New Permit and Exploration Programme
23 February 2022
Pembridge Resources plc
Minto Metals Receives a New Exploration Permit, Outlines its 2022 Exploration Programme and Announces Grant of Stock Options
London, United Kingdom - Pembridge Resources plc (LSE: PERE) ("Pembridge" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Minto Metals Corp. ("Minto") (TSX-V: MNTO) today announced receipt of a 10-year Class 4 Quartz Mining Land Use Permit from the Yukon Government for exploration activities on its claims and provided an overview of its 2022 Exploration Program.
Minto received approval from the Chief of Mining Land Use for the Yukon for a 10-year Class 4 Quartz Mining Land Use Permit. The Permit, subject to certain restrictions and conditions, enables Minto to diamond drilling, geophysical surveys and other associated exploration land-use activities on its mining claims. The Permit includes the Minto Mine Property which falls entirely within the Settlement Lands of the Selkirk First Nation and comprises 164 Quartz Mining Claims covering an area of 26 km2. Minto's long-term Exploration strategy mandates minimal disturbance which can be achieved through the utilization of modern state-of-the-art techniques in targeting and data acquisition. Minto is fully committed to conducting exploration activities in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. The exploration that this permit allows will include previously unexplored, high potential targets close to the existing mine operations infrastructure and Minto hopes that it will build on its current resource.
Minto's Board of Directors recently approved a C$9.2 million exploration programme for 2022. The programme will consist of:
1) 30,000 meters of surface diamond drilling which will explore historical untested, high priority targets within 2 km of Minto's existing mine operations as well as some delineation and infill drilling of potential new resource zones. Paycore Drilling has been retained as the surface diamond drilling contractor.
2) Surface geophysics which will include:
i. Borehole Pulse Electromagnetic surveys of all-new drill holes.
ii. Passive Magnetotellurics survey to identify new drilling targets at depth beneath the current mine infrastructure.
3) Remote Sensing: procured Exploration Mapping out of Denver, CO will supervise and task a 1,993 km2 Worldview-3 Spectral Mapping satellite survey over Minto properties. The Worldview-3 satellite captures information across the visible, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum and is the highest spatial and spectral resolution satellite imagery commercially available.
4) Minto has partnered with Goldspot Discoveries Corp. to support Exploration efforts at Minto Metals. Goldspot will assist by compiling and re-processing Minto geological data to support artificial intelligence and data science exploration methods. This will include re-processing and interpreting historical local and regional geophysics datasets, and developing enhanced geochemical models. Identification of new surface and underground targets are a priority, as well as an updated 3-D geological model.
Minto has also engaged Equity Exploration Consultants Ltd. to compile and maintain the company's geoscientific and mining databases and to monitor ongoing Quality Assurance / Quality Control performance. Minto has retained Bureau Veritas for geochemistry services in 2022.
The 2022 drill program has been designed to try and create resource additions in the near term and on an ongoing basis moving forward. A large inventory of untested, high-priority exploration targets remain from previous operators where initial drill testing has not been conducted since 2012. These untested, high potential targets include possible extensions to the Minto North, Area 2 and Ridgetop orebodies as well as zones at a depth between the Minto Main Pit and Minto North Pit.
All the current and historical orebodies were discovered via drill-testing chargeability targets generated from a Titan-24 DC-IP survey circa 2009-2010. Minto will focus the 2022 drill plan on the remaining targets from that survey and will further supplement the target database and drill test new targets generated by the magnetotellurics survey in 2022. This survey should identify additional targets below the penetrative depth of the Titan-24 survey.
In addition, Minto announced that its Board of Directors has approved the grant of stock options (the "Options") exercisable for an aggregate of 705,626 common shares to the senior leadership team and executive officers of Minto in lieu of cash payments due under the 2021 Short Term Incentive Program. The Options were granted pursuant to Minto's 2021 Long Term Incentive Plan and are subject to the terms of the applicable option agreements and the requirements of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Options are exercisable at a price of $2.60 per share for a period of five years from the date of grant. The Options vested fully on the grant date.
The full release from Minto is available [here].
Gati Al-Jebouri, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Pembridge said:
"The Minto mine is part of a larger copper belt and we believe that there is scope, through further exploration, considerably to enlarge the resource currently known at Minto. Having this Permit will enable Minto to explore new areas of the site which are close to existing infrastructure and so move towards that goal, which could extend the life of the mine."
Cautionary Statement
This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company, or management, expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's intentions regarding its objectives, goals or future plans and statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to predict or counteract the potential impact of COVID-19 coronavirus on factors relevant to the Company's business, failure to identify additional mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves with more advanced studies, the inability to eventually complete a feasibility study which could support a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results may not be representative of the deposit as a whole, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital, operating and reclamation costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Company's public documents. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Pembridge is a mining company that is listed on the standard segment of the Official List of the FCA and trading on the main market for listed securities of London Stock Exchange plc. Pembridge has an investment in Minto Metals Corp, a British Columbia incorporated business listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "MNTO" that operates the Minto mine in Yukon, Canada.
About Minto Metals Corp
Minto Metals Corp operates the underground copper-gold-silver mine located in central Yukon, approximately 240 kilometres north of the capital Whitehorse along the Klondike Highway. In excess of US$350 million of capital expenditure has been invested into Minto operations since site construction began in 2006. The Minto mine was in continuous production between 2007 and 2018, when the mine was placed onto temporary care and maintenance. Pembridge acquired the Minto mine from Capstone Mining Corporation in June 2019 and restarted operations in October 2019.
Enquiries:
Pembridge Resources plc: +44 (0) 7905 125740
Gati Al-Jebouri, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
David James, Chief Financial Officer
Tavira Securities - United Kingdom: +44 (0)20 7100 5100
Jonathan Evans
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