Cascabel Exploration Update - Hole 15R Extends Alpala Deposit

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jun 30, 2016) - Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone" or "the Company") (TSX VENTURE:CGP)(FRANKFURT:GWN)(BERLIN:GWN)(OTCBB:CTNXF) announces the following project update for the Cascabel copper-gold porphyry joint venture exploration project in northern Ecuador, in which the Company has a 15% interest financed through to completion of a feasibility study. SolGold Plc is funding 100% of the exploration at Cascabel and is the operator of the project.

Figures, table and photographs referred to in this news release can be seen in PDF format by accessing the version of this release on the Company's website (www.cornerstoneresources.com) or by clicking on the link below:

http://www.cornerstoneresources.com/i/pdf/NR16-15Figures.pdf.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Drillhole CSD-16-15R2 (Hole 15R2) returns assays over 1338m (true width 803m) grading 0.49% copper and 0.36 g/t gold (for 0.81% copper equivalent or "CuEq") from a depth of 394m at the Alpala Prospect.
  
  
• Higher grade sections within this envelope include:
  • 344m (true width 216m) @ 0.86 % copper and 0.68 g/t gold (for 1.47% CuEq) from 1294m, and
  • 750m (true width 450m) @ 0.67 % copper and 0.50 g/t gold (for 1.12% CuEq) from 890m
    
    
• Alpala remains open in all directions.
  
  
• Hole 15R2 extends Alpala mineralized zone by 100m at depth, and 100m to the north and northeast.
  
  
• Hole 17 results testing shallow south westerly extensions of the deposit are expected within 10 days.
  
  

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Assay results for drill hole 15R2 have now been received. Drill hole intercepts are calculated using a data aggregation method, defined by copper equivalent cut-off grades and reported with up to 10m internal dilution, excluding bridging to a single sample. Copper equivalent grades are calculated using a gold conversion factor of 0.89, determined using copper price of US$2.20/pound and gold price of US$1350/ounce.

All reported intervals referred to in this news release are core lengths, unless otherwise indicated. At present the true thicknesses of all of the holes has not been calculated by SolGold. Low-grade intersections, where applicable, are expressed as average true widths (utilizing the "B-vein > 0.5%" shell orientations). High-grade intersections are better constrained for holes 1, 5, 8 and 9, and these intersections are also expressed as average true widths (utilizing the "B-veins > 20%" shell orientations).

The Cascabel Project is located in Northern Ecuador, within the northern portion of the Andean copper belt (Figure 1, Location).

The Alpala deposit has now been intersected in 17 of 18 drill holes for a total of 23,000m of drilling. The deposit lies over a 700m strike extent, oriented north westerly and up to 400 metres wide with a drill intersected vertical extent of 1800m. Drill hole 15R2 was located approximately 100m north of hole 7 (refer Figure 2, Drill Hole Location Plan and Figure 3, 3D model of the Alpala Deposit).

Within the mineralized zone intersected in Hole 15R2, a number of higher grade zones were encountered as set forth in Table 1 below:

Table 1: Mineralized intersections in Hole 15R2 at the Alpala deposit.

Hole 15R2 targeted extensions of the Alpala deposit to the north, northeast, and at depth, some 100m north of the deeper high-grade zone intersected in Hole 9, which returned 1050.8m (true width 631m) @ 0.68 % Cu and 0.92 g/t Au (1.21% CuEq) (from 650m depth), including 420m (true width 252m) @ 1.00 % copper and 1.34 g/t gold (1.81% CuEq) (see Cornerstone news release NR 15-02 dated January 12, 2015). Hole 15R2 extended the depth of the deposit by 100m, and by 100 metres to the north and to the northeast.

Examples of mineralized drill core encountered in Hole 15R2 are illustrated in Figure 4.

Hole 17 Update

Hole 17 (CSD-16-017) targeted shallow extensions of the Alpala deposit to the west, along the interpreted continuation of strong copper and gold mineralization intersected in Holes 1, 5 and 12, which returned intersections including:

Hole 17 intersected intrusion hosted porphyry style copper sulphide mineralization from a depth of 332m for 938m to a depth of 1270m. Within this zone, Hole 17 intersected approximately 384m of more intense mineralization from 796m. Drill Hole 17 also intersected 198m of bornite-chalcopyrite copper sulphide mineralization from 796m to 994m. Bornite and chalcopyrite are important copper ore minerals containing around 63% and 35% copper, respectively.

The intersection in hole 17 extends the mineralized envelopes of SolGold's 3D models to the southwest by 150 metres and upwards (shallower) by approximately 300 metres. This is expected to enhance the resource potential at high cut-off grades in the vicinity of Hole 17.

Alpala is characterised by a series of telescoped mineralized diorite and quartz diorite intrusions hosting quartz, magnetite and chalcopyrite veins with disseminated chalcopyrite and bornite within the groundmass of the porphyry system.

About Cascabel:

SolGold Plc owns 85% of the equity of Exploraciones Novomining S.A. ("ENSA"), an Ecuadorean company that holds 100% of the Cascabel concession in northern Ecuador. Cornerstone owns the remaining 15% of ENSA, which also holds the rights to the La Encrucijada gold-silver project. SolGold is funding 100% of the exploration at Cascabel and is the operator of the project. Cornerstone's 15% interest is financed through completion of a feasibility study.

Cascabel is located in northwestern Ecuador in an under-explored northern section of the Andean Copper Belt, 60 km northeast of the undeveloped inferred resource of 982 million tons at 0.89% Cu Llurimaga (formerly Junin) copper project (0.4% Cu cut-off grade; Micon International Co. Ltd. Technical Report for Ascendant Exploration SA, August 20, 2004, pages 28 & 29). Mineralization identified at the Llurimaga copper project is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on the Cascabel Property.

Qualified Person:

Yvan Crepeau, MBA, P.Geo., Cornerstone's Vice President, Exploration and a qualified person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the exploration program at the Cascabel project for Cornerstone and has reviewed and approved the information contained in this news release.

Logging, sampling and assaying

Holes referred to in this release were or are being drilled using HTW, NTW, NQ and BQ core sizes (respectively 7.1, 5.6, 4.8 and 3.7 cm diameter). Geotechnical measurements such as core recovery, fracturing, rock quality designations (RQD's), specific density and photographic logging are performed systematically prior to assaying. The core is logged, magnetic susceptibility measured and key alteration minerals identified using an on-site portable spectrometer. Core is then sawed in half at the ENSA core logging facility, and half of the core is delivered by ENSA employees for preparation at LAC y Asociados ISO 9001-2008 certified sample preparation facility in Cuenca. Core samples are prepared crushing to 70% passing 2 mm (10 mesh), splitting 250 g and pulverizing to 85% passing 75 microns (200 mesh) (MSA code PRP-910). Prepared samples are then shipped to MS Analytical Services (MSA), an ISO 9001-2008 laboratory in Langley, BC, Canada where samples are assayed for a multi-element suite (MSA code IMS-230, 0.2g split, 4-acid digestion, ICP-AES/MS finish). Over limit results for Cu (>1%) are systematically re-assayed (MSA code ICF-6Cu, 0.2 g, 4-acid digestion, ICP-AES finish). Gold is assayed using a 30 g split, Fire Assay (FA) and AAS finish (MSA code FAS 111). Over limit results for Au (>10 g/t) are systematically re-assayed (MSA code FAS-415, FA, 30g., gravimetric finish).

Quality assurance / Quality control (QA/QC)

The MSA Analytical Laboratory is a qualified assayer that performs and makes available internal assaying controls. Duplicates, certified blanks and standards are systematically used (1 control sample every 15-20 samples) as part of Cornerstone's QA/QC program. Rejects, a 100 g pulp for each core sample and the remaining half-core are stored for future use and controls.

Plans:

SolGold has announced it is planning a resource statement at Alpala, the most advanced target at Cascabel, during 2016, in addition to drill testing the other key targets at Aguinaga, Trivino, Alpala NW, Hematite Hill, Alpala SE, Cristal, Tandayama America, Moran, and Chinambicito within the Cascabel concession. By the end of 2016 SolGold has reported it is planning further metallurgical testing, and completion of early stage mine and plant design and a scoping study (which may or may not be the approximate equivalent of a preliminary economic assessment as defined under National Instrument 43-101) for an economic development at Cascabel. SolGold has reported it is investigating both high tonnage / low grade open cut and high grade / low tonnage underground developments as a block caving operation.

About Cornerstone:

Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a well funded mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ecuador and Chile, and a proven ability to identify, acquire and advance properties of merit. The company's business model is based on generating exploration projects whose subsequent development is funded primarily through partnerships.

Further information is available on Cornerstone's website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter.

Cautionary Notice:

This news release may contain 'Forward-Looking Statements' that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstone's plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words "potential," "anticipate," "forecast," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "may," "project," "plan," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify 'Forward-Looking Statements.' Although Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these 'Forward-Looking Statements' are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic, natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views subsequent to the date of this news release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where outcomes have varied materially from the original statements.

On Behalf of the Board,

Brooke Macdonald, President and CEO

Neither 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 release.

Contact

For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact:
Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc.
Investor Relations
(613) 421-6923
ir@cornerstoneresources.ca