VANCOUVER, June 12, 2017 /CNW/ - Trilogy Metals Inc. (TSX, NYSE-MKT: TMQ) ("Trilogy Metals" or "the Company") is pleased to announce the start of the exploration field season for the Bornite project. Trilogy Metals' 80-person camp, located at the Company's Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in northwest Alaska, has opened for the summer field season. The Company has engaged Tuuq Drilling, a NANA company, in partnership with Major Drilling International Inc., to execute the 12,000-meter exploration drilling program at the Bornite project. Tuuq Drilling has been providing core drilling services to the Red Dog Mine in the NANA region. Tuuq Drilling/Major Drilling are utilizing 3 diamond core rigs capable of drilling to depths of 1,400 metres. Major Drilling will also bring their directional drilling capabilities and experience with multiple planned daughter holes drilled from a single parent hole. This is expected to achieve drill as well as cost efficiencies. Major Drilling has been drilling deep directional holes for the last 10 years with an excellent safety record. This is a highly specialized job and the combination of Major's drilling experience and success together with their safety practices earned them "Contractor of the Year" by Rio Tinto at their Resolution project in Arizona. We are very pleased to welcome Tuuq and Major to our team.
Trilogy Metals is executing this US$10 million program at Bornite, which has been funded by South32 Limited per the agreement announced on April 10, 2017 (https://Trilogy PR April 19 2017). This year's exploration at Bornite was approved by a joint Trilogy-South32 Technical Committee and is focused on drilling the extensions of mineralization last drilled by the Company in 2013.
Bornite Exploration Hole RC13-224: 236 Meters of 1.9% Copper
During the 2013 exploration program at the Bornite project, the Company completed 8,142 meters of drilling with 4,684 meters drilled at the Ruby Creek zone (a potential open pit resource) and 3,458 meters drilled at the South Reef zone (a potential underground resource). A series of press releases highlighted results of the drilling at Bornite starting with the Company's press release dated October 7, 2013 (Trilogy PR October 7 2013) where we highlighted drill hole RC13-224 which intersected two mineralized intervals, starting at 513.3 meters and ending at 754.6 meters (241.3 meter interval), for a combined 236.0 meter composite interval with a weighted average grade of 1.90% copper, and comprised of 229.4 meters at a grade of 1.73% copper and 6.6 meters at a grade of 7.70% copper.
Project Drilling History
This year's exploration program at Bornite is one of the larger programs in the history of drilling at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects. The original owner of the claims - Kennecott Copper Company - drilled the property in the 1960s, 70s and a little in the 80s and 90s. Exploration drilling ceased by the mid-80s when land ownership and access were put into question as a result of the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act ("ANILCA"). The land ownership and access issues were resolved by the late 90s and we started work in the region in 2004, and have continued to fund exploration at Arctic and Bornite since then - see Figure 1 below.
Bornite Resource
Based on the Company's three field seasons of exploration drilling and re-assaying of previously drilled core from Kennecott, the Company announced an updated resource estimate for the Bornite project of 5.5 Billion pounds of copper inferred resource and 913 Million pounds of copper indicated resource and filed a National Instrument 43-101 technical report in 2016. See the Company's press releases dated April 19, 2016 (Trilogy PR April 19 2016) and the Company's press release on the filing of the updated NI43-101 Technical Report for Bornite on May 16, 2016 (Trilogy PR May 16 2016).
"This is an exciting year for Trilogy Metals," says Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We have waited three long years to be able to come back and drill at Bornite. With the support of South32, we will be drilling 12,000 meters at Bornite this field season to test the extent of our impressive drill holes from our 2013 drill campaign. The Bornite resource is already 6 billion pounds of copper and the deposit remains open with 100 metre to +200 metre thick zones of 1% to 2% copper mineralization drilled along a 1 Km wide front. We look forward to releasing drill results as they are made available and updating the resource once we have completed the drill program."
Qualified Persons
Andrew W. West, P.Geo., 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 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 VMS deposits that contain copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver, and carbonate replacement deposits which have been found to host high grade copper 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.
