Anaconda Provides a Strategic and Exploration Update on the Point Rousse Project

TORONTO, Feb. 27, 2015 /CNW/ - Anaconda Mining Inc. ("Anaconda" or the "Company") – (TSX: ANX) is pleased to provide a strategic and exploration update on the Point Rousse Project (the "Project") (formerly known as the "Pine Cove Project"). The Project includes a land position covering approximately 6,000 hectares adjacent to, and anchored by, the Pine Cove mine and mill (see Exhibit A) on the Ming's Bight Peninsula in the Baie Verte Mining District, Newfoundland.

Dustin Angelo, President and CEO, stated, "When I started with Anaconda about five years ago, the Company controlled 660 hectares of property in one mining lease, had barely begun to mine the Pine Cove deposit, recently upgraded the mill and had a few exploration prospects. There was no vision beyond the Pine Cove pit and mill. Today, the Project looks nothing like its former self. The Project consists of 6,000 hectares on the Ming's Bight Peninsula, four deposits, numerous gold prospects and showings, and three gold trends that total nearly 20 kilometres of strike length all within a maximum of approximately 8 kilometres from the Pine Cove mill. We are looking to double production by blending Pine Cove-like mineralization with high grade feed sources, and extend the life of the Project beyond 10 years. The pieces of the exploration puzzle are coming together to more confidently rely on Company-generated geologic models and interpretations which have helped to articulate a greater vision for the Point Rousse Project. The opportunity has changed significantly and is much improved from five years ago. Therefore, we've renamed the Pine Cove Project to be the Point Rousse Project to signify that the Project potential is grander than the Pine Cove deposit and extends to the entire Ming's Bight Peninsula."

POINT ROUSSE PROJECT STRATEGY

Anaconda's goal at the Point Rousse Project is to double annual production of gold from the current production of approximately 15,000 ounces to approximately 30,000 ounces.  The Company's strategy to achieve its goal is to develop two styles of mineralization: (1) More Pine Cove-like pits (i.e. Stog'er Tight) that provide bulk tonnage at roughly 2 grams per tonne ("g/t") to support the Project's baseload production (approximately 15,000 ounces per year) at the mill and to extend the life of the Project to 10 years or more, and (2) High-grade veins like Deer Cove, Romeo & Juliet, that can be blended with the Pine Cove pit feed (or future Pine Cove-like pits) at a lower incremental cost while increasing the overall head grade. The high grade "layer", along with a marginal increase to throughput, would produce the incremental ounces to reach approximately 30,000 ounces of annual production. The Company envisions creating an operating complex on the Ming's Bight Peninsula with multiple pits and trucking the ore back to the Pine Cove mill.

"Our exploration and development efforts for the past six months have focused entirely on implementing our strategy of doubling production. Initially, we have focused on extending the baseload production aspect of the strategy, which has centered on Pine Cove and Stog'er Tight within the Scrape Trend. Soon, we will move to the high grade layering aspect of the business plan so that it can be developed in concert with the baseload production options," states President and CEO, Dustin Angelo.

OVERVIEW OF GEOLOGY AND EXPLORATION UPDATE

Anaconda is currently exploring and developing three primary gold trends (see Exhibit A) within the Project area, with a cumulative strike length of approximately 20 kilometres. The Company expects to discover and develop multiple deposits because recent exploration work, combined with historical results, has brought more clarity, understanding and confidence in the Company's geological interpretations and models. As a result, Anaconda believes that the Project area has the potential to double production and continue on for 10 years or more. Below is a brief overview of the gold trends on the Ming's Bight Peninsula and Anaconda's exploration projects within them.

The Scrape Trend

The Scrape Trend (see Exhibits A and B) consists of a belt of highly prospective rocks approximately 7 kilometres long and approximately 1 to 2 kilometres wide. It begins southwest of the Pine Cove mine site and continues eastward to the community of Ming's Bight. The Scrape Trend includes the Pine Cove, Stog'er Tight and Romeo and Juliet deposits, the Anaroc and Animal Pond prospects and a new discovery referred to as the Argyle zone.  These gold occurrences align with a fault delineated by a topographic lineament coincident with an airbourne EM conductor. 

The Scrape Trend hosts both baseload and high-grade styles of mineralization. In the past six months, work on baseload projects has included drilling the Pine Cove deposit, drilling and mapping the Stog'er Tight deposits and trenching anomalous gold-in-soil values, which led to the discovery of the Argyle zone.

The purpose of the drill program at Pine Cove was to ultimately achieve the following three goals: 1) to increase total resources to extend the mine life of the Pine Cove pit, 2) to reduce the stripping ratio of the remaining life of mine by outlining near surface mineral resources, and 3) to reduce the haul distance of waste-rock material by placing a waste storage facility near the northern margin of the pit design. The drill program identified shallow mineralization within the Pine Cove Pond and Northwestern Extension areas and continuity of the main deposit down dip as well as immediately adjacent to current mineral reserves. Further north around the proposed waste rock storage area, two holes intersected several broad zones of low grade mineralization at depths in excess of 200 metres. These results will be used to modify the current resource model and a new estimate will be calculated with the aim of bringing more resources into the mine plan and determining the feasibility of establishing a waste rock facility north of the pit.

Development work at the Stog'er Tight deposit included drilling and geological mapping. The goals of the drill program were: 1) to intersect shallow mineralization, 2) to intersect down-dip mineralization in areas where gold is anticipated, but not previously intersected, and 3) to verify historical drilling programs by twinning existing drill holes in anticipation of publishing an NI 43-101-compliant resource.  The results from the drill program were positive and will be used to assess the current resource of the Stog'er Tight deposit. Next, Anaconda will determine the steps required to test the limits of the deposit and ultimately to include Stog'er Tight in its mining plans.

With the goal of discovering another source of baseload production along the Scrape Trend, Anaconda conducted a trenching program in the fall of 2014 to follow up on anomalous gold-in-soil values, which resulted in the discovery of the Argyle zone.  The new discovery is located approximately 5 kilometres from the Pine Cove mill and consists of two areas of mineralization located approximately 200 metres apart.  The Argyle zone is a significant discovery for Anaconda because it extends the length of the Scrape Trend and demonstrates that new discoveries can be made near the Pine Cove mill using the Company's geological understanding and exploration model.  Anaconda will conduct geophysical and geological mapping, prior to drilling, to test the surface extent of the Argyle zone. 

All future work along the Scrape Trend will be planned in accordance with reaching the Company's goals of demonstrating a rolling 10+ year mine plan and doubling production at the Pine Cove mill. As such, Anaconda has developed plans to test the limits of all known deposits within the trend and advance them towards feasibility, while advancing other prospects and mineralized zones towards deposit definition.  The exploration work will include testing the Romeo and Juliet deposit, which is a potential source of high-grade feed if mining is feasible. The deposit is located only a kilometre from the Pine Cove mill and within the Scrape Trend.

The Goldenville Trend

The Goldenville Trend (see Exhibits A and C) is an 8-kilometre long trend of highly prospective rocks centered on an iron stone unit referred to as the Goldenville horizon.  The Company believes the trend to be highly prospective because of a well-established model of ironstone hosted gold deposits as well as historical local and regional gold production. The Goldenville Trend has numerous gold prospects including four small historical, hand-dug shafts, which were developed to mine visible gold.  Anaconda is exploring the Goldenville Trend for high-grade deposits on the order of approximately 250,000 ounces of gold at 5 g/t or more (based on similar deposits and historical production within the region). If the Company is successful, it will have a longstanding high grade feed source for the Pine Cove mill to layer on top of the baseload production from other sources like Pine Cove or Stog'er Tight.

In the past six months, Anaconda has conducted geological mapping, prospecting and soil sampling along the eastern portion of the Goldenville Trend, specifically concentrating on the historical workings.  Geological mapping identified several veins adjacent to the Goldenville horizon that should intersect the horizon at depth.  The intersection of quartz-carbonate veins and the ironstone is a key target for mineralization within ironstone hosted gold deposits.  To better delineate potential deposits exposed at surface, Anaconda conducted a detailed soil sampling program and identified several zones with anomalous gold-in-soil values, which are coincident with quartz veins. Future work on the Goldenville Trend will include drill testing of known prospects and subsurface intersection of veins, and trenching of areas of anomalous soil geochemistry. 

The Deer Cove Trend

The Deer Cove Trend is located in the northern part of the Ming's Bight Peninsula and consists of a belt of prospective rocks approximately 3.5 kilometres in strike length. It is associated with the Deer Cove thrust fault and includes the Deer Cove deposit as well as various other showings and prospects (see Exhibits A and D).

Historical drill results suggested that the Deer Cove deposit could be a source of high-grade feed for the Pine Cove mill. Therefore, in the summer of 2014, Anaconda carried out a drill program on the Deer Cove deposit to better outline the distribution of high-grade gold within the vein and to test the down dip of the vein.  The program consisted of 2,090 metres of diamond drilling in 20 holes (See Exhibit E). 

Highlights of the diamond drill program include:

• 15.5 g/t gold over 2.5 metres (from 58 to 60.5 metres) in hole DC14-138
• 16.4 g/t gold over 0.5 metres (from 99 to 99.5 metres) in hole DC14-141
• 2.93 g/t gold over 2.5 metres (from 39.5 to 42 metres) in hole DC14-144
• 1.79 g/t gold over 13.5 metres (from 71 to 83.5 metres) in hole DC14-145

All remaining diamond drill holes intersected mineralization with grades between 0.87 g/t and 2.66 g/t over widths between 0.5 and 2.0 metres.

Future work on the Deer Cove Trend will include an assessment of the 2014 drill results in conjunction with historical data to ascertain the potential for a small, shallow, high-grade resource at the Deer Cove deposit that can be mined and layered onto the existing production at the Pine Cove mill.  Furthermore, Anaconda believes that the Deer Cove Trend has the potential to host other high grade Deer Cove-like deposits, specifically within the hanging wall of the thrust fault. Future exploration work along the Deer Cove Trend will test the potential of finding more deposits in the hanging wall.

This news release has been reviewed and considered accurate by Paul McNeill, P. Geo., VP Exploration with Anaconda Mining Inc., a "Qualified Person", under National Instrument 43-101 Standard for Disclosure for Mineral Projects.  The Deer Cove drill program was supervised by Silvertip Exploration Consultants Inc., of Bishops Falls NL. 

All samples are collected using QA/QC protocols including the regular insertion of duplicates, standards and blanks within the sample batch for analysis.  All samples quoted in this release are analyzed at Eastern Analytical Ltd. in Springdale, NL, for Au by fire assay (30g) with an AA finish, as well as 34 element analysis using four acid dissolution with ICP-OES.

Drill results are reported as down hole intercepts which are interpreted to represent 80-100% true thickness.

ABOUT ANACONDA

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Anaconda is a growth oriented, gold mining and exploration company with a producing mine and approximately 6,000 hectares of exploration property on the Ming's Bight Peninsula located in the Baie Verte Mining District in Newfoundland, Canada. Since 2012, Anaconda has increased its property control by nine-fold. It is currently exploring three primary, prospective gold trends, which have approximately 20 kilometres of cumulative strike length and include four deposits and numerous prospects and showings, all within 8 km of the Pine Cove mill.  The Company's plan is to discover and develop more resources within the project area and double annual production from approximately 15,000 ounces to 30,000 ounces.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This document contains or refers to forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements regarding growth and is based on current expectations and assumptions of management that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: current and future market trends and growth opportunities and whether the Company will be able to capitalize upon them. Forward-looking statements look into the future and provide an opinion as to the effect of certain events and trends on the business. Forward-looking statements may include words such as "plans," "may," "estimates," "expects," "indicates," "targeting," "potential" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update them or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

SOURCE Anaconda Mining Inc.