Moneta expands Loveland Nickel Property in Timmins

Moneta Gold Inc. has completed 2 separate transactions and acquired 2 land packages adjacent to its wholly owned Loveland Nickel property, approximately 45 kilometres northwest of Timmins. One of the land packages includes the Cominco zone, which has historical drilling, is open along strike and at depth, and together with the Hollinger zone, located within the original Loveland Nickel property, forms a 10 km prospective exploration corridor within the consolidated property.

Highlights:

• Acquisition of 187 single-cell mining claims and 1 multi-cell mining claim for a total of 3,920 hectares, bringing the consolidated Loveland Nickel property land package to 6,244 hectares.
• Significant historical intercepts at the Cominco zone include:
  • AMDG07-3 intersected 45.0 metres ("m") of 0.70% Ni and 0.75% Cu
  • LL08-05 intersected 22.80 m of 0.53% Ni and 0.88% Cu, including 11.20 m of 0.65% Ni and 1.0% Cu, and 2.70 m of 1.0% Ni and 1.92% Cu
  • LL08-11 intersected 37.60 m of 0.33% Ni and 0.38% Cu, including 8.50 m of 0.59% Ni and 0.73% Cu, and 6.00 m of 0.85% Ni and 0.78% Cu.
• The Cominco zone is situated 2 km from, and on-trend, the Hollinger zone, which is located within the original Moneta owned Loveland Nickel property. The Hollinger zone contains a historical resource estimate from 1974 of 401,000 tonnes grading 0.71% Ni and 0.42% Cu. Note that this estimate was developed prior to the introduction of National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), has not been independently verified by a qualified person and investors are cautioned not to treat this estimate as reliable or current. The Company is not treating the historical estimate as current.1
• The Cominco and Hollinger zones are both open along strike and at depth and align to form an exploration corridor with a 10 km strike length, located within the Loveland Nickel property.
• Historical work within the newly acquired land package includes various geophysical surveys which delineated several geophysical targets, many of which remain to be drill tested.

Josef Vejvoda, Moneta's Chairman and interim President & Chief Executive Officer commented, "We are very excited to announce this strategic land consolidation around our highly prospective Loveland Nickel property, which now hosts the Cominco and Hollinger zones and together highlight a 10 km exploration corridor within the consolidated property. Additionally, these properties have provided the Company with a significant contiguous land package, where numerous identified geophysical anomalies remain untested. In the coming months, the Company will consolidate its understanding of this land package, with the goal of producing an initial NI 43-101 compliant technical report. This will allow Moneta to assess the potential value of the land package and decide on next steps to increase returns for our shareholders. Moneta's primary focus will remain advancing the Tower Gold project."

In the first purchase agreement, a 100% ownership was acquired for 186 single-cell mining claims for consideration consisting of a cash payment of $100,000, 456,213 common shares of the Company, and incurring total exploration expenditures of $0.5 million over a four-year period. The vendor will retain a 2.0% Net Smelter Royalty ("NSR"), with a 1.00% buy-back for $1 million. In the second purchase agreement, a 100% ownership was acquired for 1 multi-cell claim and 1 single-cell mining claim for consideration consisting of 54,746 common shares of the Company. The vendor will retain a 1.0% NSR, with a 1.00% buy-back for $1.5 million.

Figure 1: Loveland Nickel Property - General Location Map

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Loveland Nickel Property

The Loveland Nickel property is located in the Byers, Loveland, Thorburn, and Moberly townships, in the Porcupine Mining Division. The Property lies within the Superior Province of Archean basement rocks, in the Eastern Canadian Shield. It is situated in the northwest region of the Abitibi Greenstone belt. The local geology consists of Intercalated mafic to intermediate volcanic flows. These flows are locally intruded by feldspar porphyries and gabbro. The gabbroic rocks have similarities to the Kamiskotia gabbroic complex.

Mineralization consists of chalcopyrite, pentlandite, and pyrrhotite. Sulphides occur as inter-granular mineralization within a gabbro, transitioning to fracture-controlled and semi-massive lenses along the contact between the gabbro and mafic to intermediate volcanic flows. The mineral concentration occurs as trace to semi-massive (up to 75%) pyrrhotite, with minor pyrite and local concentrations of 6% to 8% chalcopyrite and pentlandite.

Figure 2: Loveland Nickel Property - Regional Geology

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Cominco Zone

The Cominco zone was discovered by Cominco in 1972. The zone was drill tested to a depth of approximately 120 m. Four drill campaigns completed by Amador Gold between 2007 and 2010, were designed to test for possible depth and strike extensions of the Cominco zone. The first three drill campaigns intersected the mineralized gabbro on 50 m centres both down dip and along strike to define the mineralized horizon. The fourth campaign was designed to infill specific areas of the Cominco zone on 25 m spacing to define the geometry of mineralization, which is steeply dipping to the WSW. The drilling extended both the dip and strike lengths of the earlier defined mineralization and it remains open in both directions as well as down dip.

Significant historical intercepts from 2007 to 2010 include 45.0 m of 0.70% Ni and 0.75% Cu in drill hole AMDG07-3. Drill hole LL08-05 intersected 0.53% Ni and 0.88% Cu over 22.80 m, including 0.65% Ni and 1.0% Cu over 11.20 m, and 1.0% Ni and 1.92% Cu over 2.70 m. This drill hole was collared 50 m northeast, on strike, of drill hole AMDG07-1, which intersected 0.41% Ni and 0.61% Cu over 25.80 m. A broad mineralized zone was intersected in drill hole LL08-11 grading 0.33% Ni and 0.38% Cu over 37.60 m, including 0.59% Ni and 0.73% Cu over 8.50 m, and 0.85% Ni and 0.78% Cu over 6.00 m. A list of all significant historical intercepts from the Amador Gold drill campaign are shown in Table 1.

A deeper mineralized zone from 488.0 m to 492.0 m, was intersected in drill hole LL08-22, with a grade of 0.98% Ni and 1.41% Cu. This gabbroic style mineralization indicates the potential for a continued mineralized system to depth. Additionally, drill hole LL09-07 intersected 7.30 m of 0.44% Ni and 0.43% Cu within mineralized gabbro. This zone is associated with a weak to moderate induced polarization ("IP") and Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetic ("VTEM") anomaly about 400 m northwest of the Cominco zone and may represent a new zone of the intrusive gabbro style of mineralization.

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