Trilogy Metals Inc. (TSX/NYSE American: TMQ) is pleased to announce the second set of copper and cobalt assay results from the 2018 summer exploration diamond drilling program at the Bornite Project, a part of the Company’s Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects located in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska.  Assay results from these three holes comprise approximately 2,888 meters from the 10,123-meter drill campaign.  Two of the three drill holes contain significant copper mineralization and were designed as infill and extension holes to the 300 to 400 meter step-out holes drilled by the Company’s previous round of drilling completed in 2017.

At a cutoff grade of 0.5% copper the results are as follows:

• RC18-0248 intersected five mineralized intervals of:
  • 1.0 meter averaging 14.38% copper;
  • 21.3 meters averaging 1.73% copper;
  • 21.0 meters averaging 0.93% copper;
  • 15.1 meters averaging 1.32% copper; and
  • 4.9 meters averaging 2.97% copper.
• RC18-0249 intersected one mineralized interval of:
  • 38.3 meters averaging 1.12% copper.
• RC18-0250 did not contain any significant mineralization.

On August 23, 2018, the Company announced initial assay results from the first drill hole, RC18-0247, from the Bornite Project. Subsequently, on October 9, 2018, the Company announced additional assay results for four drill holes (RC18-0243, RC18-0244, RC18-0246 and RC18-0247).

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, President and CEO of Trilogy Metals commented, “Out of the two dozen holes that reached target depth that we drilled during the 2017 and 2018 programs, only one – hole RC18-0250, didn’t hit significant mineralization.  All the other holes intersected good grades over potentially mineable widths.  In addition, we continue to see a significant cobalt component to the mineralization. We are still exploring for the edges of this Mount Isa/Central African Copper belt look-alike system.”

“Furthermore, I would also like to congratulate Governor-elect Michael Dunleavy. The Governor-elect held his first press conference at the Alaska Miners Annual Convention where he emphasized that ‘Alaska was open for business’ and that he ‘Wants to see more mines in Alaska’.  We look forward to working with Governor-elect Dunleavy, and his administration, to permit and finance the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Road and to advance the Arctic and Bornite Projects towards production.”

This year’s program was comprised of 12 drill holes totaling approximately 10,123 meters through a combination of infill and expansion drill holes in and around the known deposit. The original drilling campaign was budgeted to be 8,000 meters but was subsequently expanded to 10,000 meters with the addition of two more drill rigs. The 2018 program followed up on drilling completed during the 2017 exploration program, which was one of the larger programs in the history of drilling at the Bornite Project. During 2017, the Company drilled nine diamond drill holes comprising 8,437 meters to test the extension of the of the currently defined resource^†.

Additional drill results are anticipated to be released within the next few weeks as they become available. The objective of the 2018 drill campaign is to infill and expand the currently defined open pit and underground mineral resources. 

Results are presented in Table 1 at a cutoff grade of 0.5% copper to be comparable with previous drill results released by the Company.  All the intersected widths are normal to stratigraphy and therefore can be considered to be true widths. Results at a more selective higher-grade cutoff of 1.5% copper are also presented in Table 2 to show locally higher-grade intervals.  Table 3 shows drill hole locations.  Figure 1 shows the location of the drill holes on a plan map and Figure 2 shows a cross-section through drill hole RC18-0248 and Figure 3 shows a cross-section through drill holes RC18-0249.

Table 1 – 0.5% Cu cut-off with maximum 3 m internal waste 

Table 2 – 1.5% Cu cut-off with maximum 3 m internal waste

Table 3 – Bornite Drill Hole Locations

Mineralization within the Bornite deposit occurs as a series of “Reefs” hosted by both the Upper and Lower Bornite Carbonate sequences separated by generally unmineralized phyllite units. The Cu-Co mineralization at Bornite occurs in three distinct carbonate zones, the Upper Reef, the Lower Reef, and the South Reef.  All three zones were drill tested this year. 

Mineralization is typically observed as breccia matrix replacement and is generally dominated by chalcopyrite and sometimes by bornite with chalcocite – particularly in the higher-grade zones.  Mineralization can also be observed as vein and replacement zones containing chalcopyrite and calcite/dolomite gangue.  These styles of mineralization were observed in all holes mentioned in this press release with chalcopyrite, bornite, and chalcocite mineralization observed in RC18-0248 and RC18-0249. Drill hole RC18-0250 contained very minor chalcopyrite mineralization.  Of particular interest, are two narrow but high grade intervals in RC18-0248 (0.69m grading 21.08% Cu and 0.04% Co) and RC18-0249 (0.13m grading 31.6%Cu, and 0.01% Co).  These narrow high grade intervals are not vein style mineralization but represent replacement style mineralization along bedding.  

Bornite Resource

The resource estimate utilized assay data from drill holes completed by the Company between 2011 and 2013 and re-sampled historic holes Kennecott drilled in the 1960s and 1970s. Assays from historic Kennecott holes that were not re-sampled were also used in the resource estimation. On June 5^th, 2018 the Company announced an updated resource estimate for the Bornite project of 5.5 billion pounds of copper inferred resource at a grade of 1.74% Cu and 913 million pounds of copper indicated resource at a grade of 1.02% Cu and total inferred cobalt resources (in-pit and below-pit) of 182.4 million tonnes grading 0.019% Co for 77 million pounds of contained cobalt. Trilogy Metals filed a National Instrument 43-101 technical report in July 2018.  See the Bornite Technical Report as well as the Company’s press releases dated June 5, 2018 (https://Trilogy PR June 5 2018) and the Company’s press release on the filing of the updated NI43-101 Technical Report for Bornite on July 20, 2018 (https://Trilogy PR July 20 2018).

QA/QC Program

The drill program, sampling protocol and data verification were managed by qualified persons employed by the Company. Diamond drill holes were typically collared at PQ or HQ diameter drill core and reduced to HQ and NQ diameter during the drilling process. Samples were collected using a 0.2-meter minimum length, 2.5-meter maximum length and 1.9-meter average sample length. Drill core recovery averaged 93% overall and 95% within the prospective lithologies. Three quality control samples (one blank, one standard and one duplicate) were inserted into each batch of 20 samples. The drill core was sawn, with half sent to ALS Minerals in Fairbanks for sample preparation and the sample pulps forwarded to ALS’s North Vancouver facility for analysis. ALS Minerals in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada, is a facility certified as ISO 9001:2008 and accredited to ISO / IEC 17025:2005 from the Standards Council of Canada. The Company will submit 5% of the assay intervals from prospective lithologies to an independent check assay lab.

Qualified Persons

Andrew W. West, Certified Professional Geologist, Exploration Manager for Trilogy Metals Inc., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. West has reviewed the technical information in this news release and approves the disclosure contained herein.

About Trilogy Metals

Trilogy Metals Inc. is a metals exploration and development company focused on exploring and developing the Ambler mining district located in northwestern Alaska. It is one of the richest and most-prospective known copper-dominant districts located in one of the safest geopolitical jurisdictions in the world. It hosts world-class polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits that contain copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver, and carbonate replacement deposits which have been found to host high-grade copper and cobalt mineralization. Exploration efforts have been focused on two deposits in the Ambler mining district – the Arctic VMS deposit and the Bornite carbonate replacement deposit. Both deposits are located within the Company’s land package that spans approximately 143,000 hectares. The Company has an agreement with NANA Regional Corporation, Inc., a Regional Alaska Native Corporation that provides a framework for the exploration and potential development of the Ambler mining district in cooperation with local communities. Our vision is to develop the Ambler mining district into a premier North American copper producer.