TORONTO, May 26, 2015 /CNW/ - Temex Resources Corp.
(TSX-V: TME, FWB: TQ1) ("Temex" or "the Company") announces that it
has entered into a non-binding letter of intent (the "Letter of
Intent") with Goldcorp Canada Ltd. ("Goldcorp") (as manager, and on
behalf, of the Porcupine Gold Mines Joint Venture (a joint venture
between Goldcorp Inc. and Goldcorp)) for Temex to increase its
equity interest to 85% of the Whitney Joint Venture Gold Project
("Whitney JV"). The Letter of Intent will culminate in
definitive agreements (the "Agreement") within 90 days from the
date of signing the Letter of Intent.
Highlights of the Letter of Intent:
- Temex to immediately vest an 85% interest in Whitney JV upon
execution of the Agreement
- Net Smelter Return ("NSR") royalty with a partial buyback,
should Temex vest a 100% interest in Whitney JV
- Temex and Goldcorp agree to work towards finalizing a purchase
agreement (Ore Purchase Agreement1) for up to
500,000 tonnes of mineralized material from Whitney JV NI 43-101
resource
- Whitney JV to be covered under Goldcorp's existing area wide
permit for noise, dust and air
"We are very pleased to reach this arrangement with Goldcorp
which defines the participating interests and more importantly
crystallizes the path forward for the advanced exploration and
development of the 110 Zone," said Ian
Campbell, President and CEO of Temex. "We are
particularly pleased with our joint efforts to continue advancing
the project and Goldcorp's participation in several aspects of the
program including an agreement to purchase mineralized material and
their invaluable assistance on environmental and permitting
work. We are currently developing a plan and a schedule for
the implementation of a bulk sample project on the 110 Zone,
pending the completion of the permitting process. At the same
time, the Company is actively exploring financing options to
supplement its existing cash position to move the project forward
in a timely manner. We believe that the nature of the project
is such that financing can be arranged with minimal dilution to
existing shareholders."
Participating Interests
The participating interests of
Temex and Goldcorp upon signing the Agreement, which is to be
executed within 90 days, will be 85% and 15%, respectively. In
order to obtain the additional 25% interest in the Whitney JV,
Temex has elected to firstly dilute Goldcorp's interest to 30% via
dilution mechanisms as provided for in the Joint Venture Agreement
("JVA") dated June 29, 2010. In
conjunction with the equity dilution, Goldcorp has agreed to sell
an additional 15% interest to Temex for $1.5M (CDN) payable in three instalments of
$500,000 with the first payment due
within seven days of execution of the Agreement. The second
payment is due six months after commencement of bulk sample
activities (defined for these purposes as the collection of 2,000
tonnes of product) but no later than 12 months of signing the
Agreement, and the third payment within six months of the second
payment. Temex will achieve an 85% interest upon making the
first payment to Goldcorp.
NSR Royalty Buyback
Notwithstanding the execution of
the Agreement, the Whitney JV remains subject to dilution
provisions in accordance with the terms of the existing JVA and
conversion to a 2% NSR royalty interest in the event that any such
participating interest is reduced to 10% or less. As part of the
agreement announced today, Goldcorp has additionally granted Temex
the option to purchase 50% of its royalty interest for $1.0M (CDN), in the event Goldcorp's
participating interest is reduced to a level that would trigger
conversion to a royalty interest.
Ore Purchase Agreement1
Temex and Goldcorp
have agreed to negotiate an agreement whereby Goldcorp will
purchase the first 200,000 tonnes of mineralized material from the
Whitney JV NI 43-101 resource with an option at the election of
Temex to extend this agreement for an additional 300,000
tonnes. Goldcorp is currently carrying out metallurgical
testwork on mineralized material from the Whitney JV NI 43-101
resource. The vast majority of the NI 43-101 resource has
been delineated in the Measured and Indicated categories, see
following tables. On February 24,
2015 Temex announced high recoveries up to 98% at both high
and low head grades with both series of tests achieving excellent
gravity separation results indicating the presence of substantial
free-milling gold, high cyanidation recoveries at fast reaction
times and low reagent consumption, suggesting opportunities to
lower milling costs.
Waste Material
The Letter of Intent provides that
Goldcorp would credit Temex for the value of waste rock and
overburden moved from the Whitney JV.
_______________________________________________________________________________
1: "Ore Purchase Agreement" is terminology used in the Letter
of Intent.
Tailings Facility
The Letter of Intent provides that
Goldcorp grants the Whitney JV at no cost the use of Goldcorp's
Pamour T3 Tailings as a discharge location for mine water pumped to
surface, should it be required for any reason, subject to the
Whitney JV providing Goldcorp in advance with the required
information and support to apply for an amendment to the existing
Certificate of Authorization at Pamour which includes pumping
rates, water quality data, and any other relevant information as
may be required.
Permitting
The Letter of Intent provides that Goldcorp
will permit allowing noise, dust and air emissions generated by the
Whitney JV in relation to operation of a sample tower for advanced
exploration during which a bulk sample may be taken from near
surface to be covered at no cost under its existing area wide air,
dust and noise permit.
Work Program
The Whitney Gold Project is situated in a
premier location with excellent infrastructure with near surface
high grade gold resources and anticipated low capital costs.
These attributes provide the confidence to expeditiously move the
project through the permitting stage.
Temex remains focused on the ongoing permitting program at the
Whitney JV in Timmins, which is
designed to support the exploitation of the project via selective
open pits and potentially underground mining methods. In 2014
the Company carried out definition diamond drilling of the 110
Zone, geotechnical drilling and environmental studies. This
work was incorporated into detailed engineering work for a series
of nested open pits, constrained using GEMS Whittle Pit modelling
software, project site plans and programs for rehabilitation and
monitoring, which upon receipt of approvals, could be implemented
as an exploration bulk sample program. Review of the detailed
support documents for the amendment to the existing Closure Plan is
underway by the joint venture partners and the project is targeted
for approval by fall 2015.
NI 43-101 Gold Resources
The Whitney Gold Project has
potential for expansion of the current resource base in all areas
of the 4 kilometre long mine trend with the vast majority of the
resource to date being no deeper than 500 metres below surface.
Historic mine operations have been to 1,500 metres below surface
and numerous areas contain high grade drill intersections that are
wide open as are high grade mine operations which terminated at
pre-existing property boundaries.
Current NI 43-101 gold resources at various cut-off grades are
shown on a 100% basis in Table 1 below. Please refer to the
news release dated January 14, 2014
and the technical report filed on SEDAR on February 27, 2014.
Table 1 Whitney JV Project
Underground Resource Sensitivity (at various Au cut-off grades)
12345689
Capped
|
MEASURED
|
INDICATED
|
MEASURED +
INDICATED
|
INFERRED
|
Cut-off
Au g/t
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
8.0 g/t
|
222,000
|
14.88
|
106,100
|
482,000
|
14.71
|
228,100
|
704,000
|
14.77
|
334,200
|
124,000
|
12.21
|
48,600
|
5.0 g/t
|
481,000
|
10.22
|
158,100
|
1,063,000
|
10.07
|
344,100
|
1,544,000
|
10.12
|
502,200
|
325,000
|
8.50
|
88,700
|
3.0 g/t
|
966,000
|
7.02
|
218,100
|
2,253,000
|
6.77
|
490,500
|
3,219,000
|
6.85
|
708,600
|
995,000
|
5.34
|
170,700
|
1.0 g/t
|
2,394,000
|
3.90
|
300,500
|
6,177,000
|
3.61
|
716,400
|
8,571,000
|
3.69
|
1,016,900
|
3,157,000
|
2.90
|
294,500
|
Table 2 Whitney 110 Zone Pit
Constrained Resource (a pit constrained subset of the Table
1 Jan 14, 2014 1.0 g/t Au Resource
Estimate Sensitivity)12345789
|
MEASURED
|
INDICATED
|
MEASURED +
INDICATED
|
INFERRED
|
Cut-off
Au g/t
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
1.0 g/t
|
62,000
|
5.62
|
11,300
|
116,000
|
4.90
|
18,300
|
178,000
|
5.15
|
29,600
|
7.000
|
4.23
|
900
|
Table 3 Whitney 110 Zone Starter
Pit Constrained Resource (a starter pit constrained subset of the
Table 1 Jan 14, 2014 1.0 g/t Resource
Estimate Sensitivity) 12345789
|
MEASURED
|
INDICATED
|
MEASURED +
INDICATED
|
INFERRED
|
Cut-off
Au g/t
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
Tonnes
|
Au
g/t
|
Au
oz
|
1.0 g/t
|
28,000
|
7.48
|
6,700
|
55,000
|
6.39
|
11,400
|
83,000
|
6.76
|
18,100
|
1,000
|
1.41
|
45
|
Resource Estimate Notes and Parameters
- Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have
demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources
may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal,
title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant
issues, although the Company is not aware of any such issues.
- The quantity and grade of reported Inferred resources in this
estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient
exploration to define these Inferred resources as an Indicated or
Measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further
exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or
Measured mineral resource category.
- The mineral resources in this news release were estimated using
the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM),
CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and
Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve
Definitions and adopted by the CIM Council.
- Variable grade capping by mineralized domain was accomplished
at Au values ranging from 5 g/t to 80 g/t.
- The Gemcom block model is defined by 2.5m x 1.25m x 2.5m
blocks. A bulk density of 2.84 t/m3 was used for all tonnage
calculations.
- For the underground resource in Table 1, a gold price of
US$1,200/oz and a corresponding
exchange rate of US$0.95=CDN$1 was utilized in the Au cut-off grade
calculations of 3.0 g/t. A mining cost of $60/t, process cost of $32.25/t and G&A of $4.50/t were used. Mining dilution was estimated
at 20%. Process recovery was assumed at 95% and smelter payable at
99.8%. Gold refining was estimated at US$8/oz.
- For the pit constrained subset resource in Table 2 and the pit
constrained starter pit resource in Table 3, a gold price of
US$1,200/oz and a corresponding
exchange rate of US$0.85=CDN$1 was utilized in the Au cut-off grade
calculations of 1.0 g/t. For the resource pit constrained
optimizations, an ore mining cost of $8.50/t, waste mining cost of $5.15/t, overburden mining cost of $3.00/t, process cost of $34.60/t and G&A of $5.00/t were used. Mining dilution was estimated
at 15%. Process recovery was assumed at 94% and smelter payable at
99.8%. Gold refining was estimated at US$8/oz. These resources subsets were determined
within preliminary pit designs.
- Values in the table may differ due to rounding.
- The search ellipse dimensions for the Measured category were
12.5m x 10m x 5m from a block centroid, with a minimum 3 drill
holes and maximum of 12 samples; the area of influence of the
Indicated category is 25m x 20m x 10m from a block centroid with a
minimum of 2 drill holes and maximum of 20 samples; remaining
blocks within the constraining domain wireframes were coded as
Inferred.
Ian Campbell, P.Geo., President
and CEO, Kim Tyler, P.Geo.,
Operations Manager and Karen Rees,
P.Geo., Vice President, Exploration of Temex Resources Corp., are
the designated qualified persons responsible for the preparation of
this news release. Eugene Puritch,
P.Eng., President of P&E Mining Consultants Inc,, who is an
Independent Qualified Person, has reviewed and approved the
technical contents of this press release.
About Temex Resources Corp.
Temex is a Canadian based
exploration company focusing on its portfolio of precious metals
properties in the world class mining district of northeastern
Ontario. Temex is advancing the Timmins Whitney Gold Project,
in partnership with Goldcorp Canada Ltd., and exploring its
100%-owned Juby Gold Project.
The Whitney Property has a NI 43-101 compliant resources on the
Upper Whitney of 0.97 million tonnes at a grade of 7.02 g/t gold
for 218,100 ounces of gold in the Measured category plus 2.3
million tonnes at a grade of 6.77 g/t gold for 490,500 ounces of
gold in the Indicated category and 1.0 million tonnes at a grade of
5.34 g/t gold for 170,700 ounces of gold in the Inferred category
at a cut-off grade of 3.0 g/t gold (Note 1).
The Juby Gold Project has NI 43-101 compliant resources of 26.6
million tonnes at a grade of 1.28 g/t gold for 1,090,400 ounces of
gold in the Indicated category and 96.2 million tonnes at a grade
of 0.94 g/t gold for 2,908,800 ounces of gold in the Inferred
category, both at a cut-off grade of 0.40 g/t gold (Note
2).
Temex also has a NI 43-101 compliant resource for tailings
material on its Gowganda Silver Project. The tailings piles
contain a NI 43-101 compliant resource of 1.94 million tonnes
grading 47.5 g/t silver for a contained resource of 2.96 million
ounces of silver in the Indicated category (Note 3).
Notes:
- Information regarding the mineral resource estimate on the
Upper Whitney is in the Company's news release dated January 14, 2014 and the technical report filed
on SEDAR on February 27, 2014.
The Mineral Resource Statement was prepared for Temex by P&E
Mining Consultants Inc. of Brampton,
Ontario in accordance with NI 43-101 by Richard Sutcliffe, PhD, P.Geo., Eugene Puritch, P.Eng., David Burga, P.Geo., Yungang Wu, P.Geo.,
Tracy Armstrong, P.Geo., and
Antoine Yassa, P.Geo., "independent
qualified persons" as defined by NI 43-101.
- Information regarding the mineral resource estimate on the Juby
Gold Project is in the Company's news releases dated April 29, 2013 and January
15, 2014 and the technical report filed on SEDAR
February 26, 2014. The Mineral
Resource Statement was prepared for Temex by GeoVector Management
Inc., Ottawa, Ontario in
accordance with NI 43-101 by Joe Campbell,
BSc, P.Geo., Alan Sexton,
MSc, P.Geo., and Duncan Studd, MSc,
P.Geo., "independent qualified persons" as defined by NI
43-101.
- Information regarding the mineral resource estimate in the
tailings piles located on the Gowganda Silver Project is in the
Company's news release dated June 8,
2011 and the technical report filed on SEDAR July 21, 2011. The Mineral Resource
Statement was prepared for Temex by GeoVector Management Inc.,
Ottawa, Ontario in accordance with
NI 43-101 by Allan Armitage, PhD,
P.Geol., Alan Sexton, MSc, P.Geo.,
and Joe Campbell, BSc, P.Geo.,
"independent qualified persons" as defined by NI 43-101.
Forward-Looking Information:
This
news release contains forward-looking information which is not
comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves
risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual
events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking
information. Forward-looking information in this news release
includes, but is not limited to, mineral resource estimates, and
the development of its projects as well as the timing related
thereto. Factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from such forward-looking information include, but are
not limited to, general business and economic uncertainties, future
mineral prices, uncertainties in mineral resource estimates and
adverse market conditions, as well as those risks set out in the
Company's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company
believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the
forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable,
undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only
applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can
be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames
or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to
update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than
as required by law.
NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS
REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE
POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR
THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
SOURCE Temex Resources Corp.