TORONTO, March 7, 2017 /CNW/ - RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX)
("RNC") is pleased to announce that its 68% owned
subsidiary, True North Nickel Inc. ("TNN"), which holds the
Qiqavik and West Raglan projects, has entered into a letter of
intent (the "LOI") with Focused Capital Corp.
("Focused"), to spin out TNN, via a reverse take-over of
Focused.
In addition, RNC is pleased to announce that TNN has entered
into an option agreement with Carolina Gold Resources
("CGR") on two gold properties located in the Carolina Gold
belt area to be included in the TNN assets intended to be spun out
into the newly listed entity and listed for trading on the TSX
Venture Exchange upon completion of the transaction.
The newly listed entity intends to complete a capital raise to
fund 2017 exploration programs at Qiqavik and West Raglan located
in the Cape Smith Belt of northern Quebec and the CGR properties located in the
Carolina Gold Belt.
Mark Selby, President and CEO of
RNC, commented "Today's announcement will allow us to clearly
demonstrate the value for RNC shareholders of these high potential
assets which are receiving little to no value in our share price
today. Putting these assets into a separate entity, in which RNC
will continue to hold the largest stake, will allow capital to be
raised directly to fund exploration programs without any dilution
at the RNC level. We are looking forward to following up on last
year's very exciting exploration programs where we made two high
grade gold and gold-copper discoveries at Aurora and Esperance in
our first season on the property and have a number of high
potential targets along the 40km length of the property. With the
geological setting and variety of styles of mineralization hosting
gold and copper, we believe we may be uncovering a district similar
to the Abitibi in the Val d'Or
area at the turn of the last century which ultimately yielded a
large number of gold, gold-copper and other mineral deposits."
Mr. Selby continued, "We are very excited to add the Carolina
Gold belt properties to the TNN portfolio. Year-round exploration
activities can be conducted at these high potential CGR properties
which contain past producing mines, and some historic work which
yielded results of up to 4.2 g/t Au over 17.8m near-surface. We
believe the Carolina Gold belt, home to the to the first gold rush
in the United States in the 1820s
and the new Haile gold mine, offers strong potential as a
relatively undervalued and underexplored gold belt."
As Focused is a Capital Pool Company, the proposed Transaction
is intended to be Focused's Qualifying Transaction under TSX
Venture Exchange Policy 2.4. Once the final structure and terms of
the transaction are determined, the LOI will be superseded by a
definitive agreement between TNN and Focused, and the parties will
announce the signing of such definitive agreement by news release.
Following completion of the RTO, the resulting issuer will hold all
of TNN's assets and conduct the business of TNN.
Qiqavik Gold-Copper Project
In 2015-2016 RNC (through
TNN subsidiary) assembled claims in the Cape Smith Belt, northern
Quebec, comprising the current
24,831 hectare property. A 2016 exploration program led to the
discovery of two new high grade gold/copper occurrences, the Aurora
and Esperance Zones, which have expanded the district scale
mineralized trend to over 40km. The 2016 results represent only a
small part of the 40 km long Qiqavik mineralized trend and
highlight the exploration potential of the remainder of the trend.
Multiple priority targets have been identified, including those
identified in the recently completed interpretation of the first
Induced Polarization ("IP") survey and new till sampling on the
expanded property.
The IP survey has defined multiple, extensive anomalies directly
associated with high grade gold at surface resulting in ten high
priority targets that warrant drill testing including:
- A chargeability anomaly at least 1.2km in strike at the
Esperance discovery co-incident with multiple high grade, sulphide
associated gold and copper reported in grab samples at surface
which extends to over 1.6km (up to 31.9 g/t Au and 10.2% Cu, see
RNC news release dated Sept 19,
2016);
- Multiple large chargeable zones at Esperance (100m to 500m)
that are within a 2 km till anomaly and are parallel to the main
shear zone above (these zones were not previously identified at
surface due to overburden cover);
- A 400m highly resistive felsic intrusive which hosts high grade
gold in quartz veins (up to 189 g/t Au) at the 2016 Aurora visible
gold discovery (see RNC news release dated Sept 19, 2016). This 400m area (spanning the
entire area over which an IP survey was conducted this season) lies
within a larger 2km till anomaly that extends to the west of known
mineralization at Aurora. Geophysics over the remaining 1.6km of
the till anomaly will be completed during the coming exploration
campaign.
Analysis of property-wide till sampling results has also yielded
several multi-element anomalies in addition to those associated
with the Aurora and Esperance discoveries. Notably, the ABG Zone, a
1.8km long till anomaly associated with a zone of outcropping
copper mineralization in hydrothermally altered quartz veins with
values up to 1.2% Cu on a subparallel structure 3km to the
southwest of the Aurora discovery.
These results represent a small part of the 40 km long Qiqavik
mineralized trend and highlight the exploration potential of the
remainder of the trend.
West Raglan Nickel-Copper-PGM Project
West Raglan is
located in the west central portion of the Cape Smith Belt in
northern Quebec. The Cape Smith
Belt hosts prolific, high-grade nickel sulphide deposits, including
two producing mines; Glencore's Raglan Mine and the Nunavik Nickel
Mine. Highlights from the previous exploration campaigns include
28.28m grading 3.21% Ni, 1.32% Cu, 2.43g/t Pd, 0.65g/t Pt and
10.50m grading 2.78% Ni, 1.21% Cu, 2.78g/t Pd and 0.80g/t Pt. These
intersections are very similar to the typical ore from the Raglan
mine, which is amongst the richest Ni-Cu-PGM mines in the world. A
2015 prospecting program along 29 km of strike length of the North
Raglan trend resulted in three new high grade mineralization
discoveries at surface.
Carolina Gold Belt Properties
TNN has acquired options
to earn a 70% interest in both the the Jones-Keystone/Loflin, and Landrum-Faulkner gold properties in the
Carolina Gold Belt, home to the Haile Mine. The current development
of the +4 million ounce Haile gold mine in South Carolina by OceanaGold has re-focused
attention on the Carolinas as a highly prospective, under-explored
and development-friendly jurisdiction.
Jones-Keystone/Loflin
The
Jones-Keystone Loflin property, located in North Carolina, consists of 2 zones of
Haile-style gold mineralization that occur over a 4.5 km
trend. Mineralization is exposed at surface and
historic drilling has yielded multiple drill hole intercepts of 1-3
g/t in intervals over 100 meters. Drill defined mineralization at
Jones-Keystone extends over 850m
of strike length and includes an interval of 1.56 g/t Au over 54m
including 3.01 g/t Au over 28m. Mineralization outcrops at surface
and is open at depth and along strike. Drill defined mineralization
at Loflin extends over 450m of strike length and includes an
interval of 1.12 g/t Au over 74m including 2.59 g/t Au over 30m.
Mineralization outcrops at surface and is open at depth and along
strike.
Landrum-Faulkner
The
Landrum-Faulkner property, located
in South Carolina, consists of
high-grade vein hosted gold mineralization occurring in the same
volcanic sequence as the Haile and Ridgeway mines. Mineralization at
Landrum is exposed at surface and
historic drilling demonstrates continuity over 300 m strike and
over 100m depth. Historical drill results include an interval of
4.2 g/t Au over 17.8 m including 6.1 g/t Au over 11.3
m.
Financial Advisor
Haywood Securities Inc. has acted as
financial advisor to RNC connection with the Transactions.
The technical information in this news release was reviewed and
approved by Alger St-Jean, P. Geo., a qualified person (QP)
for the purposes of NI 43-101.
About RNC
RNC Minerals is a multi-asset mineral
resource company focused primarily on the acquisition, exploration,
evaluation and development of base metal and precious metal
properties. RNC's principal assets are the producing Beta Hunt gold
and nickel mine in Western
Australia, the Dumont Nickel Project located in the
established Abitibi mining camp in Quebec and a 30% stake in the producing Reed
Mine in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake region of Manitoba, Canada. RNC also owns a majority
interest in the West Raglan and Qiqavik projects in Northern Quebec. RNC has a strong management
team and Board with over 100 years of mining experience at Inco and
Falconbridge. RNC's common shares
trade on the TSX under the symbol RNX. RNC shares also trade on the
OTCQX market under the symbol RNKLF.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking
Statements
This news release contains
"forward-looking information" including without limitation
statements relating to the liquidity and capital resources of RNC,
the proposed transactions involving TNN, Focused and CGR and the
potential of the Qiqavik, West Raglan, Jones-Keystone Loflin and
Landrum-Faulkner
properties.
Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results,
performance or achievements of RNC to be materially different from
any future results, performance or achievements expressed or
implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could
affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the
supply of metals; the results of drilling; inability to raise the
money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and
advance the properties; environmental liabilities (known and
unknown); general business, economic, competitive, political and
social uncertainties; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of
the mining industry; political instability, terrorism, insurrection
or war; or delays in obtaining governmental approvals, projected
cash costs, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals.
For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to
RNC's filings with Canadian securities regulators available on
SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Although RNC has attempted to identify important factors that
could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially
from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be
other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from
those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking
statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news
release and RNC disclaims any obligation to update any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or results or otherwise, except as required by
applicable securities laws.
SOURCE RNC Minerals