Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 12, 2017) - Maritime Resources Corp. (TSXV: MAE) ("Maritime") is
pleased to announce it has started the work program at its newly acquired Whisker Project located in Newfoundland's Green Bay area
Canada. Initial trenching at the "Ben" prospect has led to the initial discovery of a 50 metre long quartz vein with visible gold
and base metal sulphides. The Company's VP of Exploration (Bernard Kahlert) collected 3 grab samples from an ongoing trenching
program returning grades ranging from 89.7 g/t, 59.6 g/t and 71.9 g/t gold. The
new vein system has now been exposed for over 250 metres and remains open in both directions. The base metal assays from the same
samples returned up to 1.62 % Cu and 19.7% Pb. Full analytical analysis of the samples are listed in the table below.
Whisker Valley - 2017 Table of Assays
SAMPLE NUMBER |
GOLD
g/t |
SILVER
g/t |
COPPER
% |
LEAD
% |
74601 |
89.7 |
310.0 |
0.1 |
1.5 |
74602 |
59.6 |
89.8 |
1.62 |
4.8 |
74603 |
71.9 |
251.0 |
1.48 |
19.7 |
The new vein is closely associated with several other sub parallel veins within the mineralized system. This system is composed
of at least 4 robust base metal rich veins with scattered visible gold within a strong wall rock alteration envelope. Crews are
currently working on detailed mapping and channel sampling across the entire vein system. A detailed airborne topographical survey
has also been completed to assist with planning for follow-up geophysics and potentially drilling and to assist in structural
interpretation.
Doug Fulcher, President and CEO of Maritime commented:
"We are pleased to have started the work program on the Whisker Hill gold project
with a detailed mapping and initial trenching program. Trenching completed thus far has been
successful in exposing a number of new veins over a strike extension of approximate
250 metres.
The high-grade gold samples collected so far are similar to the original
assays taken from last year. (see table below) The Whisker project sits approximately 10 km by road from the
Hammerdown project and has demonstrated some of the same high-grade gold that we have encountered at Hammerdown and
Orion. It will be our intention to continue exploration at the Whisker Property while the development of Hammerdown is
underway.
About the Whisker Property
Maritime acquired an option to earn a 100% interest in the Whisker Valley property ("Whisker") which consists of claim units
covering over 52-square kilometre and is located only 10 km from the re-developing Hammerdown - Green Bay Gold Project. There are
existing logging road between the two properties.
In Spring 2016, Bernard Kahlert P. Eng, VP of Exploration for Maritime, visited the property and examined several of the gold
prospects. Specifically, the Gold Pit, White Face, Ben's Showing and Jackson Vein in the south-central portion of the property were
examined. All veins were narrow and consisted of quartz-carbonite matrix with pyrite and variable copper mineralization. Occasional
flecks of gold were visible. Alteration consisted variably of silica, sericite, chlorite, hematite and bleaching. The veins were of
limited length of 20 to 50 metres, this was mainly due to limited exposure in the extensive moss-overburden covered area. Almost
all exposures were uncovered by hand and machine trenching by the prospectors.
Kahlert collected 11 vein grab samples, nine of which assayed very high gold, from 13.3 to 30.5 g/t Au with silver values
ranging from 11.8 to 37.2 g/t Ag. Copper values were moderately anomalous, with one sample exceeding 1.0% Cu. The table below shows
Au - Ag - Cu values for the 11 samples.
Whisker Valley - 2016 Table of Assays
SAMPLE NUMBER |
GOLD
g/t |
SILVER
ppm |
COPPER
ppm |
640901 |
24.6 |
11.8 |
1714 |
640902 |
2.154 |
1.8 |
810 |
640903 |
19.6 |
13.3 |
221 |
640904 |
30.5 |
20.6 |
7345 |
640905 |
24.6 |
27.2 |
7058 |
640906 |
17.3 |
33.0 |
5820 |
640907 |
0.045 |
<0.3 |
274 |
640908 |
19.4 |
31.9 |
4280 |
640909 |
25.8 |
37.2 |
4295 |
640910 |
27.2 |
26.4 |
4068 |
640911 |
13.3 |
16.6 |
>10000 |
Geologically, the property is situated within the Dunnage Zone of central Newfoundland which forms an extension of the
continental Appalachian belt. About 75% of the property is underlain by mid-Paleozoic rhyolites, basalts, tuffaceous sequences and
minor sediments which have all been intruded by local felsic bodies. The Northwest 25% of the property covers part of the extensive
Burlington suite of granite-granodiorite composition.
Optioning these high grade, early discovery stage gold prospects is undertaken as a strategic move for Maritime. New discoveries
of significance at Whisker could allow for the expansion of the current Hammerdown resource and a common operating base for both
projects. At present Hammerdown development plans envision trucking high-grade gold ore to the Nugget Pond gold mill, a distance of
140 km.
About Maritime Resources Corp:
Maritime Resources holds 100% of the Green Bay Property, located near Springdale, Newfoundland and Labrador. The property hosts
the past producing Hammerdown gold mine and the Orion gold deposit separated by a 1.5 km distance that sits within an overall
strike length of 4000 metres. As well the Lochinvar base metals/precious metals deposit sits to the north end of the
Rambullion.
The company recently announced a PFS (March 2nd, 2017) that successfully demonstrated a viable mining operation with
low upfront capital and short time line to the start of gold production. The engineering design optimizes a small foot print within
the historical mine area as well as utilizing some of the existing underground infrastructure where possible. The operation is
scheduled to run at a capacity of approximately 400 metric tons per day ('mtpd') over a five-year mine life.
The results show positive economics, strong internal rate of return, short payback period and significant cash flow under
reasonable commodity price assumptions. The pre-tax operating cash cost to produce an ounce of gold is $558 CDN with an all-in
pre-tax-cost (including capital, sustaining capital and operating cost) of $955 CDN per ounce of gold.
In addition, there remain numerous opportunities to expand the reserve, expand the mine life and to reduce the planned
development and capital costs. Maritime will continue to evaluate these opportunities with a goal to fully optimize the returns
from the mining operation.
The Hammerdown gold deposit was successfully mined by Richmont Mines between 2000 and 2004 while gold prices averaged
$325/oz. During its operation, a total of 291,400 tonnes of ore were mined and milled, at an average grade of 15.83 g/t Au,
recovering a total of 143,000 ounces of gold at an 8 g/t cut-off. All the ore was processed at the Nugget Pond mill,
now owned and operated by Rambler Metals and Mining Canada Limited, with an average gold recovery of 97.1%.
The Company has entered into an Engineering, Evaluation and Services Agreement ("Agreement") with Rambler Metals and
Mining PLC (AIM: RMM) (TSXV: RAB) ("Rambler") to evaluate the economic potential of re-opening the past
producing Hammerdown gold mine located within Maritime's Green Bay Property, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Ore mined at
Hammerdown will be trucked and processed, at approximately 400 mtpd, at the Nugget Pond mill through a toll milling arrangement
with Rambler Metals and Mining Canada Limited with whom Maritime has a strategic alliance.
Further information on the Green Bay Gold Property can be found on our website at www.maritimeresourcescorp.com. along with the NI43-101 compliant
Technical Report and Prefeasibility Report filed on SEDAR.
Bernard H. Kahlert, P.Eng. is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the
technical disclosure contained in this release.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Doug Fulcher
President, CEO
For further information, please call:
Cathy DiVito, Investor Relations
Telephone: (604) 336-7322
info@maritimeresourcescorp.com
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Statements in this press release, other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company's future
plans and objectives or expected results, may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on numerous
assumptions and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties inherent in resource exploration and development. As a result,
actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.