GTA Reports Engineering Study Results for the Afric Zone, Northshore Property
BURLINGTON, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jun 17, 2015) - GTA Mining and Resources Inc. ("GTA" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:GTA) reports that recent activity on the Northshore Project has included ongoing evaluations of the Afric Gold Deposit. Part of this evaluation included independent pit design studies, conducted by Mr. George Dermer P. Eng. of Moose Mountain Technical Services (Moose Mountain), based in Cranbrook, B.C. The Northshore Property, near Schreiber, Ontario, Canada, is located in Priske Township, approximately 200 km east of Thunder Bay or 125 km west of Hemlo, Ontario. GTA owns a 51% interest in the Northshore property with the remaining 49% interest held by Balmoral Resources Ltd.
On June 10, 2014, GTA reported the initial NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the Afric Deposit (see press release dated June 10, 2014). This maiden mineral resource estimate was prepared by Mr. Gary Giroux, P. Eng., of Giroux Consultants Ltd., and Mr. Doug Blanchflower, P. Geo., of Minorex Consulting Ltd. At a cut-off grade of 0.50 grams gold per tonne the classified mineral resource was estimated to be:
- Indicated Category: 391,000 ounces gold in 12,360,000 tonnes at a grade of 0.99 g/t gold
- Inferred Category: 824,000 ounces gold in 29,580,000 tonnes at a grade of 0.87 g/t gold
Details of this resource estimate and other back ground information are included in the NI-43-101 technical report. This report, entitled "Technical Report on the Mineral Resources of the Northshore Property", dated June 30, 2014 has been filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).
Recently, GTA contracted the mining engineering services of Moose Mountain to outline areas of higher grade, near surface gold mineralization hosted within the Afric Zone. Moose Mountain designed pit shells based upon geological models provided by Messrs. Giroux and Blanchflower using a Lerchs Grossman (LG) pit design software program, and generated a sequence of pits which ranged from 5,000 to 1,500,000 tonnes. The results of this pit design process identified two potential open pit mining areas with near-surface gold mineralization. A smaller and larger pit option has been defined in each area.
Detailed information for these selected pit areas (termed the West and East pits) are as follows:
Table 1 - Selected Pits, West Area
West Area: | Indicated | Indicated AU | Inferred | Inferred AU | Total Waste | Stripping | Total Ozs | Total Ozs |
PIT | Tonnes | (g/t) | Tonnes | (g/t) | Tonnes | Ratio | Indicated | Inferred |
Pws 28 | 56,825 | 2.92 | 0 | 0.00 | 37,867 | 0.67 | 5,335 | 0 |
Pws 31 | 100,665 | 2.80 | 0 | 0.00 | 111,822 | 1.11 | 9,062 | 0 |
Table 2 - Selected Pits, East Area
East Area: | Indicated | Indicated | Inferred | Inferred | Total Waste | Stripping | Total Ozs | Total Ozs |
PIT | Tonnage | AU (g/t) | Tonnage | AU (g/t) | Tonnage | Ratio | Indicated | Inferred |
Pes 28 | 0 | 0.00 | 62,809 | 2.86 | 21,538 | 0.34 | 0 | 5,775 |
Pes 31 | 91,449 | 2.38 | 287,060 | 2.63 | 271,416 | 0.72 | 6,998 | 24,273 |
Table 3 - Selected Pits, Both Areas
All Areas: | Indicated | Indicated | Inferred | Inferred | Total Waste | Stripping | Total Ozs | Total Ozs |
PIT | Tonnage | AU (g/t) | Tonnage | AU (g/t) | Tonnage | Ratio | Indicated | Inferred |
Pit 28 | 56,825 | 2.92 | 62,809 | 2.86 | 59,406 | 0.5 | 5,335 | 5,775 |
Pit 31 | 192,114 | 2.60 | 287,060 | 2.63 | 383,237 | 0.8 | 16,060 | 24,273 |
**Note: The above pit areas outlined by Moose Mountain were designed and defined using the same geological models as those used by Messrs. Giroux and Blanchflower for the resource estimate. The above results include inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the economic viability of this material will be realized in future studies. Also note that there are no changes in the overall indicated and inferred mineral resources estimate reported for the Afric Zone, as no mining has been undertaken in these areas and no further geological or drilling work has been carried out since the June 2014 NI 43-101 technical report.
Of particular interest, each of these proposed pit shells encompass near-surface, higher grade gold mineralization that GTA believes could possibly be extracted with minimal surface disturbances by selective open cut mining operations. In addition, the proposed pit shells exhibit very low strip ratios (waste tonnes to mill feed tonnes).
The West Pit area encompasses only indicated mineral resources, has slightly higher gold grades, and has higher gold grades near surface The East Pit is potentially a larger target, but with mostly inferred mineral resources.
"GTA is encouraged with this engineering review and the Company is continuing with its in-house evaluations of these and other higher grade mineralized areas hosted within the Afric Zone," stated Wayne Reid, President and CEO of GTA Resources and Mining Inc. "We are currently investigating pricing and other logistics for potential infill drilling, base line environmental studies, road upgrades, mining, trucking, and milling with the idea of extracting a mini bulk sample."
Gold mineralization within the Afric Zone is hosted within widespread sections of quartz carbonate, pyrite, tourmaline, sericite, (and localized potassic) altered felsic to intermediate intrusive and porphyritic rocks. These rocks exhibit brittle deformation and fracturing, and host quartz and quartz carbonate veins, veinlets, stringers and fracture infillings. The fracture infillings are mineralized with pyrite, with minor to trace amounts of chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, and molybdenite. Multiple occurrences of visible gold were observed in drill core recovered from many of the holes drilled by GTA.
Robert Duess, P. Geo., VP Exploration for GTA and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for this release, and supervised the preparation of the information forming the basis for this release. Messrs. Giroux, Blanchflower and Dermer have approved the disclosure of the technical information contained in this press release.
ABOUT GTA
GTA is a well-funded publicly traded mineral exploration company. It is led by an experienced and successful management team and is focused on exploring for gold and graphite in Canada. GTA is a tightly held company having 32,106,855 shares outstanding of which insiders control approximately 21%. The Company's shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "GTA." The Company currently has three projects located in northern Ontario: the 51% owned Northshore Project, near Schreiber; the 100% owned Auden Project near Hearst; and, the Ivanhoe Project near Folyet, in which it has an option to acquire a 100% interest. GTA also owns 100% of the Burnt Pond Project in central Newfoundland, proximal to the producing Duck Pond Cu-Zn Mine.
On behalf of the board of directors, GTA Resources and Mining Inc.
Wayne Reid, President and CEO
For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.gtaresources.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including statements regarding the anticipated content, commencement, duration and cost of exploration programs, anticipated exploration program results, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, the timing of the receipt of assay results, and business and financing plans and trends, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions or are those which, by their nature, refer to future events. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include those related to weather, equipment and staff availability; performance of third parties; risks related to the exploration stage of the Company's projects; market fluctuations in prices for securities of exploration stage companies and in commodity prices; and uncertainties about the availability of additional financing; risks related to the Company's ability to identify one or more economic deposits on the properties, and variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located on the properties; risks related to the Company's ability to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for its activities on the properties; and risks related to the Company's ability to produce minerals from the properties successfully or profitably. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. All of the Company's public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the latest technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.
This press release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.
Contact
GTA Resources and Mining Inc.
Wayne Reid
President and CEO
709 699 1733
www.gtaresources.com