VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 27, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NetworkWire: QMC Quantum Minerals Corp. (TSX.V: QMC) (FSE: 3LQ) (OTC PINK: QMCQF) (“QMC” or "the Company") is pleased to announce that with diamond drill and support crew on-site, the first phase of holes has been completed at the Company’s 100%-owned Irgon Lithium Mine Project located within the prolific Cat Lake-Winnipeg River rare-element pegmatite field of S.E. Manitoba, which also hosts Cabot Corporation’s nearby Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada (“TANCO”) rare-element pegmatite.
Visual spodumene was reported by QMC on-site personnel and the core has been moved to a secure, off-site location for logging, cutting and sampling.
QMC is currently in the process of completing Phase One of a two-phase drill program designed to confirm and subsequently expand the historic resource published for the Irgon Property (1.2 million tons grading 1.51% Li2O as previously calculated for Lithium Corporation of Canada (“LCOC”)). Phase One of the QMC program consists of 1500m of NQ drilling in 12 holes. The first eight holes will confirm grades and widths documented by the historic 1953/54 drill results. These data, obtained in the 1950s, were derived from sampling of pegmatite intersections in the core from 25 historic drill holes and from underground channel samples that were taken across the dike from within the currently inaccessible, water-filled workings. The remaining four proposed holes will chase the Irgon Dike westward from the area hosting the original resource to test the spodumene-bearing pegmatites identified as the Western Extension of the Irgon Dike, thus confirming the westward continuity of the Irgon Dike.
With the results of the Phase One drilling in hand, QMC has instructed its consultant, SGS Canada, to produce an updated NI 43-101 compliant inferred resource for the central, previously developed, section of the Irgon Dike. In addition, both QMC and SGS expect the drill testing the newly identified, westward extension of the Irgon Dike to add additional inferred tonnage to the historic resource published by LCOC for the property.
As with the previous Irgon channel sampling program, QMC will request analysis for 56 elements using a sodium peroxide fusion followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES / ICP-MS).
The Phase Two program, designed to test additional targets on the property, will follow.
HISTORICAL RESOURCE
Between 1953-1954, the Lithium Corporation of Canada Limited drilled 25 holes into the Irgon Dike and subsequently reported a historical resource estimate of 1.2 million tons grading 1.51% Li20 over a strike length of 365 meters and to a depth of 213 meters (Northern Miner, Vol. 41, no.19, Aug. 4, 1955, p.3). This historical resource is documented in a 1956 Assessment Report by B. B. Bannatyne for the Lithium Corporation of Canada Ltd. (Manitoba Assessment Report No. 94932). This historical estimate is believed to be based on reasonable assumptions, and neither the company nor the QP has any reason to contest the document’s relevance and reliability. The detailed channel sampling and a subsequent drill program will be required to update this historical resource to current NI 43-101 standards. Historic metallurgical tests reported an 87% recovery from which a concentrate averaging 5.9% Li2O was obtained.
During this historical 1950s-era work program, a complete mining plant was installed on-site, designed to process 500 tons of ore per day, and a three-compartment shaft was sunk to a depth of 74 meters. On the 61-metre level, lateral development was extended off the shaft for a total of 366 meters of drifting, from which seven crosscuts transected the dike. The work was suspended in 1957 awaiting a more favourable market for lithium oxides. During this time, the mine buildings were removed.
The mineral reserve cited above is presented as a historical estimate and uses historical terminology which does not conform to current NI 43-101 standards. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Although the historical estimates are believed to be based on reasonable assumptions, they were calculated prior to the implementation of National Instrument 43-101. These historical estimates do not meet current standards as defined under sections 1.2 and 1.3 of NI 43-101; consequently, the issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves.
Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Bruce E. Goad, P. Geo., who is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
About the Company
QMC is a British Columbia-based company engaged in the business of acquisition, exploration and development of resource properties. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious, base, rare metal and resource properties of merit. The Company’s properties include the Irgon Lithium Mine project and two VMS properties, the Rocky Lake and Rocky-Namew, known collectively as the Namew Lake District Project. Currently, all of the company’s properties are located in Manitoba. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.QMCMinerals.com
On behalf of the Board of Directors of
QMC QUANTUM MINERALS CORP.
“Balraj Mann”
Balraj Mann
President and Chief Executive Officer
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
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