GTA Commences Drilling on Its Burnt Pond Zinc-Silver Project in Central Newfoundland
Burlington, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 16, 2017) - GTA Resources and Mining Inc. (TSXV: GTA) ("GTA" or the "Company") is pleased to report the start of its first diamond drill program at its 100% owned Burnt Pond Zinc-Silver (Zn-Ag) project located along strike from Teck Resources Ltd.'s ("Teck") past-producing Duck Pond copper-zinc (Cu-Zn) mine in central Newfoundland. GTA recently completed ground geophysics, geochemistry and compilation on the 114 claim project resulting in the delineation of a number of Zn-Ag targets, two of which will be drilled starting this week.
This first program will consist of roughly 800 metres (m) of drilling, testing two Zn, Ag, Cu and Pb (lead) targets. The first target area, the South Moose B, is a recent discovery of strongly altered fragmented felsic rocks with anomalous Zn, which is contiguous with an untested conductive zone. GTA recently completed a geophysical survey and defined two parallel conductors that are the primary targets. A second target area, the Burnt Pond Prospect, is a previously discovered polymetallic VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphide) horizon with historic, third party drill intersections including 25.8% Zn, 24.0% Pb, 0.8% Cu, 791.1 g/t Ag and 1.6 g/t gold (Au) over 0.37 m within a wider 12 m zone of semi-massive sulphides. The Burnt Pond Horizon can be traced with geophysics and the most northeasterly historic hole intersected the Horizon as a 50 m wide zone of strongly altered fragmented felsic rocks with anomalous Zn, including 0.88% Zn over 15.2 m. Initial drilling on the second target area will include 200 m step-outs along strike to the northeast where there has been no previous testing.
Burnt Pond is contiguous with Teck's Duck Pond Mine, which produced approximately 6 million tonnes grading approximately 3% Cu, 6% Zn, 60.0 g/t Ag and 0.09 g/t Au from two deposits. While the operation closed in 2014, Teck's infrastructure including its mill remains on site. These deposits are categorized as VMS deposits, which generally occur as clusters along linear volcanic belts. There are a number of other VMS deposits in the general area, including the world-class Buchans Mines. The GTA claims are within 5 km of the northeast corner of the mined area at Duck Pond and are underlain by the same geological package of altered felsic volcanic rocks that are common to Duck Pond.
QA/QC - Wayne Reid, P. Geo., VP Exploration for GTA and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for this release. He has extensive experience in the exploration for base metals in the Central Newfoundland Mineral Belt and was part of the original team that explored the Duck Pond Belt.
GTA would also like to report that its updated website will be live this week.
ABOUT GTA RESOURCES - 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 zinc in Canada. GTA is a tightly held company having 41,026,855 shares outstanding with its JV partner, Balmoral Resources holding a 6.3% interest. The Company's shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "GTA." The Company currently has two projects located in northern Ontario: the more than 51% owned Northshore Project, near Schreiber and the 100% owned Auden Project near Hearst. GTA also owns a 100% interest in the Burnt Pond Project in central Newfoundland, along strike from Teck Resources Ltd.'s past-producing Duck Pond Cu-Zn Mine.
On behalf of the board of directors,
GTA Resources and Mining Inc.
"James Macintosh"
President and CEO
416-862-7003
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.
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