Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 13, 2019) - Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. (TSXV: PEMC) (OTCQB: PEMSF) ("Pacific Empire", "PEMC" or the "Company"), a hybrid prospect generator focused on gold-rich copper projects in British Columbia announces that based on continued weak copper performance and improved gold price, the Company will focus its ongoing 2019 exploration efforts advancing its 100% owned Pinnacle Porphyry Project. The Pinnacle Porphyry Project covers over 14,000 hectares and incorporates the Company's NWT and Pinnacle Reef properties into one contiguous land position. All necessary permits have been submitted and induced polarization surveys are expected to begin shortly. Reverse circulation ("RC") drilling is intended for the fall and winter.
New Priority Drill Targets at Pinnacle
From 2014 through 2017, partner-funded exploration resulted in a total of 14 diamond drill holes and four Induced Polarization ("IP") surveys on the property. At the Elbow Zone, five of the six diamond drill holes were sent for laboratory analysis and all five of these holes returned anomalous gold, highlighted by 94 metres grading 0.34 g/t gold in DD15ELB001. At the Sooner Zone, where diamond drilling in 2015 encountered broad intervals of anomalous copper, no further drilling was completed. Both of these areas have been prioritized for follow up RC drilling in 2019.
PEMC acquired the Pinnacle Reef property through staking in 2012. Since 2014, the property has seen over $2,000,000 in partner-funded exploration. During 2014, a total of 44 line-km of IP surveys were completed over three target areas on the Pinnacle Reef property, by previous partner Oz Exploration Pty Ltd. ("OZE"). This program identified three areas of anomalous chargeability, two of which (Elbow and Sooner) were prioritized for follow up diamond drill testing in 2015, one (Later) remains untested. In 2015, the Elbow and Sooner target areas were tested with diamond drilling by OZE with six holes totaling 2,493 m. Additional drilling was completed during 2016 by ML Gold at the Elbow Zone with three diamond drill holes totaling 1,107 m. Similar to the 2015 drill results, anomalous gold intercepts were associated with localized phyllic alteration at the Elbow Zone.
On July 26, 2019 ML Gold Corp. ("ML Gold") elected to terminate its option agreement on the Pinnacle Reef property, reverting all rights to the Pinnacle Reef property back to Pacific Empire, an outcome that PEMC hoped would transpire.
Pacific Empire's President, Brad Peters, added, "Partner-funded diamond drilling intersected significant gold at the Elbow Zone and copper at the Sooner Zone. The impact of logging operations over the last five years means exploration that was previously dependent on helicopter support, can now take advantage of the extensive network of roads, making it suitable for summer and winter RC drilling."
Table 1 - Highlights of Diamond Drilling at the Elbow Zone
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Figure 1 - Pinnacle Porphyry Project Target Areas
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The northern half of the Pinnacle property was staked by PEMC in the fall of 2018 to cover an area of anomalous gold geochemistry in stream sediments and to cover a subtle magnetic anomaly from government funded regional airborne magnetic surveys. In the spring of 2019, PEMC completed a high resolution airborne magnetic survey over the entirety of the property to determine if greater levels of detail could assist in interpreting the underlying bedrock. The survey was successful in providing a much greater level of detail and identifying areas for IP geophysical surveys and follow up drill testing. Initial results suggest the property is centered on an area with a complex magnetic signature cut by numerous northeast trending structures.
Based on positive results from the airborne magnetic survey, an IP survey is planned for the coming weeks to assess the potential for buried gold and copper mineralization. In conjunction with the IP survey, PEMC field crews will be completing seismic surveys to assist with the interpretation of the IP survey results and to determine depth to bedrock if results from the IP survey support RC drilling.
Figure 2 - Detailed Magnetics from 2019 Airborne Survey at Pinnacle North
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Although historical exploration in this immediate area is limited, previous stream sediment sampling surveys returned anomalous gold up to 185 ppb in the east-central portion of the property and a sediment sample over 3.3 g/t gold 1.5 km to the east of the property.
Pacific Empire's President, Brad Peters, added, "PEMC management has encountered visible gold on three occasions in and around the project area. In 2007, visible gold was observed in outcrop to the east of the property, in 2015 visible gold was observed in drill cuttings from hole DD15ELB001 and on an ongoing basis PEMC has observed gold in the surrounding creeks when panning. Early in my career I was told that if I ever find visible gold on a property, do not give up and to be persistent."
Summary of 2019 Exploration Results on Bulkley Projects
Following the completion of seismic surveys on its Bulkley projects and a soil geochemical survey on the Paragon property, PEMC began RC drill testing its highest-ranking target areas. Results from the soil geochemical survey and initial RC drilling did not return results consistent with PEMC's minimum threshold criteria. As such the Company has elected to focus on its 100% owned Pinnacle Porphyry Project for the balance of the 2019 exploration season.
Pacific Empire and BatteryOne Royalty Complete Royalty Purchase Agreement
On March 4, 2019 PEMC and BatteryOne Royalty Corp. ("BatteryOne") entered into a royalty purchase agreement pursuant (the "Initial Agreement") to which BatteryOne was granted a right to acquire a one percent (1%) net smelter returns royalty on the production from the Pinnacle Reef Property upon the expiry or termination of an option agreement dated July 12, 2016 between PEMC and ML Gold (the "Option Agreement"), on the terms and conditions as set out in the Initial Agreement. Following ML Gold's termination of the Option Agreement, BatteryOne exercised its right to acquire the one percent (1%) Pinnacle Reef Royalty in a transaction that closed on August 9, 2019.
Qualified Person
Rory Ritchie, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company, serves as a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed the scientific and technical information in this news release, approving the disclosure herein.
About Pacific Empire Minerals Corp.
PEMC is an exploration company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that employs a "hybrid prospect generator" business model and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PEMC and on the OTCQB Markets under the symbol PEMSF.
By integrating the project generator business model with low-cost reverse circulation drilling, the company intends to leverage its portfolio by identifying, and focusing on, the highest quality projects for partnerships and advancement.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,
"Brad Peters"
President and Chief Executive Officer
Pacific Empire Minerals Corp.
Tel: +1-604-356-6246
brad@pemcorp.ca
www.pemcorp.ca
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mineral exploration; fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume and the additional risks identified the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.
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