Tres-Or Announces Findings of Guigues Pipe Historical Work Re-Examination, Details of Proposed 2019 Drilling and Modern Microdiamond Testing Programs, and Reports that it is in Discussions Regarding the Optioning of its Fontana Gold Project
Tres-Or Announces Findings of Guigues Pipe
Historical Work Re-Examination, Details of
Proposed 2019 Drilling and Modern
Microdiamond Testing Programs, and Reports
that it is in Discussions Regarding the
Optioning of its Fontana Gold Project
VANCOUVER
,
May 28, 2019
/CNW/ - Tres-Or Resources Ltd. ("
Tres-Or
" or the "
Company
")
(
TSXV: TRS, OTCPK: TRSFF
) is pleased to announce that an extensive re-examination was
recently conducted regarding the nature and extent of historical work on the Company's 100%
owned
Guigues
kimberlite pipe near
Notre-Dame-du-Nord
, Québec (the "
Guigues Pipe
"). As
detailed in this news release, a re-examination of the historical work from the early 1990s has
concluded that work performed by a previous operator should be considered either fatally flawed or
be heavily-discounted. This work comprised a 2 to 3 tonne RC sample at a time in 1992 just after
the first discovery of diamonds in northern
Canada
, when no consistent methods, procedures and
protocols were widely known for use in the rapidly developing diamond exploration industry in
Canada
. The Company is also providing a comprehensive summary of its proposed 2019 Guigues
Pipe exploration program.
The Company also reports that it is currently in confidential discussions with an exploration company
to option its gold project near
Amos
, Québec (the "
Fontana Gold Project
"). There are no
assurances that these discussions will result in a final agreement and updates on the discussions will
be reported as required. All dollar amounts are in Canadian dollars.
A re-examination of the Guigues Pipe has concluded that the work completed in the early 1990s
by a previous operator has been reported incorrectly in numerous published sources including
the
Northern Miner
and government publications as detailed below. No reports by the operator
were made public.
No industry-accepted methods were used for drilling or sampling at the Guigues Pipe as
consistent methods, procedures and protocols did not yet exist in the rapidly developing
diamond exploration industry in
Canada
in 1992.
No samples from this work were processed or analyzed at an independent microdiamond
testing facility.
Accordingly, the results of the previous operator should be considered either fatally flawed or
be heavily-discounted.
The next logical step is to properly assess the Guigues Pipe.
$440,000
proposed 2019 exploration program for the purpose of collecting core samples for
modern microdiamond testing of the Guigues Pipe, which has never been done.
Additional
$239,000
proposed exploration expenditures to develop two other high-priority
kimberlite pipe targets to collect core samples for microdiamond testing.
The Company is also in confidential discussions to option its Fontana Gold Project; however,
there are no assurances that these discussions will result in a final agreement.
The Company has posted a new investor presentation regarding the Guigues Pipe on its website's
landing page (
www.tres-or.com
).
Why is the Work on the Guigues Pipe from the Early 1990s Fatally Flawed?
The Guigues Pipe was discovered in 1983 by De Beers before their discovery of the Victor
kimberlite pipe near
Attawapiskat
in northern
Ontario
in 1987, and before DiaMet Minerals Ltd.'s
1991 discovery of what is now the Ekati Diamond Mine in the
Northwest Territories; Canada's
first
diamond mine. The discovery of economic diamond concentrations in northern
Canada
helped
promote the previously under-recognized importance of eclogite garnets with diamond inclusion
compositions for diamond exploration; an importance that has received industry-wide recognition
over the past decade.
De Beers' claims lapsed in 1989 on the Guigues Pipe and the area was staked by another operator.
At that point in time, the appropriate methods for drilling, collecting samples, processing samples,
and analyzing samples for microdiamonds were generally closely guarded industry secrets. This
operator drilled three reverse-circulation ("
RC
") drill holes into the northern lobe of the Guigues Pipe.
None of this historical test work has been officially reported, and no assessment work reports were
filed. Based upon new information recently reported to the Company, descriptions of the test work
that have made it into the public record are now confirmed to have been incorrect. For example, only
2 to 3 tonnes were collected from the three RC drill holes, rather than the erroneously reported 23
tonnes as printed in the
Northern Miner
on
April 5, 1993
, and later cited in Dr.
Ron Sage's
seminal
1996 report for the Ontario Geological Survey.
In addition, RC drilling is not the industry-accepted method to collect samples for microdiamond
testing and no microdiamond tests were made. Independent modern microdiamond testing facilities
were not readily available in
Canada
at the time.
Despite not yet having industry-accepted drilling, sampling, and processing methods to apply, the
fact that the
Northern Miner
also reported the 1992 test did recover a colourless 2mm x 1mm x
0.5mm macrodiamond from the Guigues Pipe, in the same
April 5, 1993
article, is encouraging. If
correct, the recovery of a macrodiamond would be a positive indicator for the project as it would
support the view that the Guigues Pipe may be diamondiferous.
Furthermore, the RC drill holes were limited to the northern lobe of the Guigues Pipe, which is less
prospective relative to the central and southern portions of the pipe as suggested by Dr.
Cookenboo's 2010 analysis, which is described in detail in the section below titled, "Why are the
Guigues Pipe and Surrounding Targets Prospective?". For context, the Guigues Pipe covers an area
of approximately seven hectares based upon ground magnetics, which is equivalent to the surface
area of about 15 football fields.
Consistent with its prior disclosure, Tres-Or strongly believes that historic work on the Guigues Pipe
from the early 1990s is fundamentally flawed and should therefore be either disregarded or heavily
discounted, and the Company continues to hold the opinion that the Guigues Pipe is highly
prospective for diamonds.
As a result, the Company intends to use industry-standard drilling and sampling techniques to collect
core samples from the most prospective areas of the Guigues Pipe for the first microdiamond
testing at an independent and modern microdiamond testing facility.
Proposed 2019 Guigues Project Exploration Program
The Company plans to drill its 100% owned Guigues Pipe in 2019. The primary purpose of the drill
program is to collect core samples for modern microdiamond testing, which has never been done on
the property before. The Company also plans to conduct targeted exploration activities in the vicinity
of the Guigues Pipe and also expects to drill two of these suspected kimberlite pipes to collect
samples for microdiamond and indicator mineral testing.
Given the recovery of encouraging quantities of eclogite garnets with diamond inclusion
compositions, and the potential for high-quality diamonds as suggested by production from the Victor
Mine within the same geological trend, Tres-Or strongly believes the Guigues Pipe merits direct
testing for microdiamonds at a modern independent Canadian microdiamond laboratory. The budget
for this part of the 2019 Guigues Pipe exploration program is approximately
$440,000
, including a
10% contingency. The Company anticipates that this drilling program will commence near the end of
the third quarter and that the microdiamond testing results will be available near the end of the year.
This summer, the Company also plans to commence a comprehensive exploration program at its
Guigues Project. The goal of this phase of the exploration program is to quickly conduct a regional
surface till sampling program for indicator minerals over the high-priority anomalies near the Guigues
Pipe that were identified from the Company's 2015 helicopter-borne Mag-EM survey. The results of
this work will be used to prioritize targets for follow-up sampling to confirm the presence of
kimberlite, and to provide core samples for indicator mineral compositions by electron microprobe
analysis. The budget for this first phase of the 2019 exploration program is approximately
$63,000
,
including a 10% contingency.
Near the end of the third calendar quarter, the Company also plans to drill 150-metre core drill holes
into the two high-priority exploration targets generated from the summer exploration program
described above, which will provide samples for modern microdiamond testing. The budget for this
second phase of the 2019 exploration program is approximately
$176,000
, including a 10%
contingency. The Company plans to drill-test additional high-priority exploration targets in 2020.
The total 2019 Guigues Project exploration program budget is approximately
$679,000
, including a
10% contingency. It is expected that these expenditures will be classified as eligible expenditures for
Québec flow-through.
Please refer to the Company website (
www.tres-or.com
) for an updated presentation on its Guigues
Project.
Why are the Guigues Pipe and Surrounding Targets Prospective?
The Guigues Pipe is part of Tres-Or's 100% owned Guigues Project and is only subject to a 2%
royalty. The Guigues Pipe is located approximately 10 kilometres east of
Notre-Dame-du-Nord
,
Québec.
Notre-Dame-du-Nord
is located where the Ontario River feeds into the northern limits of
Lake Timiskaming, a large lake that straddles the provincial boundary between
Ontario
and Québec.
The Guigues Project is in close proximity to infrastructure, including paved roads, electrical power
lines, a hydroelectric power dam, and modern telecommunications. The infrastructure near the
Guigues Project site contrasts significantly with most other diamond project sites in
Canada
, which
are principally remote fly-in/fly-out sites. As a result of being in close proximity to infrastructure,
exploration costs are relatively lower and the investment economic hurdles for a potential mine
development in the
Notre-Dame-du-Nord
region is expected to be substantially lower relative to fly-
in/fly-out mines.
The Lake Timiskaming region has a long history of mining. Exploration for diamonds in the vicinity
began when the legendary 800-carat Nipissing Yellow Diamond was found during the development
of the silver mines in
Cobalt, Ontario
, sometime between 1903 and 1905. The Nipissing Yellow
Diamond was cut into eight smaller diamonds, but the source of this goose egg-sized diamond has
not yet been determined.
The Guigues Pipe was discovered in 1983 by De Beers before their 1987 discovery of the Victor
kimberlite pipe near
Attawapiskat
in northern
Ontario
(the "
Victor Pipe
"), and before DiaMet
Minerals Ltd.'s 1991 discovery of what is now the Ekati Diamond Mine in the
Northwest Territories;
Canada's
first diamond mine. The discovery of economic diamond concentrations in northern
Canada
helped promote the previously under-recognized importance of eclogite garnets with diamond
inclusion compositions for diamond exploration; an importance that has only received industry-wide
recognition over the past decade.
The
Guigues
claims lapsed on De Beers in 1989, well before De Beers decided to reassess the
Victor Pipe in the late 1990s following the recognition of the importance of eclogite garnets with
diamond inclusion compositions. After more intense testing, including assessment for eclogite
garnets and modern microdiamond testing, De Beers eventually developed the Victor Pipe into
Ontario's
first and only diamond mine.
In 2003, Tres-Or acquired the Guigues Pipe's encompassing claims as part of a strategic 147-claim
package transaction. Tres-Or systematically explored its extensive land package, which it believed
was prospective for diamondiferous kimberlite pipes. Within a few short years, Tres-Or discovered
several kimberlite pipes, including the massive 21-hectare Lapointe kimberlite pipe in 2005, which
sparked a large staking rush in the area. The Lapointe kimberlite pipe led to a flurry of exploration
deals with several partners exploring Tres-Or's land package under option agreements, but the
Company never optioned the Guigues Pipe as field work has always pointed back to it.
In the wake of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, the Company's plans to properly test the Guigues
Pipe with modern microdiamond testing methods were put on hold as the interests of exploration-
orientated investors shifted to gold projects at that time. As a result, Tres-Or added gold exploration
properties in the Abitibi region of Québec to its portfolio but continued to slowly advance the Guigues
Pipe when it was afforded the opportunity.
In late 2009, Tres-Or and Dr.
Harrison Cookenboo
, a globally-recognized diamond exploration
expert and a Senior Associate Geologist at Watts, Griffis and McOuat Ltd. ("
WGM
"), collected
small samples from five locations near the top of the Guigues Pipe for kimberlite indicator mineral
analyses. Dr. Cookenboo and Tres-Or completed electron microprobe analyses at the
University of
British Columbia
("
UBC
") that characterized and quantified the presence of kimberlite and diamond
indicator minerals.
Dr. Cookenboo's work identified the presence of diamond inclusion composition eclogite garnets,
chromite and chrome diopside, as well as other important kimberlite indicator minerals such as
chromium-pyrope ("Cr-pyrope"), forsteritic olivine, and magnesium-ilmenite ("Mg-ilmenite"). The
eclogite garnets with diamond inclusion compositions are of especially high priority and point to
important diamond potential in kimberlite pipes; an importance that has received industry-wide
recognition over the past decade (Duffett and Cookenboo, 2010; Assessment Report on the RC Drill
Program for Recovery and Analysis of Kimberlite Indicator Minerals, Guigues Kimberlite Pipe, for
Tres-Or Resources Ltd.; filed with, and available from, the Québec government).
Further, the recovery of eclogite garnets with diamond inclusion compositions from the Guigues Pipe
highlights the potential for high-quality diamonds. It is especially encouraging as it points to potential
similarities to eclogite and lherzolite garnets from De Beer's Victor diamond mine and Metalex's U2
pipe (60 km west of Victor), both located within the same Superior Craton and along the same Mid-
Continent Rift, as detailed recently in Stachel
et al.,
2017 ("The Victor Diamond Mine"; 11
th
IKC
Extended Abstracts; and Metalex Ventures Ltd. news release dated
April 1, 2009
as available on
www.sedar.com
.)
In early 2015, the results of Dr. Cookenboo's and UBC's analyses on the Guigues Pipe were re-
analyzed by Dr.
Charles Fipke's
C.F. Minerals Research Ltd. ("
CFM
") laboratory. CFM provided the
Company with a diamond indicator classification that affirmed the presence of highly encouraging
quantities and classifications of numerous eclogite garnets with diamond inclusion ("
DI
"), probable DI
compositions, and
possible
DI compositions, as well as other important diamond indicator minerals.
A summary of the CFM diamond indicator classification results is presented in the following table:
CFM Laboratory Classification
(1)
Diamond Associated Compositions
EG: 7 DI + 12 prob. DI + 18
possible
DI
PY G-11: 5 DI
OLV: 23 of 74 DI or DI overlap
CHR: 1 DI
(1)
DI = Diamond Inclusions
Historical results discussed above regarding Tres-Or's sampling and subsequent microprobe
indicator mineral analysis on the Guigues Kimberlite in 2009 were verified by the use of appropriate
standards and procedures at the independent laboratory Overburden Drilling Management ("
ODM
")
and UBC, under the supervision of H. Cookenboo, Qualified Person as defined in NI43-101, who also
approved this news release. Interpretations of diamond prospectivity were further verified by re-
classification of the microprobe data at CFM, and by comparison to published data regarding the
Victor Diamond Mine and U2 kimberlite pipe, as described in the text.
Verification that the results of the 2 to 3 tonne test at
Guigues
in 1992 were erroneously reported in
the
Northern Miner
and elsewhere is based upon recent conversations by Tres-Or (including L.
Duffett, President and P.Geo, who approved this news release) with a participant in the work during
1992 and the lack of apparent residue at the site that would be consistent with a 23-tonne sample
being extracted. Tres-Or cannot verify this information more confidently, given the limits imposed by
length of time passed, except by completing work as in the recommended 2019 drilling and
microdiamond testing program.
Fontana Gold Project Update
With respect to Tres-Or's gold projects, which encompass about 200 contiguous claims on the
Québec side of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt (the "
Fontana Gold Project
"), the Company believes
that it has sufficiently advanced these properties to attract a strong option partner with the
necessary technical skills to develop them further.
Tres-Or is currently in confidential discussions with a technically-strong private exploration company
to option the Fontana Gold Project. Although Tres-Or is optimistic, there are no assurances that
these discussions will result in an option agreement. The Company will provide an update on the
discussions as required.
About Tres-Or Resources Ltd.
Tres-Or Resources Ltd. is a Canadian resource company focused on exploring for diamonds and
gold resources in the Témiscamingue and Abitibi regions of Québec that is listed on the TSX Venture
Exchange under the trading symbol "TRS". Additional information related to the Company is available
on SEDAR and on the Company's website (
www.tres-or.com
).
On behalf of the Board of Directors
"Laura Lee Duffett"
Laura Lee Duffett
, P.Geo.
President and CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as the term is
defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy
or accuracy of this news release.
Qualified Persons
Disclosure of a scientific or technical nature related to the Company's projects and exploration
activities in this news release was prepared under the supervision of Dr.
Harrison O. Cookenboo
,
B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D., P.Geo., the Company's independent Qualified Person (as such term is defined
in
National Instrument 43-101
), and Ms.
Laura Lee Duffett
, P.Geo., the Company's President and
CEO, who is a non-independent Qualified Person, both of whom have reviewed and approved the
technical and scientific portions of this presentation. Portions of the information are based on
assumptions, qualifications, and procedures that may not be fully described herein and for which
there may be no supporting technical report prepared in accordance with
National Instrument 43-
101.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains projections and forward-looking information that involve various risks and
uncertainties, including, without limitation, statements regarding the potential extent of mineralization,
resources, reserves, exploration results and plans and objectives of the Company. These risks and
uncertainties include, but are not restricted to, the early stage development of the Company and its
projects; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; capital market
conditions and market prices for securities, junior market securities and mining exploration company
securities; commodity prices, the amount of geological data available, the uncertain reliability of
drilling results and geophysical and geological data and the interpretation thereof and the need for
adequate financing for future exploration and development efforts. There can be no assurance that
such statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially
from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-
looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are
made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company assumes no obligation
to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions
change.
SOURCE
Tres-Or Resources Ltd.
View original content to download multimedia:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2019/28/c9705.html
%SEDAR: 00008208E
For further information:
Laura Lee Duffett, President & CEO: +1 (604) 541-8376 - info@tres-
or.com; David Vinokurov, Sniper Capital Corp: +1 (416) 716-9281 - [email protected],
Website: www.tres-or.com
CO: Tres-Or Resources Ltd.
CNW 09:05e 28-MAY-19