Moneta Porcupine Mines Inc. (TSX:ME) (OTC:MPUCF) (XETRA:MOP) is pleased to announce the results from one hole drilled to test for gold mineralization on the new South BIF Target. The drill hole was drilled as part of the expanded 2019/2020 winter drill program recently completed on the Company’s Golden Highway Project, 110 km east of Timmins, Ontario (Figure 1).

Highlights:

Drilling has discovered gold mineralization on the southern margins of the regional Timiskaming sedimentary basin:

• MGH20-148: Intersected 3.50 metres “m” @ 8.09 grams per tonne “g/t” including 0.55 m @ 30.40 g/t Au
• MGH20-148: Intersected 2.15 m @ 2.66 g/t Au including 0.45 m @ 4.72 g/t Au in a second vein
• Drilling intersected a new gold discovery over 1.0 kilometre “Km” west of the current South West gold resource estimate and 500 m south of the new Westaway discovery

“We are excited to have discovered a new zone of gold mineralization at the South BIF target with our latest drilling,” commented CEO, Gary O’Connor. “We intersected mineralized gold veins along the southern margins of the basin adjacent to the recently recognized favourable BIF A host contact. These veins are possibly extensions of the Westaway gold veins which were recently discovered to the north. This represents a new regional trend of prospective ground at the Golden Highway Project where no systematic exploration has been conducted previously. We look forward to exploring the trend further.”    

The latest assay results are from one drill hole, MGH20-148, completed during the 2019/2020 winter drill program at the new South BIF target, located west of the South West Deposit (Table 2). The hole, totaling 609.00 m was drilled to test a potential new trend adjacent to the newly recognized favourable banded iron formation “BIF” A unit.   

South BIF Drill Results

Drill Hole MGH20-148 was drilled 500 m south of the new Westaway discovery and over 1 km to the west of the South West deposit. (See press release PR-03-2020 dated 16 January 2020: Drilling intersected up 7.95 m @ 3.48 g/t Au including 0.95 m @ 13.80 g/t Au from WA-9 and 0.70 m @ 13.50 g/t Au at Westaway). The drill hole was targeted to test a section of the favourable coarse grain sandstone host adjacent to the newly recognized occurrence of the regional BIF A unit in historical hole M87-66 on the southern margins of the Timiskaming age sedimentary basin. The drill hole intersected seven (7) new vein structures. Drilling intercepted up to 3.50 m @ 8.09 g/t Au including 3.00 m @ 9.22 g/t Au, including 0.55 m @ 30.40 g/t Au from one vein and 2.15 m @ 2.66 g/t Au including 0.45 m @ 4.72 g/t Au from a second vein. It is possible that the veins represent extensions of the Westaway gold mineralized veins. Further drilling will be required to confirm the extensions of veins.

South BIF Target

The South BIF target is located on the contact of the prospective BIF A unit with the overlying coarse sandstone sediments recently recognized near the southern margins of the regional Timiskaming sedimentary basin. The majority of Moneta’s current mineral resources are hosted within this basin. It is thought that the repeat of the BIF A unit is due to a regional synclinal structure. The geological setting is similar to the South West deposit located over 1.0 km to the east (Figure 1) and are seen to occur as a series of mineralized vein structures. The gold mineralized quartz-pyrite veins at South BIF appear to occur as extensional vein structures associated with ankerite-sericite-silica-pyrite alteration haloes. The zones occur as steeply west dipping WNW-ESE oriented mineralized structures as per the main mineralization at South West and Westaway. The mineralized veins could potentially be the extensions of the new Westaway discovery located 500 m to the north. The BIF A unit was not intersected in the hole suggesting it is south dipping. Additional drilling is required to confirm this. The southern basin margin has not been systematically explored historically and represents a major new regional prospective trend.

Table 1: South BIF: Selected Significant Drill Results

Click here for Figure 1: South BIF Location Map- Golden Highway Project

Click here for Figure 2: South BIF Target: Drill Hole Location  

Table 2: Drill Hole Details

QA/QC Procedures

All core drilling conducted by Moneta is oriented. Drill core is cut with half sent to AGAT Laboratories Inc. for drying and crushing to -2 mm, with a 1.00 kg split pulverized to -75 µm (200#). AGAT is an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory. A 50 g charge is Fire Assayed and analyzed using an AAS finish for Gold. Samples above 10.00 g/t Au are analyzed by Fire Assay with a gravimetric finish and selected samples with visible gold or high-grade mineralization are assayed by Metallic Screen Fire Assay on a 1.00 kg sample. Moneta inserts independent certified reference material and blanks with the samples and assays routine pulp repeats and coarse reject sample duplicates, as well as completing routine third-party check assays at Activation Laboratories Ltd. Kevin Montgomery, P.Geo. is a qualified person under NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the contents of this press release.

About Moneta

The Company holds a 100% interest in 6 core gold projects strategically located along the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone in the Timmins Gold Camp with over 85 million ounces of past gold production. The projects consist of the Golden Highway, North Tisdale, Nighthawk Lake, DeSantis East, Kayorum and Denton projects. The Golden Highway Project covers 12 kilometres of prospective ground along the DPFZ of which 4 km hosts the current 43-101 mineral resource estimate comprised of an indicated resource of 556,500 ounces gold contained within 3.82 Mt @ 4.53 g/t Au and a total of 1,174,000 ounces gold contained within 8.47 Mt @ 4.31 g/t Au in the inferred category at a 3.00 g/t Au cut-off. A preliminary economic assessment on the South West deposit located within the Golden Highway Project commenced in Q1, 2020. The results of the PEA are due to be delivered later in 2020. The study will review several development scenarios for the South West deposit which was the subject of a resource update in November 2019.