VANCOUVER, Sept. 25, 2017 /CNW/ - (TSX-V: BCK) – Blind Creek Resources Ltd. ("Blind Creek" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the field component of the recently announced Blende Property exploration program (see Blind Creek News Release dated August 17, 2017), has been completed. A geological team from Moose Mountain Technical Services successfully collected a total of 51 samples for Specific Gravity (SG) determinations and 175 kilograms of metallurgical samples from select and representative diamond drill core stored on the property. Moose Mountain will conduct SG determinations for mineral resource estimation purposes and the metallurgical samples have been submitted to Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd. (BV Minerals – Metallurgical Division) in Richmond, B.C. for assay analysis, metallurgical processing and studies.
Blende Metallurgical Program and Processing Upsides
The historical Blende metallurgical process work by Billiton (1991) was focussed on the sulphide portion of the historic resource for lead and zinc recovery. There is also a considerable oxide portion at Blende that can possibly be brought into the resource categories with further exploration and metallurgical investigation. There has been a considerable amount of recent relevant technical advances in mineral processing of oxide lead and zinc minerals, as well as for concentrate treatment by various leaching or pyrometallurgical (smelting) procedures. If justified, the oxide portion of the resource may allow for lower cost mining techniques (i.e. open pit).
Blind Creek has commissioned Mr. Frank Wright, P.Eng., of F. Wright Consulting Inc. to conduct a preliminary scoping evaluation on the recently collected metallurgical samples, focussing on basic pre-concentration and flotation studies for all mineralization types modeled at Blende. The four month, staged metallurgical program will entail characterization and optimization studies for comminution, dense media separation (DMS), flotation, liquid /solid (L/S) separation and concentrate characterization. Results from this study will provide an additional basis for the Blende resource estimate and concentrate sample for further pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical recovery studies.
Geological aspects of the Blende exploration program are being supervised by Mr. R.J. (Bob) Morris, M.Sc., P.Geo., Principal Geologist of Moose Mountain Technical Services and a Qualified Person (Q.P.) as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Metallurgical studies are being supervised by Mr. Frank Wright, P.Eng., of F.Wright Consulting Inc. and a Qualified Person (Q.P.) as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Technical aspects of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Mr. Morris and Mr. Wright.
About the Blende Zinc-Lead-Silver Deposit
The Blende deposit is one of the largest undeveloped strata-bound carbonate-hosted Zinc-Lead-Silver deposits in Western Canada, with zinc mineralization traced over an 8km strike length and a vertical range exceeding 700 metres. The deposit remains open along strike and at depth. In excess of $9.2 million in past exploration expenditures has provided for >24,300 metres of diamond drilling in 125 holes on the Blende property to date.
In 1991 Billiton Resources Canada Inc. calculated an historic open pit resource of 19.6 million tonnes averaging 3.04% Zn, 2.80% Pb and 56 g/t Ag* (shallow, sulphide-only) at Blende, representing 1.3 billion pounds of Zn, 1.2 billion pounds of Pb and 35.3 million ounces of Ag. Blind Creek is focused on conducting the work necessary to translate this historic resource into a NI 43-101 compliant underground and open pit resource estimate and technical report, to be completed by year end.
*The above mentioned estimates do not conform with National Instrument 43-101. Neither Blind Creek nor its consultants have completed sufficient work to verify the Historical estimates and these should not be relied upon for investment decisions. The estimates are referred to as Historical Resources.
A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves, the Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the historical estimate should not be relied upon.
About Blind Creek Resources Ltd.
Blind Creek is a Vancouver-based junior resource company focused on lead-zinc-silver and gold-silver project acquisition, exploration and development in Yukon (Blende Property), Northwest Territories (AB Property) and British Columbia (Engineer Gold Mine). The Company's flagship property is the Blende Property in north-central Yukon, one of the largest undeveloped zinc-lead-silver deposits in Western Canada. More recently the company has signed an agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the AB Property (MV-Type Zinc-Lead) in the Northwest Territories and purchased the historic and fully-permitted Engineer Gold Mine, situated 32 km southwest of Atlin, B.C.
