Feb 3 2015
Reservoir Minerals Inc. ("Reservoir" or the "Company") is pleased to report initial results from gold exploration in the Konjsko Mineral Exploration Concession, Macedonia, and a successful bid for the Dvoriste Mineral Exploration Concession for copper-gold, Macedonia.
The highlights include:
- Systematic channel sampling on the "road cut" locality in the Konjsko Concession yielded an average grade of 2.00 grams per tonne (g/t) gold along a 19 metres profile of continuous outcrop.
- The Macedonian government granted the Company a 1.36 square kilometres extension, covering the trend of gold mineralization, to the Konjsko Concession.
- The Macedonian government has awarded the Company the 25.4 square kilometre Dvoriste Mineral Exploration Concession, which has good exploration potential for porphyry copper-gold mineralization,
Dr. Simon Ingram, President and CEO of Reservoir Minerals Inc. commented: "The discovery of significant gold mineralization in the Konjsko Concession, Macedonia, is an encouraging result from our continuing project generation activities in the region. The Company is pleased to be working in Macedonia, where we have established a significant presence in the active exploration and mining community and received positive encouragement from the government and its agencies. We look forward to continuing Reservoir's success in the new Dvoriste Concession where we can apply our skills at exploration for porphyry copper-gold mineralization."
Macedonia has a long tradition of mining that continues today with active lead-zinc (Sasa) and copper-gold (Bucim) mines as well as new development projects (Ilovica, Kazandol). The mining and exploration industry is recognized by the Macedonian government as a significant contributor to the GDP, and is supported by all relevant ministries; foreign direct investment is a cornerstone of the Macedonian government strategy. The mining sector is regulated by a modern mining law that was last revised in 2014.
A map showing the locations of the Company's Exploration Concessions in Macedonia is posted on the Company website (www.reservoirminerals.com).
Konjsko Mineral Exploration Concession
Background
The Konjsko Mineral Exploration Concession, including the recently granted extension area, covers an area of 29.97 square kilometres and is valid for four years until July 4, 2017. The concession is located in the Kozuf Massif, southern Macedonia.
The Kozuf Massif is known to contain occurrences of epithermal gold-thallium-antimony mineralization at the Alshar deposit, which was mined for antimony from 1880 - 1908, and previously explored by state-owned agencies and other companies. Percival & Radtke (Canadian Mineralogist, Vol. 32, 1994) interpreted the Alshar deposit as sediment-hosted with affinities to the Carlin-style of gold mineralization in Nevada, USA. The occurrences of gold, arsenic and antimony mineralization reported from the Konjsko Concession, which is located approximately 20 kilometres southeast of Alshar, have not been previously investigated in any detail, and there are no records of any drilling. Collapsed adits and shafts are evidence of ancient mining activity on the Concession.
The geology of the Konjsko Concession is mapped as Precambrian gneiss and Lower Palaeozoic phyllites and marbles of the Kozuf Massif that are intruded along major structures by meta-rhyolite of unknown age and younger (?Neogene) andesite. The area is intensely deformed, and major NW-SE trending faults extend through the Concession.
Exploration Results
The Company's reconnaissance field exploration (field mapping, soil and rock chip geochemistry) during 2013 and 2014 identified gold-in-rock geochemical anomalism in a 2.5 kilometer long structural corridor that is marked by occurrences of realgar, stibnite and pyrite mineralization, and anomalous contents of gold, arsenic and antimony in soil and rock. Within this corridor, which is characterized by strong structural deformation, there is a transition from gold-only anomalism in the northwest to arsenic-antimony-thallium anomalism and outcropping mineralization in the southeast.
Detailed mapping and sampling at the "road-cut" locality identified gold mineralization related to polyphase quartz veins hosted by distinctive fuchsite-bearing, sericitized and pyritic meta-rhyolite along a total length of 30 metres, with 2 metres obscured by diluvium. Channel sampling along 1.5 to 2 metres intervals of the continuous outcrop yielded 19 metres, from 72 to 91 metres on the profile, containing an average 2.00 g/t gold (range 0.075 - 9.85 g/t gold). There is insufficient structural information to determine the orientation and true thickness of the zone, but many of the veins intersect the sampled profile at a high angle. A selected sample from a quartz vein within the profile yielded 12.35 g/t gold. Petrographic studies identified coarse free gold in samples of the quartz-veined meta-rhyolite unit. There are no anomalous arsenic and antimony contents in any of the analyzed samples from the sampled profile.
Trench 2 is located approximately 1100 metres southeast of the "road-cut" locality within the gold-anomalous structural corridor, and demonstrates the geochemical transition from gold-only anomalism in the northwest trending to arsenic-antimony-thallium anomalism in the southeast of the corridor as shown on the property map. Systematic channel sampling along a 13 metre wide section through silicified and brecciated marble in Trench 2 yielded very high values of arsenic (>10,000 ppm in all samples, which is the upper detection limit of the analytical method), antimony (300 to >10,000 ppm) and thallium (90 to 680 ppm), but only moderate gold values (0.044 to 0.72 g/t gold).
Sampling in trenches 1, 3, 4 and 5 was impeded by thick cover from recent landslips.
The Company is planning further trenching and rock sampling during 2015 to confirm the extent of the mineralization, as well as completing ground geophysical surveys (magnetometry and induced polarization) over the areas of interest.
Relevant maps have been uploaded onto the Company website (www.reservoirminerals.com).
Dvoriste Mineral Exploration Concession
The Macedonian government has awarded the Company the Dvoriste Mineral Exploration Concession for copper and gold on January 26, 2015, and the Concession is valid for 4 years from this date.
The Dvoriste Concession covers an area of 24.53 square kilometres, and is located in eastern Macedonia approximately 15 kilometres northeast of Euromax Resources Ltd's Ilovica porphyry copper-gold project. The underlying geology consists primarily of Neogene granodiorite and andesite that locally display alteration, quartz veining and sulphide mineralization indicative of a porphyry copper type geological environment.
Fieldwork will commence in the spring after the necessary permissions have been obtained.
Relevant maps have been uploaded onto the Company website (www.reservoirminerals.com).
Quality Assurance and Control ("QAQC")
Soil samples were prepared at the project site, and pulverized at the ALS Minerals laboratory, Bor, Serbia. All soil samples were analyzed by portable XRF for copper and arsenic at the Company's laboratory in Bor, and selected samples (approximately 10 percent) were analyzed by multi-element ICP at the ALS Minerals laboratory in Loughrea, Ireland. The correlation between the XRF and the ICP results for copper and arsenic was good. All the soil samples were analyzed for gold by fire assay and AAS finish at the ALS Minerals laboratory in Rosia Montana, Romania.
Rock samples were crushed and pulverized at the ALS Minerals laboratory, Bor, Serbia. The rock samples were analyzed for gold by fire assay and AAS finish, and samples containing greater than 10 g/t gold were reanalyzed with a gravimetry finish at the ALS Minerals laboratory in Rosia Montana, Romania. All rock samples were analyzed by multi-element ICP at the ALS Minerals laboratory in Loughrea, Ireland.
In addition to the laboratory's internal QAQC procedures, the Company conducted its own QAQC with the systematic inclusion of certified reference materials, blank samples and field duplicate samples. The analytical results from the Company's quality control samples have been evaluated, and demonstrated to conform to best practice standards.
Qualified Person
Dr. Duncan Large, Chartered Engineer (UK) and Eur. Geol., a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators and a consultant to the Company, approved the technical disclosure in this release and has verified the data disclosed.