May 15 2015
MDN Inc. releases the results on the recently completed exploration program on Samaqua. The property is located about 40 km north of the Girardville village in the Lake Saint-Jean region in the province of Quebec.
The objective of the campaign on Samaqua was the discovery of a carbonatite, which was suspected owing to the magnetic signature revealed by a high-definition magnetic survey. During the winter of 2015, eight holes (SQ-15-01 to SQ-15-08) have been drilled, oriented N225° with 55° of inclination, for a total of 1,227 linear meters.
Unfortunately the interpretation of the drill cores supported by their analysis of niobium, tantalum and other metals of interest did not confirm the presence of a carbonatite. The highest niobium grade intercepted comes from the SQ-15-08 drilling and amounts to 0.021% Nb2O5 over a length of 1.2m.
The geology intersected by drilling confirms the validity of the results of the previous interpretation, which is to have a circular shape alkaline system. However, mineralogical zones, types of alterations and lack of carbonatite dyke suggest that the carbonatite, if it exists, would be very deep. The presence of anomalous rare earth pegmatitic syenite dyke suggests that a dyke similar to the one of Crevier could be discovered one day by prospection.
368 samples, on a total of 389 samples sawn and prepared, were analyzed for their niobium and tantalum content mainly. They were analyzed by XRF on fused borate beads. An instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was also performed on 327 samples.
Quality control
As part of the exploration drilling campaign on the Samaqua property, quality control was carried out at two levels: by IOS and Actlabs laboratory. IOS introduces certified reference materials, internal reference materials or quartz placebo, approximately every 10 samples. Actlabs uses a set of certified reference materials between samples sequences. They also perform analytical replicates for each group of samples to ensure repeatability of the generated results.
"We are disappointed with the drilling results on Samaqua because we had high expectations, and that given the challenging environment for exploration companies", commented Claude Dufresne, President and CEO. "We will not carry on with exploration work on Samaqua for now. We are however fortunate to be able to continue to explore on a sector that looks more promising for niobium that is the Prairie Lake property in Ontario," added M. Dufresne.
Marc Boisvert, Eng., acted as the qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. He reviewed and approved the technical and scientific content of this press release.