Montreal, Québec, Canada, February 10, 2022 – MONARCH MINING CORPORATION (“Monarch” or the “Corporation”) (TSX: GBAR) (OTCQX: GBARF) is pleased to report additional results from its 2021 underground drilling program on its wholly-owned Beaufor Mine gold project, located 20 kilometres east of Val-d’Or, Québec. The results include several high-grade intersections, including 52.19 g/t Au over 2.1 m, 44.9 g/t Au over 1.4 m, 16.97 g/t Au over 3.6 m, 57.0 g/t Au over 0.8 m, 9.52 g/t Au over 3.6 m, 20.67 g/t Au over 1.5 m and 59.0 g/t Au over 0.5 m. Much of the underground drilling was aimed at expanding known ore zones, defining several of the zones with a focus on production and testing new areas with potential to add upside to the Beaufor deposit. An overwhelming majority of these favourable results are within 100 metres of the current workings.
The Beaufor Mine began commercial production in the early 1930s and over the years has produced over 1.1 million ounces of gold. The mine is currently on care and maintenance, which has given Monarch an opportunity to drill-test targets throughout the mine area. In June 2020, the Corporation initiated a 42,500-metre diamond drilling program to test two types of targets: the areas around historical high-grade intersections near the existing underground infrastructure, and isolated resource blocks, which are typically defined by a single drill intersection. Both of these “near-mine” targets can often be tested from the existing underground workings, generally by holes less than 200 metres long. Currently, 263 holes totalling 44,039 metres have been completed during the exploration and definition program. Given the positive results, additional holes are being drilled to allow the zones in question to be converted into reserves and included in a future mine plan. Monarch is continuing its exploration definition drilling, with five underground drill rigs.
Underground development and rehabilitation are ongoing in the W and 350 zones, which are easily accessible from the surface ramp located 350 metres from the main Beaufor shaft. The surface ramp providing access to the W and 350 zones presently extends to a vertical depth of 180 metres below surface.
BBA Inc. finalized the mineral resource estimate (“MRE”) for the Beaufor Mine in August 2021. An additional 26,243 metres of drilling in 110 drill holes has been completed since.
“Beaufor continues to show strong exploration potential at depth, as we continue to encounter high-grade gold mineralization in various parts of the mine,” said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and Chief Executive Officer of Monarch. “With five drills currently at work, we look forward to releasing additional drilling results as they become available and returning the mine to producing status later in 2022.”
Sampling consists of sawing the drill core into equal halves along its main axis and shipping one of the halves to ALS Canada in Val-d’Or, Quebec, and AGAT Laboratories in Mississauga, Ontario, for assaying. The samples are crushed, pulverized and assayed by fire assay, with atomic absorption finish. Samples exceeding 10.0 g/t Au are re-assayed using the gravity method and samples containing visible gold are assayed using the metallic screen method. Monarch uses a comprehensive QA/QC protocol, including the insertion of standards, blanks and duplicates.
The technical and scientific content of this press release has been reviewed and approved by Christian Tessier, P.Geo., the Corporation’s qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.
About Beaufor
The Beaufor Mine is located within the Bourlamaque Batholith at the eastern contact with the Dubuisson Formation. The Bourlamaque Batholith, a synvolcanic intrusion, is a major geological feature of the Val-d’Or mining camp. It is a quartziferous granodiorite cut by fine-grained diorite dykes. Gold mineralization occurs in veins associated with shear zones dipping moderately south. Mineralization is associated with quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veins resulting from the filling of shear and extension fractures. Gold-bearing veins show a close association with mafic dykes intruding the granodiorite. A National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate for the Beaufor Mine property was prepared for Monarch Mining in August 2021 by Charlotte Athurion, P. Geo, BBA Inc. The mineral resource estimate is listed in the table below.
Table 1: 2021 mineral resource estimate for the Beaufor Mine
Mineral resource estimate notes:
About Monarch
Monarch Mining Corporation (TSX: GBAR) (OTCQX: GBARF) is a fully integrated mining company that owns four projects, including the Beaufor Mine, which has produced more than 1 million ounces of gold over the last 30 years. Other assets include the Croinor Gold, McKenzie Break and Swanson properties, all located near Monarch’s wholly owned 750 tpd Beacon Mill. Monarch owns 29,000 hectares (290 km2) of mining assets in the prolific Abitibi mining camp that host a combined measured and indicated gold resource of 478,982 ounces and a combined inferred resource of 383,393 ounces.
Forward-Looking Statements
The forward-looking statements in this press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Monarch’s actual results, performance and achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied therein. Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
Table 2: Beaufor Mine significant assay results (underground drilling)
Table 3: Beaufor Mine drill hole locations
Table 4: Monarch combined gold resources
1 Source: NI 43-101 Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate for the Beaufor Mine Project, July 23, 2021, Val-d’Or, Québec, Canada, Charlotte Athurion, P. Geo., Clovis Auger, P. Geo., and Dario Evangelista, P. Eng., BBA Inc.
2 Source: NI 43-101 Technical Evaluation Report on the McKenzie Break Property, February 1, 2021, Val-d’Or, Québec, Canada, Alain-Jean Beauregard, P.Geo., Daniel Gaudreault, P.Eng., Geologica Groupe-Conseil Inc., and Merouane Rachidi, P.Geo., Claude Duplessis, P.Eng., GoldMinds GeoServices Inc.
3 Source: NI 43-101 Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate for the Swanson Project, January 22, 2021, Val-d’Or, Québec, Canada, Christine Beausoleil, P. Geo. and Alain Carrier, P. Geo., InnovExplo Inc.
4 Numbers may not add due to rounding.
1 Source: Monarch Gold prefeasibility study (January 19, 2018). This resource was completed for Monarch Gold and has not been reviewed by a qualified person for Monarch Mining as required under National Instrument 43-101 and is thus considered as an historical estimate. Furthermore, a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves; and therefore, Monarch is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves.
2 Numbers may not add due to rounding.
President and CEO
1-888-994-4465 x 201
jm.lacoste@monarchmining.com