Battle North Gold's McFinley Zone Exploration Program Intersects High-Grade Mineralization

TORONTO, Aug. 11, 2020 /CNW/ - Battle North Gold Corporation (TSX: BNAU) (OTCQX: BNAUF) ("Battle North" or the "Company") reports chip sampling results and assay results from the confirmatory drilling program at the McFinley Zone located nearby the Bateman Gold Project (the "Project") infrastructure.

 

Table 1: McFinley Zone Assay Result Highlights (as of August 10, 2020):

 

 

The drilling program at McFinley Zone (84 m and 122 m Levels) is focused on confirming historical drilling1 and potentially defining mineral resource estimates (more details in the 'Qualified Persons and QA/QC' section below), produced the above highlights (see Tables 2 and 3 below for a full summary of results and drill hole coordinates, respectively.)

 

CEO Comment

 

Battle North President and Chief Executive Officer George Ogilvie, P.Eng., stated, "The initial results from confirmatory drilling at the McFinley Zone provides us with more confidence of the potential to source future incremental mill feed from the McFinley and the Pen Zones (targets that form part of the String of Pearls2) to augment the Bateman Gold Project's anticipated production profile. The results from drilling and chip sampling of mine workings at the McFinley Zone appear to confirm the historically identified areas of mineralization within the banded-iron formation ("BIF") and basaltic units. The high-grade intercepts encountered in the drilling, signal the upside potential of the McFinley Zone. Work is ongoing, such as metallurgical testing, to further understand the McFinley Zone mineralization and how mining and milling techniques may be applied. In 2017, we performed exploratory drilling in an area at depth from the 685 m Level and roughly 550 m down-dip from the McFinley Zone known mineralized envelope3. We intersected gold mineralization within both the basaltic and BIF units, which demonstrate the potential down-dip extension of the McFinley Zone and warrants follow-up drilling. We are confident that the data collected will support an NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate at the McFinley Zone, which is due in the fourth quarter of 2020."

 

McFinley Zone

 

The McFinley Zone is located approximately 420 m west of the Bateman Gold Project's F2 Gold Zone, the main deposit of the Project. The McFinley Zone benefits from historical drilling and a partially completed 15,000-ton bulk sample program (with head grade estimates of approximately 0.25 ounces per ton)1 undertaken in the 1980s from three developed underground levels: 46 m, 84 m, and 122 m Levels. These levels are connected to the Project shaft and with a direct connection to the F2 Gold Zone on the 122 m Level. Gold mineralization at the McFinley Zone is primarily hosted in gold-bearing quartz veins and sulphides in BIF and basaltic unit settings. The McFinley Zone is comprised of three distinct sub-areas of mineralization (the B, C, and D Zones) that appear to be displaced by a local fault (the "shaft fault"). The C Zone is hosted along an ultramafic and basalt contact while the B and D Zones are hosted within an intermixed BIF/basaltic unit. The McFinley Zone has a historical mineral resource estimate1 (which is not NI 43-101 compliant) of 303,000 tonnes grading 6.86 g/t Au to a depth of 122 m and mineralization remains open along strike and down plunge/dip.

 

The current McFinley Zone exploration program consists of confirmatory chip sampling, diamond drill assays, structural mapping and metallurgical testing. The Company has completed approximately 1,200 m of a planned 1,500 m drilling program at McFinley Zone at the 46 m, 84 m, and 122 m Levels. Please see Tables 2 and 3 at the end of this news release for a full summary of the assay results and information on the drilling coordinates, respectively, as of August 10, 2020. See Diagrams 1 and 2 for the conceptual plan views of the McFinley Zone confirmatory drilling and back sampling program and the historical (pre-2020)1 and current (2020) assay results, respectively. See Diagram 3 for a conceptual plan view of the 2020 chip sampling program. For the recent (2020) and historical (pre-2020) chip sample results, please see Tables 4 and 5, respectively, available on the Battle North Gold website at www.battlenorthgold.com in the Projects > Bateman Gold Project section under "McFinley Zone Chip Sample Data". Some of the highlight results from the 2020 chip sampling program include:

 

 

Overall, the recent chip sampling and the ongoing confirmatory drilling program have supported the historical McFinley drill hole intercepts1 and further advances Battle North's understanding of the geological structures within mineralization of the zone. The confirmatory drilling program has also yielded some high-grade intersections; See Table 1 for assay result highlights and Pictures 1 and 2 of photographs of assayed core sections from holes 84L-20-02 and 84L-20-02, respectively. Data from the McFinley Zone exploration program is expected to support an NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for McFinley, which is anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2020. The Company believes that the McFinley Zone could potentially provide incremental mill feed to the Bateman Gold Project.

 

An initial review has identified a series of cross cutting structures that appear to enrich the sulphide and resulting gold mineralization. In addition, this apparent enrichment seems to correlate between pyrite and pyrrhotite mineralization and silica-biotite-chlorite alteration. Battle North has also incorporated Synchrotron Mineral Cluster Analysis technology in the analysis of samples from the McFinley Zone. This analysis was undertaken by researchers at Western University in Ontario through the Company's independent consultant, the Nordmin Group of Companies. The analysis classifies a suite of mineral samples into different groups such that similar mineral traits are placed in the same group. This additional data advances our understanding of the minerals associated with gold enrichment and improves Battle North's ability to target prospective zones at the McFinley Zone.

 

In 2017, Battle North drilled three exploration holes3 between the 244 m and 685 m Levels to test the potential depth extension of the McFinley Zone. That 2017 drill program intersected gold-bearing quartz veins and sulphides through four mineralized intercepts, similar to the lithological sequence of the historic McFinley Zone in the upper part of the mine, which could demonstrate the potential of gold mineralization down plunge/dip extension of the zone at depth.

 

About Battle North Gold Minerals Corporation

 

Battle North Gold is a Canadian gold mine developer led by an accomplished management team with successful underground gold mine operations, finance, and capital markets experience. Battle North owns the significantly de-risked and shovel-ready Bateman Gold Project, located in the renowned Red Lake gold district in Ontario, Canada and controls the strategic and second largest exploration ground in the district. Battle North also owns a large gold exploration land package on the Long Canyon gold trend near the Nevada-Utah border in the United States. Battle North's shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BNAU) and the OTCQX markets (BNAUF). For more information, please visit our website at www.battlenorthgold.com.