prPress Release
June 10, 2014
VIRGINIA PLANS AN EXPLORATION BUDGET OF $7.5 MILLION
FOR ITS 2014 SUMMER-FALL CAMPAIGN
Virginia Mines Inc. (“Virginia”)
wishes to inform its shareholder
s and the financing community that
several exploration programs are
currently in progress or will begin
shortly on different projects all
located in Quebec.
Including work of just over
$5 million
already completed in the winter an
d spring of 2014, Virginia will
have spent, either alone or with partners,
$12.5 million
in exploration work on its projects during the
current year. Work will be carried out mostly on
the James Bay territory, in the Opinaca-Eastmain,
Coulon, La Grande and Caniapiscau regions, on the the
Nunavik Territory and in the vast territory of the
Grenville geological province.
Opinaca-Eastmain Area
Virginia will invest about
$1.3 million
in the greater Eastmain River and Opinaca Reservoir region, a
very fertile area that is host to the world-cl
ass Éléonore deposit and the Eau Claire and Réservoir
deposits, as well as many other
interesting gold showings. The
Anatacau-Wabamisk
project, located to
the southwest of the
Opinaca Reservoir, will benefit from a
$900,000
global budget to carry out a vast
campaign of mechanical stripping,
geological mapping and prospecting. Virg
inia holds a 100% interest in
the
Wabamisk
portion of the project and
has the option of
acquiring IAMGOLD Corporation 100%
participating interest in the
Anatacau
portion in consideration of $3 m
illion exploration work to be carried
out before December 31, 2015. Work carried out since
2012 outlined a very interesting new field of gold-
bearing quartz veins in the east portion of the W
abamisk property. This field of veins, which is
characterized by the frequent presen
ce of visible gold, is of a plur
ikilometric extension and hosts the
Mustang Vein that is traced over 50
0 metres laterally and to a vertic
al depth of 250 metres. The Mustang
Vein, which remains open laterally and at depth, yi
elded up to 23.28 uncut (11.14 cut) g/t Au over
4.6 metres in channel and up to 22
.65 g/t Au over 2.25 metres in dr
illing. This year’s summer work will
test the lateral extensions of this
network of veins as well as many
other targets on the vast Anatacau-
Wabamisk property. Prospecting, stripping and
geochemical surveys are also planned on its
100%-owned
Éléonore Régional
project in the Opinaca Reservoir ar
ea. Virginia will also carry out
regional reconnaissance in t
he Opinaca-Eastmain sector.
Coulon Project
Further to an agreement concluded in early 2014, the
Coulon project is now developed in partnership
with
SODÉMEX Développement, s.e.c.
(“SODÉMEX”) (a subsidiary of
Caisse de dépôt et placement du
Québec
),
Fonds de solidarité des travailleurs du Québec
(F.T.Q.) jointly with
Fonds régional Nord-du-
Québec
(collectively the “Fonds”) and SI
DEX s.e.c. (“SIDEX”). At this
time, the respective partners’
interest is as follows: Virginia (89.8%), SODÉMEX
(4.08%), the Fonds (4.08%
) and SIDEX (2.04%). The
project is located 15 kilometres north of the
Fontanges Airport and consists
of 498 designated claims
covering a surface of
247 square kilometres.
Virginia and its partners will invest
$3.5 million
on the Coulon project during the summer and fall of
2014. First, a program including mechanical strippi
ng, lithogeochemical sampling and detailed mapping
will be carried out in the upcoming summer to outline
new exploration targets in underexplored areas of
the fertile volcanic sequence. Diam
ond drilling of about 10,000 metres will
follow in the upcoming fall to
test the extension of some alr
eady-known lenses as well as new
geological and geophysical targets.
La Grande Belt
Virginia will invest nearly
$500,000
in surface exploration on several of
its gold projects located along the
La Grande volcano-sedimentary belt,
which extends east-west over mo
re than 500 kilometres between
the Radisson and LG-4 sectors. The
Lac Ménarik project, wh
ich contains many gol
d showings, will be
the object of prospecting,
geological mapping and mechanical stripping for a total of
$350,000
. Work is
intended to better understand the geological context
of these numerous showings and to define new
drilling targets. Virginia will also be active on some
other projects situated
within the La Grande belt.
Caniapiscau Area
A
$400,000
budget is earmarked for the upcoming fall on the
Ashuanipi
project located in the southern
portion of the Caniapiscau Reservoir,
about 180 kilometres to the nor
thwest of the mining town of
Fermont. As per an agreement entered into in 2012,
Virginia transferred to Anglo American Exploration
(Canada) Ltd. (“AAEC”) a 50% interest
in all mining titles forming the
Ashuanipi property. To retain its
participation in the property, AAEC mu
st fund an aggregate of $5 milli
on in exploration expenditures over
a five-year period. AAEC may, at its sole discreti
on, accelerate this fundi
ng. Prospecting, mechanical
stripping, mapping and till sampling
planned for the upcoming fall will fo
cus on a very interesting, new
alteration and mineralization system discovered in
2013 in the northeast portion of the project. The
mineralization consists of disseminat
ed pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite
(1-10% in general) and is associated with
metric to plurimetric, calc-silicate
(actinolite-biotite-quartz
) alteration zones within mafic to intermediate
volcanics. Thus far, this kilometr
ic system yielded several values anom
alous in gold, copper and silver.
The best value arises from a channel sample that
returned 2 g/t Au, 10.9 g/t Ag and 1% Cu over 2
metres, including 3.12 g/t Au, 16 g/t Ag and 1.49% Cu ov
er 1 metre. The potential of this new sector was
also highlighted by the presence of Au-Cu-Zn
polymetallic anomalies in till samples.
Generation of New Projects
Again this year, Virginia will spend about
$1 million
for prospecting and evaluating new exploration
targets over the entire James-Bay Territory and to
carry out, in the fall, follow-up work on the best
summer’s results.
Nunavik
Virginia and its partner Altius Minerals Corp
oration (“Altius”) will invest, this summer,
$400,000
to carry
out prospecting, mapping till samp
ling on the Kan propert
y, which is a large gold and base metal
exploration project covering ov
er 30,000 hectares in the Labrador
Trough, 85 kilometres to the
southwest of Kuujjuaq. As
per an agreement entered into in the
winter of 2014, Virginia and Altius
acquired a 100% participat
ion in the Kan property in consi
deration of Virginia’s issuance of
3,571 common shares of its capital share and a cash pay
ment of $25,000 to Rio Silver Inc. (“Rio Silver”),
and a $75,000 cash payment by Altius to Rio S
ilver. This agreement also provides Ressources
Tectonic Inc. with a 2% NSR on 209 claims inclu
ded in the Kan property, half of which (1%) can be
bought back by Virginia and Altius for $500,000 on or
before April 2, 2015 or for $1,500,000 thereafter.
The Kan property covers a regional-scale, silica
te-carbonate iron formati
on, which represents an
important gold metallotect on the property. Work
conducted in the 1990’s led to the discovery of
numerous significant gold showings within this iron
formation with drill results reaching 5 g/t Au over
6 metres (Ferricrete showing) and 9.46 g/t Au ov
er 2 metres (Kan showing)
. Recent work carried
out by Rio Silver in 2011-2012 yielded 3.12 g/t Au
over 13.9 metres in channels and 1.2 g/t Au over
10.4 metres in drilling on the Pump
Pad Ridge showing. In
teresting gold anomalies were also detected
from soil geochemistry above the iron formation and seve
ral of them remain totally unexplained. The
Kan project also offers an interesting potential for bas
e metals, highlighted by the presence of a massive
sulphide showing, which yielded 5.2% Zn, 2.6% Pb,
and 96 g/t Ag over 1.2 metres as well as 10.8% Zn,
7.36% Pb, 270 g/t Ag and 0,76 g/t Au over 0.3 metres
. Rio Silver’s recent wo
rk led to the discovery,
5 kilometres south of this show
ing, of an erratic massive sulphi
de boulder, which yielded 12.23% Zn,
2.29% Pb, 80 g/t Ag and 0.35 g/t Au.
Grenville
This year, Virginia and its partner
Altius Minerals will invest about
$350,000
in regional reconnaissance
and prospecting for Ni-Cu-EGP mi
neralization in the vast Grenville geological province.
Qualified Person
Work has been carried out by the personnel of Virgin
ia Mines, under the supervision of Mr. Paul Archer,
professional engineer geologist. Mr. Archer is a
qualified person as defined
by National Instrument
43-101 and has more than 30 years of experience in ex
ploration. He read and appr
oved the contents of
this press release.
*****
Virginia is very enthusiastic
about starting a new explor
ation season that will
aim at discovering new
mining camps in the James Bay, Nunavik and Grenville
regions. Virginia is pl
eased with its exploration
team’s recognized successes and c
ontribution to the development of
the Quebec Middle North and
Great North, an area which conceal
s an exceptional mining potential.