VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - April 18, 2017) - Precipitate Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Precipitate") (TSX VENTURE:PRG) is pleased to announce the Company has reached an option agreement whereby Precipitate can acquire a 100% interest in the Island Zinc zinc-lead-silver project located near Port Hardy, north Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Island Zinc Project Highlights:
The Island Zinc project is a high grade zinc-lead-silver carbonate replacement target hosting historical workings (including a collapsed inclined adit and two shallow shafts) centered on surface exposures of large and lengthy bands of sphalerite-galena mineralization. Work by previous operators includes sampling, mapping, trenching, surface blasting, geophysics, shallow depth diamond drilling and small scale sub-surface mining. Select highlight results reported by prior operators and recent Precipitate rock samples include:
- Select rock grab samples assay up to 12.3% zinc, 9.4% lead and 932 g/t silver (Precipitate 2017)*
- Rock chip channel sample: 2.1 metres @ 3.9% zinc, 2.5% lead and 744 g/t silver (1989)
- Drill hole NL66-19: 8.8 metres @ 5.6% zinc, 2.8% lead and 178 g/t silver from 13.4m depth
- Drill hole NL66-20: 5.5 metres @ 7.3% zinc, 6.9% lead and 370 g/t silver from 17.4m depth*
The Project is located in northern Vancouver Island British Columbia, approximately 20 kilometres west of the Pacific Ocean port community of Port Hardy. Access to the property is via a high quality, all season gravel road and a number of subsidiary access roads which have facilitated of a few generations of logging. The reclaimed Island Copper Porphyry deposit mine site is 25 kilometres to the southeast.
Jeffrey Wilson, Company President & CEO states, "As we ramp up activities at our flagship asset in the Dominican Republic, we're pleased with the opportunity to complement our project portfolio with a new acquisition. The right to acquire 100% of the Island Zinc property expands our project portfolio with a prospective new high grade base metal project in another jurisdiction with year-round exploration access, simple and inexpensive logistics and favourable mining and taxation policies. This, combined with the agreement's manageable acquisition terms, allows Precipitate the opportunity to efficiently advance the Island Zinc project to a drill decision stage. Management believes this acquisition represents another example of our commitment to grow the Company through project opportunities that can add and maximize shareholder value."
Historical project records note widespread replacement style mineralization showings within the host exploration target limestone over a strike distance of 800 metres ("m"), representing only a portion of the estimated 3,000m of mapped host limestone bisecting the property. Most prior work focused on the impressive surface showings of massive (up to 2 metres wide) banded sphalerite and galena at the Main historical showing. However there is unexplored potential, particularly along strike (east to west) and down dip (to the south) where prospective mineralization may be masked by either glacial till or relatively thin layers of overlying volcanic rocks. These peripheral areas have never been explored by modern methods. See the accompanying two map figures or the Company's website for the additional information.
Precipitate's initial priority is to complete a detailed geophysical gravity survey over mjuuch of the property to identify any potential large and dense sphalerite-galena mineral bodies within the host limestone rocks near, distal, or down dip from known mineral surface occurrences. Selective ground geophysical magnetic surveying will follow the gravity work as a means to identify drill worthy targets with combined non-magnetic and gravity positive signature. Results of this work will be reported on as it is completed and interpreted.
Option Agreement Terms:
Precipitate has an option to earn a 100% interest in the Property, comprising seven mineral tenures (675 hectares), by completing staged payments of cash and shares totalling $95,000, 250,000 Precipitate common shares and incurring an aggregate of $275,000 of work expenditures on the Property over a four year term, as follows:
| Cash payment | Shares issued | Work Commitment | ||
| On signing agreement | $10,000 | Nil | Nil | paid |
| At or before first signing anniversary | $15,000 | 25,000 | $50,000 | |
| At or before second anniversary | $20,000 | 50,000 | $50,000 | |
| At or before third anniversary | $25,000 | 75,000 | $50,000 | |
| At or before fourth anniversary | $25,000 | 100,000 | $50,000 |
A 2% Net Smelter Return royalty ('NSR') is payable to the vendor. Precipitate may purchase one-half of the NSR Royalty at any time for a purchase price of $500,000, and may purchase the remaining one-half (1 %) for $1,000,000.
Island Zinc Exploration History:
Island Zinc was first explored in the 1930's by American Smelting and Refining whose work included various surface explorations, two short 10 metre deep inclined shafts and a 34m long adit ("Lee adit" or "Main Showing area"). These workings are now collapsed and inaccessible. From 1965 to 1974, Giant Explorations completed detailed work including blast trenching, hand stripping/pitting, road building, geological mapping, magnetic-VLF geophysical surveying and 38 shallow diamond drill holes ('X-ray' core) totalling 1,442 metres; dominantly focused on the Pit, Hilltop, Main and Pond zinc showing portion of the property. Reported highlights of the Giant Explorations diamond drill program include holes NL66-19: 8.8 metres @ 5.6% zinc, 2.8% lead and 178 g/t silver (from 13.4m depth) and hole NL66-20: 5.5 metres @ 7.3% zinc, 6.9% lead and 370 g/t silver (from 17.4m depth). From late 1970's to late 1980's various small exploration companies completed limited and brief exploration work, including grid line cutting, geological mapping, and repeated sampling of the property's more notable zinc showings. In 1988 Hisway Mining, collected rock chip-channel samples at the Pit and Pond showings, located about 600m west and 200m east respectively to the Main showing. Sampling at Pit reported 2.1 metres @ 3.9% zinc, 2.5% lead and 744 g/t silver, while Pond yielded 1.5m @ 9.2% zinc, 4.0% lead and 267 g/t silver. In 1988, Hisway drilled two short inclined diamond drill holes at the Pit showing (combined total 89m); from which the company collected no samples. In early 2017 Precipitate, as part of its' due diligence work, collected rock grab samples from the Main, Pond and Pit historical showings to verify historical data. Laboratory results from these rock samples show zinc values up to 20.6%, lead values up to 9.4% and silver values up to 932 ppm.
* Note: Certain information and data in this news release concerning the Island Zinc property and past work done thereon and results therefrom is historical, being derived from publically available sources including assessment reports and British Columbia Minister of Mines Annual Reports. The reliability of some historical data is unknown but is considered relevant by Company management. The historical data may be non-NI 43-101 compliant and should not be relied upon. It is the Company's intention to verify the historical data, however confirmation work may produce results that differ substantially from the historic results. There is a risk that current exploration and test work will not result in the Company replicating historical results. Rock grab samples are selective by nature and are unlikely to represent average grades on the property.
This news release has been reviewed by Michael Moore P. Geo., Vice President, Exploration of Precipitate Gold Corporation, the Qualified Person for the technical information in this news release under NI 43-101 standards.
Rock and soil samples were bagged, sealed and delivered directly to Bureau Veritas ("BV") preparation facility in Vancouver BC (an ISO 9001 accredited facility) where they were dried, crushed (or sieved in the case of soils) and pulped. Samples were crushed (or sieved) to with up to 80% passing 2mm and split using a riffle splitter (code PRP70-250). An approximate 250 gram sub-sample split was pulverized to minus 200 mesh (74μ). A 15 gram sub-split from the resulting pulp was then subjected to aqua regia digestion and multi-element ICP-MS analysis (code AQ201). Rock sample results with over limit zinc, lead and silver were subjected to "ore & high grade' AA and ICP analysis (0.5 g pulp; codes MA370 and MA404).
About Precipitate Gold:
Precipitate Gold Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on exploring and advancing its mineral property interests in the Tireo Gold Trend of the Dominican Republic. The Company also maintains assets in northern British Columbia and southeast Yukon Territory and is actively evaluating additional high-impact property acquisitions with the potential to expand the Company's portfolio and increase shareholder value.
Additional information can be viewed at the Company's website www.precipitategold.com.
