Investment Update

RNS Number : 0582R

Mineral & Financial Invest. Limited

03 March 2021

 

Mineral and Financial Investments Limited

Investment Update: Redcorp Increases M&I Resources By 44% & Inferred Resources By 21% At Lagoa Salgada South Zone

HIGHLIGHTS:

· Measured and Indicated Resource Estimate increased by 44% to 4.4Mt at 1.51% CuEq[1] Inferred Resource increased 21% to 7.7 Mt at 1.41% CuEq¹

· Lagoa Salgada South Deposit remains open to the north and south on strike and at depth

· Demonstrates significant growth from successful Phase 1 drill program

· Phase II drill program underway to expand South Zone with intent to eclipse North Zone

· This resource is in addition to the Lagoa Salgada North Zone M&I resource

GEORGE TOWN CAYMAN ISLANDS, March 3, 2021 - Mineral and Financial Investments Limited (LSE-AIM: MAFL) ("M&FI" or the "Company") is very pleased to announce that Redcorp Empreedimentos Mineiros Lda. (Redcorp), M&FI's 75% owned investee company, has received an updated Mineral Resource Estimate, funded by Ascendant Resources Inc. (Ascendant), for the copper rich South Zone at its Lagoa Salgada project located on the Iberian Pyrite Belt ("IPB") in Portugal. The new Mineral Resource Estimate was prepared in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") by Micon International (Micon) and resulted in a significant upgrade and expansion of the resources at the South Zone at the Lagoa Salgada Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide ("VMS") Project. The South Zone is less than 1000m from the North Zone. The Lagoa Salgada North Zone hosts a zinc rich Measured and Indicated resource of 10.334M tonnes (using 2.9 % cut-off grade) at an Avg ZnEq[2] grade of 9.06% and an Inferred resource of 2.502M tonnes (using a 2.8% cut-off grade) grading 5.93% ZnEq² (See RNS of January 14, 2020)

Jacques Vaillancourt, President & CEO of M&FI stated, "The assay results from the drill holes of the Phase 1 drill program showed that, as press released in January 2021, the 50m step-out holes included long intercepts with substantial grades that were highly encouraging and confirmed our partner's, Ascendant Resources, resource expansion thesis of the South Zone to the south and east. The updated Mineral Resource Estimate and the large increase in resulting tonnage at consistent grades, highlights how it is possible to add material volume to the overall size of the South Zone Resource. There is justified cause for high optimism that Lagoa Salgada can be grown quickly and efficiently to a size of economic significance to M&FI. The whole Lagoa Salgada Project now has a total resource of almost to 25Mt"

A summary of the new Mineral Resource Estimate for the South Zone is set out in Table 1 below. It should be noted that these resources are in addition to the current Mineral Resource Estimate for the North Zone at Lagoa Salgada:

Table 1-A

Lagoa Salgada Updated Mineral Resource Estimate (Full 100%)

South Zones Mineral Resource Estimate - Effective January 31, 2021

					Average Grade						Contained Metal
Deposit	Cat.	Min Zones	Cut-off CuEq%	Tonnes (Kt)	Cu (%)	Zn (%)	Pb (%)	Ag (g/t)	Au (g/t)	CuEq (%)	Cu (Kt)	Zn (Kt)	Pb (Kt)	Ag (Koz)	Au (Koz)
South	Indicated	Str/Fr	1.1	4,416	0.45	1.48	0.87	18	0.07	1.51	19.7	65.2	38.4	2,528.6	10.0
South	Inferred	Str/Fr	1.1	7,668	0.48	1.18	0.77	19	0.07	1.41	37.0	90.9	59.1	4,637.5	17.7

Table 1-B

Lagoa Salgada Updated Mineral Resource Estimate (Net 75% to MAFL)

South Zones Mineral Resource Estimate - Effective January 31, 2021

					Average Grade						Contained Metal
Deposit	Cat.	Min Zones	Cut-off CuEq%	Tonnes (Kt)	Cu (%)	Zn (%)	Pb (%)	Ag (g/t)	Au (g/t)	CuEq1 (%)	Cu (Kt)	Zn (Kt)	Pb (Kt)	Ag (Koz)	Au (Koz)
South	Indicated	Str/Fr	1.1	3,312	0.45	1.48	0.87	18	0.07	1.51	14.9	49.0	28.8	1,916.7	7.5
South	Inferred	Str/Fr	1.1	5,751	0.48	1.18	0.77	19	0.07	1.41	27.6	67.9	44.3	3,513.1	12.9

NOTES TO TABLES 1-A and 1-B:

1. Mineral resources unlike mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues.

2. The mineral resources have been estimated in accordance with the CIM Best Practice Guidelines (2019) and the CIM Definition Standards (2014)

3. The resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 1.10 % CuEq¹.

4. Totals may not tally due to rounding

5. CuEq% = ((Zn Grade*25.35)+(Pb Grade*23.15)+(Cu Grade * 67.24)+(Au Grade*40.19)+(Ag Grade*0.62))/67.24

6. Metal Prices: Cu $6,724/t, Zn $2,535/t, Pb $2,315/t, Au $1,250/oz, Ag $19.40/oz, Sn $19,175/t

7. Densities: Str/Fr=3.0

8. The Resource Estimates were prepared by Charley Murahwi, M.Sc., P.Geo., Pr. Sci. Nat., FAusIMM, Senior Economic Geologist, Micon International Limited for Ascendant Resources Inc (Operator) and Redcorp Empreediments Mineiros Lda.

The new Mineral Resource Estimate was completed after the recent Phase 1 drill program focused primarily on step-out drilling in the South Zone to increase the resources along strike. Drilling tested the strong geophysical anomaly in the South Zone which remains open to further expansion. Results demonstrate material growth in the stockwork copper-dominant mineralization with the conversion of significant resources into the Indicated and Inferred categories. To date, the South Zone has been delineated by a total of 9,134 meters of drilling.

The Phase II drill program commenced in late January 2021 (see press release dated January 27, 2021). The South Zone sits on a continuous coincidental Induced Polarization ("IP") chargeability anomaly and stockwork mineralization, significantly providing encouragement for potential exploration upside to continue to expand the resource. The zone has an estimated geological strike length of 1.7km. To date only 900 meters of this strike length has been tested, and it remains open both along strike and at depth.

Below, in Table 2, is a sensitivity table for the South Deposit showing the global mineralized tonnes at various CuEq¹ Cut-off Grades.

Table 2

South Deposit Global Mineralized Tonnes at various CuEq Cut-off Grades

		Average Grade						Contained Metal
Cut-off	Tonnes	CuEq	Cu	Zn	Pb	Ag	Au	CuEq	Cu	Zn	Pb	Ag	Au
	kt	%	%	%	%	g/t	g/t	kt	kt	kt	kt	k oz	k oz
0.9	18,339	1.29	0.41	1.19	0.72	15.96	0.07	237.08	74.72	218.77	132.30	9,407.96	39.52
1.0	14,958	1.37	0.44	1.24	0.76	17.22	0.07	204.98	65.65	185.86	114.04	8,279.72	33.63
1.1	12,084	1.45	0.47	1.29	0.81	18.45	0.07	174.83	56.71	156.08	97.51	7,166.12	27.75
1.2	9,462	1.53	0.50	1.35	0.86	19.68	0.07	144.66	47.16	128.01	81.23	5,986.63	22.06
1.3	7,113	1.62	0.53	1.43	0.92	20.90	0.07	115.30	37.46	101.80	65.55	4,779.41	17.13
1.4	5,391	1.71	0.55	1.53	0.99	21.75	0.08	92.12	29.42	82.64	53.20	3,770.02	13.01
1.5	3,927	1.81	0.56	1.65	1.07	22.64	0.08	70.94	22.09	64.79	41.93	2,858.36	9.64

The South Zone, which makes up this updated Mineral Resource Estimate, saw a substantial conversion of Inferred Resources to Indicated Resources, growing by 44%. It also grew the Inferred resource by 21%. While drilling was limited, the results to date are very encouraging to support the future expansion of the resource.

The Mineral Resource Estimate update incorporates all historic drilling, the drill results from the 2018 and 2019 exploration programs and includes all the most recent holes announced in the Company's recent press releases.

Figure 1

Plan View in the South Zone 2021 Drill Holes

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/0582R_1-2021-3-3.pdf

Mineral Resource Estimate

The Mineral Resource Estimate was prepared for Ascendant Resources and Redcorp by Charley Murahwi, M.Sc., P.Geo., Pr. Sci. Nat., FAusIMM, Senior Economic Geologist at MICON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED ("Micon"). The effective date of this Mineral Resource Estimate is January 31, 2021 and it is based on the South Zone within the LS West region of stockwork style mineralization defined by 21 diamond drill holes totaling 9,134 meters up to December 22, 2020. Leapfrog Geo 6.0.4 software was used to construct three dimensional ("3D") solid models of the stockwork mineralization reflecting a minimum grade of 1.1% CuEq and to assign block grades for copper (%), zinc (%), lead (%), tin (%), silver (g/t), gold (g/t) and density (g/cm3) for Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources using ordinary kriging interpolation methodology and capped 2-m hole assay composites. Up to four interpolation passes were applied using progressively increasing ellipsoid ranges to cover the range of 3D solid model sizes present. Block size is 10 m across strike (x) by 10 m along strike (y) by 10 m vertically (z). Mineral Resource categorization was applied using geometric criteria, i.e., spacing between drill holes/assay composites and variogram ranges.

The new Technical Report to disclose the Mineral Resource Estimate is being prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") and the CIM Standards for mineral disclosure by Micon.

 

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

Analytical work was carried out by ALS Laboratories . Drill core samples were prepared in the ALS Lab, in Seville, Spain . Pulp samples were then sent to their analytical Laboratory in Ireland for analysis.   The core samples are analyzed for gold (ppm) by fire assay (Au‐AA25), and for the other elements by multi element analysis of base metal ores and mill products by optical emission spectrometry using the Varian Vista inductively coupled plasma spectrometer (ME-ICPORE). Samples from the Main Resource, LS_MS_DH ID, are also assayed for Tin (Sn) by ICP-AES after Sodium Peroxide Fusion (Sn-ICP81x).

ALS Laboratories has routine quality control procedures which ensure that every batch of samples includes three sample repeats, two commercial standards and blanks. ALS Laboratories is independent from Ascendant. Ascendant used standard QA/QC procedures when inserting reference standards and blanks for the drilling program.

Qualified Persons

The scientific and technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by References in this announcement to exploration results and resource updates have been approved for release by Joao Barros, BSc (Engineering), MSc (Geology), who has more than 16 years of relevant experience in the field of activity concerned. Mr. Barros is a Member of the Portuguese Engineers Association. Mr. Barros is employed by Redcorp Empreedimentos Mineiros, Lda., a 75% owned subsidiary of M&FI, and has consented to the inclusion of the material in the form and context in which it appears.

The information communicated in this announcement is inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 596/2014

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Katy Mitchell, WH Ireland Limited                                           [phone]

Jon Belliss, Novum Securities Limited                                       [phone]

Jacques Vaillancourt, Mineral & Financial Investments Ltd.      [phone]

Dominic Baretto - Yellow Jersey PR Limited                             [phone]

ABOUT MINERAL AND FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS LIMITED:

Mineral and Financial Investments Limited is a Swiss and Cayman Island based investment company quoted on AIM, a market of the London Stock Exchange. M&FI has in excess of 17 investments in the natural resource sector with the majority in the metals and minerals. M&FI's Net Asset Value per share (NAVPS) is 15.77p, as of September 30, 2020. M&FI's NAVPS has risen at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 28.2% since December 31, 2016.

 

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[1] CuEq% = ((Zn Grade*25.35)+(Pb Grade*23.15)+(Cu Grade * 67.24)+(Au Grade*40.19)+(Ag Grade*0.62))/67.24

[2] ZnEq% = ((Zn Grade*25.35)+(Pb Grade*23.15)+(Cu Grade * 67.24)+(Au Grade*40.19)+(Ag Grade*191.75))/25.35

 

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