Minto Metals Reports Exceptional High-Grade Drill Intersections from Exploration Drilling Between Minto Main and Minto North Open Pits; 11.40% Copper Over 4 Metres

Press Release

WHITEHORSE, YT, April 12, 2023– Minto Metals Corp. (“Minto” or the “Company”) is pleased to report final results from its 2022 exploration drilling program at the Minto Mine located within the Selkirk First Nation’s Territory in central Yukon, Canada.

Drill hole 22EXP058 cut 11.40% Copper (“Cu”), 0.51 grams per tonne (“g/t”) Gold (“Au”), 43.93 g/t Silver (“Ag”) over 4.00 metres (“m”) at approximately 100 m vertical depth in a newly discovered mineralized zone between the Minto North and Main open pits.

Highlights (Figure 1):

Hole 22EXP053

• 2.19% Cu, 0.24 g/t Au, 14.02 g/t Ag over 7.31 m at approximately 450 m vertical depth and 150 m north-west of the Minto Main pit;

Hole 22EXP055

• 1.66% Cu, 1.31 g/t Au, 12.10 g/t Ag over 1.24 m at approximately 250 m vertical depth and immediately south of the Minto North II orebody (see NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report, Minto, Yukon, Canada with an effective date of March 31, 2021); and

Hole 22EXP057

• 1.33% Cu, 0.35 g/t Au, 19.22 g/t Ag over 3.12 m at approximately 300 m vertical depth and 200 m north of the Minto Main pit;

“We are very pleased with the results from the last batch of drilling and assays returned. The high-grade mineralization reported for drill hole 22EXP053 are some of the highest grade copper assays returned in the history of exploration at the Minto Mine. Drill holes 22EXP053 and 22EXP058 were drilled in an area of complex geology between the Minto North and Minto Main Pit testing geophysical anomalies at depth below the “Inferno” prospect, a near-surface, undefined prospect. The 2022 exploration drilling campaign is now complete and we consider it a great success with the discovery and confirmation of two new mineralized zones (Minto North West and Minto East 150 Deep) and numerous other very significant mineralized intersections, as reported in 2022-2023. Future drill campaigns will be designed to follow up on Minto West and Minto East,” commented David Benson, Vice-President Exploration.

In 2022, Minto completed 53 holes for 28,438 metres (Figure 1). Previous results for 2022 were reported in press releases dated April 28, 2022, October 20, 2022, February 2, 2023 and February 28, 2023. Drilling was conducted under the conditions and authorizations of Quartz Mining Land Use Permit# LQ00565 issued by the Department of Energy Mines and Resources, Yukon Government (Figure 2). Results released today are from the final sixteen drill holes of the 2022 exploration drilling program totalling 9,247.5 m (see Table 1 for Drill hole information and Table 2 for Assay results).

As with previous drilling, all drill holes reported here intersected typical Minto-style, stacked, lensoidal mineralization of varying thickness and sulphide content. Mineralized host rocks (quartzo-feldspathic migmatite and gneiss) and sulphide speciation (bornite and chalcopyrite) are consistent in all holes reported with a direct correlation between sulphide content, speciation and Cu grade.

Drill hole 22EXP058 (Table 2, Figures 1 & 3) was drilled testing a chargeability anomaly between 100 m and 300 m below surface. The hole intersected semi-massive bornite with stringer and blebby chalcopyrite over 4.0 metres. The core of the high-grade mineralization included continuous individual assays of 25.5% Cu over 0.5 m, 38.27% Cu over 0.75 m and 4.37% Cu over 0.84 m. The former first two assay results were among the 99^th percentile of drill hole assays that exist in the extensive Minto diamond drill hole database. This new zone occurs immediately to the east and less than 100 m below the near-surface Inferno prospect, occurs along a prominent northwest-trending geophysical lineament and remains open to the south-southeast. Spatially, this mineralized interval occurs approximately 450 m south of planned development at Minto North II and 300 m north of the Minto Main open pit.

Drill hole 22EXP053 (Table 2, Figures 1 & 4) was drilled to follow-up on mineralization intersected in drill hole 21EXP007 (see press release dated March 17, 2022) of 1.15% Cu over 6 m. Two mineralized zones were intersected: 1) from 395.43m downhole, 8.41 m of 1.07% Cu; and 2) 2.19% Cu over 7.31 m from 478.21 m downhole. The upper interval, spatially, appears to be the SW continuation of the mineralized zone intersected in 21EXP007. The lower interval appears to be a new lens approximately 80 m below the upper mineralized zone. Both mineralized zones appear open along strike to the south-southwest towards the Minto Main Pit.

The Company continues working with ALS Goldspot Discoveries (“Goldspot”) on 3D geology modeling and 2D/3D prospectivity targeting for the Minto Mine site property. Preliminary machine learning generated lithological modeling, structural interpretation and 2D prospectivity results have been reviewed and the Company has authorized Goldspot to integrate these results for final 3D prospectivity and targeting.

Table 1. Drill hole location information for the 2022 drilling reported in this press release.

Table 2. Assay results reported in this press release.

Figure 1. Minto Mine Complex Plan View Map with highlighted Drilling results in this Release.

Figure 2. Regional Map of Minto Metals Corp. Projects. All Exploration activity reported herein are from the Minto Mine Property and authorized under Quartz Mining Land Use Permit LQ00565.

Figure 3. Vertical cross-section for drill hole 22EXP058 looking northwest. The light blue colored area represents the potential extents or target area projected for the mineralized zone reported in 22EXP058.

Figure 4. Vertical cross-section for 22EXP053 looking west. The light blue colored area represents the potential extents or target area projected for the mineralized zone reported in 22EXP053 south towards the Minto Main Pit.

The technical contents of this news release have been reviewed and approved by David Benson, P.Geo. Vice President of Exploration of Minto Metals and Qualified Person as defined by Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Benson has reviewed the sampling and QA/QC procedures and results thereof as verification of the sampling data disclosed above and approved the information contained in this news release.

Quality assurance and quality control procedures include the systematic insertion of duplicate, blank and certified reference materials (CRM), making up 17% of the sampling stream. Drill core samples were sawn in half, labelled, placed in sealed, securitized bags and shipped directly to Bureau Veritas preparation laboratory in Whitehorse, Yukon. All geochemical analyses were performed by Bureau Veritas in Vancouver, British Columbia. Individual samples are crushed to 70% passing 10 mesh. Copper and silver analysis were performed by aqua regia digestion with an ICP-ES finish. Gold was analyzed by igniting a 30 g sample followed by an aqua regia digestion with an AAS finish.

Minto operates the producing Minto mine located within the traditional territory of the Selkirk First Nation in the Minto Copper Belt of the Yukon. The Minto mine has been in operation since 2007 with underground mining commencing in 2014. Since 2007, approximately 500Mlbs of copper have been produced from the Minto mine. The current mine operations are based on underground mining, a process plant to produce high-grade copper, gold, and silver concentrate, and all supporting infrastructure associated with a remote location in Yukon. The Minto property is located west of the Yukon River, about 20 km WNW of Minto Landing, the latter on the east side of the river, and approximately 250 road-km north of the City of Whitehorse, the capital city of Yukon.

IBF4

 108 total views,  4 views today