VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Group Ten Metals Inc. (TSX-V:PGE) (US OTC:PGEZF) (FSE:5D32) (the “Company” or “Group Ten”) is pleased to announce the execution of an amended agreement (the “Agreement”) to acquire a 100% interest in the Catalyst project in the southwest of Canada’s Yukon Territory. The project is highly prospective for nickel-copper-PGE mineralization being adjacent to, and contiguous with, Wellgreen Platinum’s Wellgreen PGM-Ni project which contains a National Instrument Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource1 of 362 million tonnes hosting 2.08 billion pounds of nickel, 6.0 million ounces PGMs+gold, and 1.1 billion pounds of copper; and an Inferred Resource2 of 118.6 million tonnes hosting 0.7 billion pounds nickel, 1.9 million ounces of PGMs + gold, and 0.3 million pounds of copper (as disclosed in a news release dated August 10, 2017 and available under the Wellgreen Platinum profile on Sedar.com).
The Agreement has been amended from the Letter of Intent announced on June 23, 2014, to reflect changes to both the property and the Company since that time. By the terms of the Agreement as executed, Group Ten may earn a 100% interest in the property by issuing one million shares (the “Shares”) over two years to Denali Resources Ltd., paying $10,000 to Ashburton Ventures Inc., and paying $28,062.10 in outstanding invoices for past work on the claims. The issuance of the Shares per the agreement is subject to regulatory approval.
The Catalyst project consists of 126 claims adjoining Wellgreen to the northwest and includes the strike extension of the Wellgreen deposit as shown by geophysical surveys. Past work has documented numerous magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE occurrences in layered intrusives similar to the Wellgreen deposit. The project is 15 kilometers from the Alaska Highway and is accessible by well-maintained, all-weather roads.
The Company’s total land position now exceeds 240 square kilometers in the Kluane Ultramafic Belt, a 600km-long sequence of igneous and sedimentary rocks extending from northern British Columbia through the Yukon and into Alaska which hosts twenty-seven documented magmatic nickel, copper and platinum group element (PGE) ± gold occurrences, including the Wellgreen deposit. Geology in the belt is similar to that of the world's richest Ni-Cu-PGE deposits including the Noril'sk-Talnakh deposits (Russia), the Stillwater complex (Montana, USA), Raglan and Sudbury (Canada).
Group Ten CEO Michael Rowley stated, “We are pleased to have finalized the Catalyst acquisition which further strengthens our Yukon land position and exposure to this emerging and under explored Ni-Cu-PGE belt with proven potential. We are highly encouraged by the recent trends and sentiment shift in base metals and nickel, in particular, which has shown significant strength over the past months. The Company has exceptional assets in world-class mining jurisdictions and is well-positioned for what we expect will be a near-term breakout in platinum group metals and nickel.”
In addition to the exploration efforts in Yukon and Ontario, the Company is currently undertaking a comprehensive and systematic examination of the volumes of historic data that accompanied the recent acquisition of the Stillwater West Project adjacent to Sibanye’s Stillwater Mine in Montana, USA. Over the coming weeks, the Company expects to announce key additions to its technical team, which will guide exploration activities moving forward.
1 - Total Measured + Indicated Resource: 362.0 MMT containing 0.26% Ni, 0.14% Cu, 0.231 g/t Pt, 0.244 g/t Pd, and 0.04 g/t Au
2 - Total Inferred Resource: 118.6 MMT containing 0.28% Ni, 0.12% Cu, 0.217 g/t Pt, 0.253 g/t Pd, and 0.032 g/t Au
Quality Control and Quality Assurance
Garth Kirkham, P.Geo., is the qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101, and he has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.
About Group Ten Metals Inc.
Group Ten Metals Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of high-quality platinum, palladium and gold exploration assets in North America. The Company’s suite of holdings include 100% ownership potential on large land positions adjacent to Sibanye’s Pd-Pt Stillwater mine in Montana on our Stillwater West project and our Catalyst, Spy and Ultra projects near the Wellgreen Ni-PGE deposit in the Yukon Territory, as well as the Black Lake-Drayton gold project in the Rainy River district of northwest Ontario.
