo. (QC), President of IOS Geosciences Inc., a consultant to the Company, and a qualified person as defined under National Instrument NI-43-101.
Mr. Marc-André Bernier, géo. (QC), P.Geo. (ON), M.Sc., Senior Geoscientist for Table Jamésienne de Concertation Minière, a consultant to the Company and a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument (NI) 43 – 101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects has reviewed and approved the non-technical content this news release.
About the Lac Tétépisca Graphite Project
Focus Graphite’s 100%-owned Lac Tétépisca Graphite Project is located in the Southwest Manicouagan reservoir area of the Côte-Nord region of Québec, one of North America’s leading emerging flake graphite districts. The project lies on the Nitassinan of the Pessamit Innu First Nation, 234 km north-northwest of the city of Baie-Comeau, an industrial city located where the Manicouagan River intersects the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. It comprises two contiguous properties, Lac Tétépisca and Lac Tétépisca Nord. Together, the two properties form a block of 126 map-designated claims (total area: 6,785.14 ha). Focus purchased a 100% unencumbered interest of the mineral rights in the 67 CDC claims constituting the original Lac Tétépisca property from a third party in August 2011. The Lac Tétépisca Nord property was map-staked by the Company in 2012. The Lac Tétépisca Project is accessible year-round by way of a network of secondary gravel roads that extend north from Highway 389, 10 km to the south of the Manic 5 hydroelectric power station.
From 2014 to 2021, Focus tested the Manicouagan-Ouest Graphitic Corridor with 106 drill holes drilled over a 1.4 km strike length (total: 16,468 metres). The drilling formed the basis of a NI 43-101 maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Lac Tétépisca graphite project with the MRE technical report filed on SEDAR (www.sedarplus.ca/) on April 5, 2022. The mineral resource estimate, prepared by DRA Global Limited’s Montréal office, includes a pit-constrained Indicated resource for the MOGC prospect at the Lac Tétépisca project of 59.3 million tonnes (Mt) grading 10.61% Graphitic Carbon (Cg) for an estimated content of 6.3 Mt of natural flake graphite (in-situ), and an Inferred resource of 14.9 Mt grading 11.06% Cg for an estimated content of 1.6 Mt of natural flake graphite.
Additional maps of the Lac Tétépisca property showing the location of the MOGC graphite deposit, along with updated drill sections, are available on the Company’s website at www.focusgraphite.com.
About Focus Graphite
Focus Graphite Inc. is an advanced exploration company with an objective of producing flake graphite concentrate at its wholly owned Lac Knife and Lac Tétépisca flake graphite projects located in the Côte-Nord administrative region of Québec. In a second stage, to meet Québec stakeholder interests in developing second transformation industries within the province and to add shareholder value, Focus is evaluating the feasibility of producing value added specialty graphite products including battery-grade spherical graphite.
Focus Graphite is a technology-oriented graphite development company with a vision for building long-term, sustainable shareholder value. Focus also holds a significant equity position in graphene applications developer Grafoid Inc.
For more information about Focus Graphite and the Company’s Lac Tétépisca and Lac Knife projects, please visit Focus’s website at www.focusgraphite.com or contact:
Kimberly Darlington
Communications, Focus Graphite
kdarlington@focusgraphite.com
Judith Mazvihwa-MacLean
CFO, Focus Graphite
jmazvihwa@focusgraphite.com
(613) 581-4040
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