Last checked at 21 Oct 2020 07:00
Mineral & Financial Investments Limited
Investment Update: Ascendant/Redcorp Begins Autumn 2020 Exploration Program at Lagoa Salgada Project
HIGHLIGHTS:
· A focused 2,700m drill program has just begun at Lagoa Salgada Project in Portugal.
· The Autumn 2020 exploration program is focused on Lagoa Salgada's South Zone.
· Also planned is a downhole IP survey program, both are to be completed in phases.
· The exploration program objective is to significantly increase and upgrade tonnage in the copper-rich South Zone.
· The exploration program is on the South Zone, which is not part of the positive Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) announced earlier this year. If successful it would further enhance Lagoa Salgada's already robust economics.
George Town, Cayman Island - 21 October 2020 - Mineral & Financial Investments ("M&FI" or the "Company"), the AIM quoted resources investment company, is pleased to announce the start of Ascendant Resources Inc's ("Ascendant Resources") 2020 Autumn exploration program for the Lagoa Salgada VMS project. This project is owned by M&FI's 75% subsidiary Redcorp Empreedimentos Mineiros Lda. ("Redcorp") and Ascendant has a staged earn-in agreement based on exploration and payments to M&FI.
Ascendant Resources has just initiated an exploration program on Lagoa Salgada. The exploration program has been planned on the back of the robust Preliminary Economic Assessment results released on January 14, 2020. The exploration program will mainly be focused on the South Zone of the Lagoa Salgada Project. The Autumn 2020 exploration program, which will be comprised of a 2,700-metre drill program and will include a downhole IP (Induced Polarity) survey. The main objective of the proposed program is to seek to significantly increase and upgrade tonnage at the copper-rich South Zone. This is designed to build upon the existing South Zone resource composed of 2.47Mt of Indicated resource and 6.09Mt of Inferred resource, as highlighted in the Company's technical report titled, "Technical Report and PEA for the Lagoa Salgada Project Setúbal District, Portugal " dated February 27, 2020 with an effective date of December 19, 2019 (the "Preliminary Economic Assessment") (see announcement dated [February 27, 2020]).
Jacques Vaillancourt, Chairman of Mineral and Financial Investments Limited, stated, "We are excited to see Ascendant continue the exploration activities in the South Zone. Covid-19 and market conditions have created challenges that both Ascendant and Redcorp have risen to overcome. Ascendant has been a good partner and has met and we expect will continue to meet all of its obligations to M&FI on a timely basis. We hope that this exploration program will greatly improve Copper (and Copper Equivalent) tonnage and grade. Information collected to date suggests that the South Zone has the potential to be significantly larger than the North Zone, and it is largely comprised of a copper-rich stockwork mineralization that may be amenable to bulk mining methods at sufficient size. Previous drill programs have achieved tremendous success as highlighted by an exceptional drilling-to-tonnage ratio. This is characteristic of a project in the early stages of discovery. Nevertheless, we are confident that we have only begun to demonstrate what is possible at Lagoa Salgada. As exploration progresses, we hope to find the feeder system, substantial showings of chalcopyrite within the copper stockwork mineralization discovered to date, leads Ascendant to believe that this is an important" next step" on this path."
The South Zone remains open in all directions according to geological data collected during the Ascendant's previous exploration activities. The most southern drill hole in the South Zone (LS_ST_11) was one of the best holes encountered, with assays reporting 67.6m true width at a 1.57% Copper Equivalent ("CuEq") grade (see announcement dated January 14, 2019). Indications are that the mineralization is open and expanding southward where Ascendant's first drill targets in this program are situated. Figure 1 highlights the initial and follow-up planned drill holes.
Lagoa Salgada - South Zone
Planned Drill Holes (Fig 1)
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7059C_1-2020-10-20.pdf
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Jacques Vaillancourt, Mineral & Financial Investments Ltd. +44 780 226 8247
Katy Mitchell, WH Ireland Group Limited +44 161 832 2174
Jon Belliss, Novum Securities Limited +44 207 399 9400
ABOUT MINERAL AND FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS LIMITED.:
Mineral and Financial Investments Limited is a Swiss and Cayman Island based investment company quoted on AIM, a market of the London Stock Exchange. M&FI has in excess of 20 investments in the natural resource sector with the majority in the metals and minerals sector and has about 38% of its investment portfolio in precious metal investments. M&FI's Net Asset Value per share (NAVPS)is 15.11p, as of March 31, 2020. M&FI's NAVPS has risen at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 31.2% since December 31, 2016.