TGX Energy & Resources Inc V.TGX

NEWS: 6/21 "mini-bulk sampling..."

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News Release - Monday, June 21, 2004 True North Gems initiates mini-bulk sampling on Baffin Island sapphire property Vancouver, June 21, 2004 --- True North Gems (TGX: TSX-V) announced today that it has initiated mini-bulk sampling at the "Beluga" sapphire occurrence located in the Lake Harbour District of Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. The "Beluga" sapphires were discovered near Kimmirut in 2002, by Seemeega and Nowdla Aqpik. They are a significant asset for True North and represent a rare gemstone occurrence due to their natural, intense blue colour. Unlike most sapphires for sale in the world that have required heat treatment to impart or enhance the beautiful blue colour, the sapphires discovered on Baffin Island are naturally blue, requiring no additional laboratory processing. By volume, sapphire is the most popular of the "Big 3" (emerald, ruby and sapphire), with an annual trade of around 90 million carats, most of which is produced from alluvial deposits in Australia and Southeast Asia. Sapphire is a special favourite in the Canadian market, and the Beluga deposit appears to be the first discovery in the country with the potential for economic production. Testing that hypothesis is the purpose of our 2004 mini-bulk sample. The objective of the mini-bulk sample program will be to acquire preliminary grade data and provide material for manufacturing test-work. Further geological and prospecting work will follow in August. The sapphire lode is currently being worked by a locally hired prospecting crew using a portable drill and a diamond chain saw. Excavation by hand has opened a prospect pit 3 meters in diameter and 2 meters deep. In the floor of the pit, massive unoxidized sapphire mineralization is exposed over a length of 3 meters, a width of 2 meters and a depth of 1 meter, representing about 15 tonnes of material available for testing. The mini-bulk sample material will be transported to Iqaluit for a three-stage crush, with hand sorting in between each stage. A final sapphire concentrate will be produced in Iqaluit by gravity separation. The Company plans to ship the sapphire concentrate off-site and complete further test-work using magnetic separation and cyclone dense media separation (DMS) techniques. The sapphire recovered from the concentrate will eventually supply material for manufacturing experiments. Sapphire from the "Beluga" occurrence is found as an accessory mineral within a coarse-grained matrix of phlogopite-feldspar-graphite. These phases replace a metamorphosed calcareous-mudstone interbedded within a much-larger mass of coarsely-crystalline marble. The mineralized bed forms a detached block measuring 3 meters by 30 meters on the surface, dipping moderately ENE. Individual sapphires recovered from the Beluga occurrence measure up to 3 cm in length and 0.5 cm in diameter. The largest polished sapphire, to date, from the "Beluga" occurrence is 0.62 carats in weight. True North Gems is a public company listed on the TSX Venture exchange and is engaged in the exploration and development of North American coloured gemstone deposits. The company is a pioneer in Canadian coloured gemstone exploration and owns a 100-percent interest in the Yukon-based Regal Ridge property and the rights to earn 100% interest in the Ontario-based Ghost Lake emerald property, the Baffin sapphire property located on Baffin Island and the Fiskenaesset ruby deposit in Greenland. Further information is available on the True North Gems' website at www.truenorthgems.com. For further information contact: Ken Shortt, Investor Relations Telephone: [phone] or 1-800-399-8055 mailto:[e-mail] TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the release. The Company relies on litigation protection for "forward-looking" statements. ================================================== ===================== Copyright (c) 2004 TRUE NORTH GEMS INC. (TGX) All rights reserved. For more information visit our website at https://www.truenorthgems.com/ or send mailto:[e-mail] Message sent on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 7:13:38 AM Pacific Time ================================================== =====================