Northwest Reports New Resource Estimate at the Lorraine Project Resulting IN a Significant Increase to Total Copper- GOLD Resource Base
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News Release
NORTHWEST REPORTS NEW RESOURCE ESTIMATE AT THE LORRAINE
PROJECT RESULTING IN A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE TO TOTAL COPPER-
GOLD RESOURCE BASE
Vancouver, BC – July 27, 2022 – NorthWest Copper Corp. (“NorthWest” or “the Company”) (TSX-V: NWST)
(OTCQX: NWCCF) is pleased to announce a new updated independent, Mineral Resource Estimate
(“MRE”) for its Lorraine property (the “Lorraine Project”), located approximately 280km northwest of
Prince George, BC and approximately 40km from the Company’s Kwanika-Stardust Projects. The MRE has
an effective date of June 30, 2022 and is based on historical drilling from 1949 to 2009. Details of the MRE
are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Mineral Resource Estimate for the Lorraine Project at 0.20% copper cut-off grade
Resource Classification 1 Tonnes
(000s)
Grades
%Cu g/t Au CuEq2
Indicated Resources 12,952 0.55 0.16 0.66
Inferred Resources 45,252 0.43 0.10 0.50
Differences may occur in totals due to rounding
The updated MRE is based on “reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction” and is constrained
in a Lerchs Grossman (LG) open pit shell that was constructed using $US3.50/pound for Cu and
$US1,650/ounce for Au. The Lorraine Project has multiple characteristics that are positive for potential
future development:
• Located in proximity to the proposed infrast ructure at the Kwanika-Stardust Projects (Figure 1);
and has the potential to be included in a regional hub and spoke evaluation;
• Existing road access on the east side of the 56,000-hectare Lorraine Project area;
• Mineralization is shallow, with high copper grades at surface;
• The deposit appears to have favourable geometry for mining (Figure 2-Figure 7);
• Large property with multiple exploration targets (Figure 8); and
• Located in the middle of NorthWest’s extensive portfolio of projects in the region.
“This updated Mineral Resource Estimate adds to our overall copper-gold resource base with both size
and good grades close to surface,” said President and CEO Peter Bell. “Our portfolio continues to deliver
results and the proximity of Lorraine to our flagship Kwanika-Stardust Projects is significant. We have just
begun our work at Lorraine and look forward to our planned first drilling program later this summer.”
1 Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources estimated will be converted
into Mineral Reserves in future. There has been insufficient exploration to define the inferred resources tabulated above as an indicated or measured mineral resource, however, it is reasonably
expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially
affected by geology, environment, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing or other relevant issues. In ferred Mineral Resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their
existence and as to whether they can be mined economically.
2 Assumptions used in USD for the copper equivalent calculation were metal prices of $US3.50/lb. Copper, $US1,650/oz. The following equation was used to calculate copper equivalence:
CuEq = Copper (%) + (Gold (g/t) x 0.6875), which is the conversion at 100% recovery for both metals.
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The Lorraine Project
The Lorraine Project is located in central British Columbia, 280km northwest of Prince George, BC and
approximately 40km from NorthWest’s Kwanika-Stardust Projects (Figure 1), with favourable topography
between the deposits. The Lorraine Project covers 56,000 hectares of ground, while the area containing
the MRE at the 0.20% copper cut-off is 42.1 hectares in size and has a footprint of about 1.8 km by 0.5 km
(Figure 9).
The Lorraine Project deposit is a silica-undersaturated alkalic copper-gold porphyry deposit, which is the
same classification as the Galore Creek and Mount Polley deposits3. Mineralization at the Lorraine Project
is hosted by Early Jurassic syenite, monzonite, and pyroxenite intrusions that are part of the Duckling
Creek Syenite Complex (“DCSC”). At least 20 exploration targets have been identified across the DCSC by
past geological, geochemical, and/or geophysical surveys, however drilling on these prospects is either
absent or very limited.
The MRE at the Lorraine Project extends to surface and includes the historical Lower Main, Upper Main,
and Bishop Zones and intervening rock (Figures 2-7). Copper sulphides manifest various combinations of
chalcopyrite, bornite and chalc ocite, and the concentration of pyrite is relatively low. Gold is spatially
related to the copper mineralization, and elevated concentrations of palladium have been reported in
several published papers.
The Company has a strategic drilling program planned for 2H 2022 in the MRE area at the Lorraine Project
to increase the understanding of the deposit. Additionally, there is a large amount of historical data that
is currently being analyzed, including hist orical drill core that is being relogged. Moving forward the
Company plans to use this data to increase the geological understa nding of the project and target new
areas for exploration.
The MRE is exclusive to the certain portions of the Lorraine Project (Bishop, Lower Main and Upper Main)
and does not include the nearby Top Cat mineral claims.
About The MRE
The updated Lorraine MRE was prepared by Mr. Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo. President and
Principal of APEX Geoscience Ltd. (APEX) and an independent Qualified Person (QP) with assistance from
Mr. Deon Van der Heever of RockRidge Partnership & Associates with an effective date of June 30th, 2022.
Mr. Dufresne takes responsibility for the MRE, which replaces the previous historic Lorraine mineral
resource estimate4. The MRE was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards
of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43 -101”) and CIM Definition standards (2014) . The database for
the Lorraine Project contains 398 drillholes representing 63,445.03 meters of drilling. Grade estimation
in the MRE is based on 167 drillholes and 25,506.42 m eters of drilling. Of this, 23,226.51 meters was in
143 diamond drill holes and 2,279.91 meters in 24 percussion drill holes. Drill Hole spacing is generally
3 Lang, J.R., Lueck, B., Mortensen, J.K., Russell, J.K., Stanley, C.R., and Thompson, J.F.H. (1995). Triassic-Jurassic silica-undersaturated and silica-saturated alkalic intrusions in the Cordillera of
British Columbia: Implications for arc magmatism. Geology, v. 23, p. 451-454.
4 See updated and amended NI 43-101 Technical Report entitled “Summary Report on the Lorraine-Jajay Property Omineca Mining Division, B.C.” with an effective date of December 16, 2015,
as amended July 22, 2016, which can be found on Lorraine Copper Corp.’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
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less than 50m in densely drilled portions of the project with a plan view showing the drill hole locations in
the resource boundary domain is in Figure 10. The MRE incorporates geological and structural constraints
developed through lithological and structural modeling as well as familiarity of the deposit by NorthWest’s
geologists. An optimized pit shell further constrains the MRE volume to fulfil the requirement for
“reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction” and the assumptions are outlined below:
Table 2: Assumptions used for the LG pit shell and reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction
Item unit value
Copper Price USD/lb $3.50
Gold Price USD/oz $1650.00
Mining Cost CAD/t $3.50
Processing + G&A CAD/t $14.50
USD – CAD Exchange Rate - 0.77
Assumed Copper Recovery % 90
Assumed Gold Recovery % 85
For grade estimation, 3 m composites were created within the domain boundaries using the best -fit
method. Capping values on composites were used to limit the impact of outliers. Copper was capped at
2.95%, 2.00% and 2.78% for the Bishop, Lower Main, and Upper Main Zones , respectively. Gold values
were capped at 0.80 g/t, 1.00 g/t and 2.50 g/t for the Bishop, Lower Main, and Upper Main Zones ,
respectively. Block tonnes were estimated using 2.70 g/cm3 for mineralized material.
The block model was created using 20 m x 20 m x 5 m blocks in the X, Y and Z directions . To honor the
volumes, the model was sub-blocked to 5 m x 5 m in the X and Y direction and truncated against domain
boundaries in the Z direction. Sub-blocks retained the grade of the parent block. Grades were estimated
with ordinary kriging and anisotropic search orientations along mineralized trends. Three estimation
passes were used, whereby each successive pass utilized a less restrictive sample search strategy for block
estimation. Search radii for the first estimation pass equals half of the variogram range. The second pass
increases the search distance to the variogram range, and the third pass further expands to more than
twice the variogram range.
The block model was classified into Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource categories. Blocks were
assigned a preliminary classification based on the variography, drillhole spacing , domain and number of
samples used in the estimation of each pass. The Indicated category consists of blocks estimated in the
first pass with the range being half of the variogram distance. Blocks estimated in the second pass
employed a search distance of the full variogram range and were allocated to the Inferred Resource
category. Blocks that were estimated in the third pass with the more relaxed search parameters were also
assigned to the Inferred Mineral Resource category.
A NI 43-101 technical report will be filed under the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com within
45 days.
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Table 3: MRE Table by Zone
Domain Class5 Tonnes
(000s)
Avg Cu
Grade (pct)
Avg Au
Grade (g/t)
Cu Au
(‘000 lbs) ('000 t. 0z)
Bishop
Indicated 2,541 0.58 0.12 32,284 10
Inferred 9,082 0.51 0.10 101,730 29
Lower Main
Indicated 3,828 0.45 0.15 38,342 18
Inferred 21,282 0.38 0.07 179,032 49
Upper Main
Indicated 6,584 0.59 0.19 85,467 40
Inferred 15,089 0.44 0.14 147,169 67
Total Indicated 12,952 0.55 0.16 156,093 68
Inferred 45,452 0.43 0.10 427,931 145
Differences may occur in totals due to rounding
About Lorraine
The Company’s subsidiary Sun Metals Corp. (“Sun Metals”) entered into an agreement with Teck
Resources Limited (“Teck”) in November 2020 pursuant to which Sun Metals acquired Teck’s 51% joint
venture interest in the Lorraine Project and became the 100% -owner of the Lorraine Project claims.
Pursuant to the terms of the purchase agreement and as of the date of this news release, Teck is entitled
to certain outstanding and contingent payments that may be made in cash or common shares of the
Company as follows:
• $500,000 payable on November 25, 2022;
• $500,000 upon a preliminary economic assessment;
• $2,000,000 upon a feasibility study; and
• $5,000,000 upon a construction decision.
Under the terms of the purchase agreement, Teck has also retained a 1.0% net smelter returns (“NSR”)
royalty on all claims that are not already burdened by a royalty and a 0.25% NSR royalty on all claims that
are subject to the existing Tam-Misty royalties. Additionally, if the Company sells or options all or a portion
of the property to a third party at any time during a 60 -month period commencing from the date of the
agreement, NorthWest will pay to Teck 20% of the sale proceeds, net of exploration expenses incurred on
the property by NorthWest following closing.
5 Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic v iability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources estimated will be converted
into Mineral Reserves in future. There has been insufficient exploration to define the inferred resources tabulated above as an indicated or measured mineral resource, however, it is reasonably
expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially
affected by geology, environment, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing or other relevant issues. Inferred Mineral Resour ces have a great amount of uncertainty as to their
existence and as to whether they can be mined economically.
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Figure 1. Plan view map of the Lorraine Project and Kwanika-Stardust Project
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Figure 2. Plan View of Lorraine Block model and section lines. Reasonable prospects for eventual
economic extraction as dark grey surface.
Figure 3. Long Section A-A’ looking northeast. “Reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction”
open pit displayed as black line. The main mineralized domains are highlighted with a red line.
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Figure 4. Long Section B-B’ looking northeast. “Reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction”
open pit displayed as black line. The main mineralized domains are highlighted with a red line.
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Figure 5. Cross section C-C’ looking southeast. “Reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction”
open pit displayed as black line. The main mineralized domains are highlighted with a red line.