Mineral & Financial Invest. Limited Investment Update (3724I)

TIDMMAFL

RNS Number : 3724I

Mineral & Financial Invest. Limited

19 June 2017

MINERAL & FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS LIMITED

("Mineral & Financial", "MAFL", or the "Company")

Investment Update

Lagoa Salgada Exploration Program strikes 88.0m of 11.85% Zinc Equiv.(1)

HIGHLIGHTS:

- LS MS-01 drill hole strikes 88.0m of 11.85% zinc equiv. (1) , including 28.0m of 20.63% Zn equiv.(1)

   -   LS MS-01 drill hole is the first hole of LS-1 resource expansion program 
   -   LS-1 Exploration program to expand resource from 4.5Mt to 8.0Mt-10Mt on track 
   -   Substantial gold-rich zones, including 2m at 30 g/t gold and 16m at 3.3 g/t gold 

- LS ST-03 strikes 11 distinct semi-massive to massive sulphide intervals in conjunction with very high levels of sericitic alteration

   -   16 other anomalies still to be fully explored 

George Town, Cayman Island - June 19, 2017 - Mineral & Financial Investments is very pleased to announce drill results from its 49%-owned subsidiary, TH Crestgate GmbH, a private Swiss-based investment company. TH Crestgate has released the first assay results from its new drilling campaign to expand the LS-1 resource. The holes were completed by wholly owned local subsidiary, Redcorp Empreedimentos Lda, on the100%-owned Lagoa Salgada zinc-copper project in southern Portugal.

The 6-hole drill program, announced and initiated in June 2017, is focussed on expanding the existing LS-1 Resource. The current resource is 4.5Mt, with a zinc equivalent grade of 8.2% (see RNS of August 27, 2015). This drilling program is targeting expanding the resource by 75% to 125% to between 8.0Mt and 10.0Mt.

The first hole of a six hole program being undertaken by TH Crestgate has returned with the first hole assays. The LS_MS_01 drill hole is located in the northern part of the current resource. This angled hole intercepted mineralization 34 meters above where mineralization was previously thought to begin. The LS_MS_01 drill hole is mineralized from 140m depth (where the assaying began) and extended to the bottom of the hole at 276m. The average zinc equivalent(1) grade over 136.0m is 8.58%.

 
                                                                                               Cu Equiv.   Zn Equiv. 
                                 Depth    Thickness    Cu     Zn     Pb      Au 
             Hole                  (m)       (m)       (%)    (%)    (%)    (g/t)   Ag (g/t)     (%)[1]      (%)(1) 
------------------------------  -------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  ---------  ----------  ---------- 
                                 152 to 
 LS DH-01                          240      88.00     0.41   4.22   3.08    1.60     87.07       5.66%      11.85% 
------------------------------  -------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  ---------  ----------  ---------- 
                                 152 to                                                          8.14 
            Including (Gossan)     161      9.00      0.13   0.54   3.58    7.04     138.78        %        17.05% 
------------------------------  -------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  ---------  ----------  ---------- 
                                 161 to 
  Including (Massive-Sulphide)     240      79.00     0.45   4.64   3.02    0.98     81.18       5.38%      11.27% 
------------------------------  -------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  ---------  ----------  ---------- 
                                 200 to 
  Including (Massive-Sulphide)     240      40.00     0.33   4.64   3.02    1.51    118.43       7.27%      15.23% 
------------------------------  -------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  ---------  ----------  ---------- 
                                 214 to 
  Including (Massive-Sulphide)     240      28.00     0.31   8.95   5.10   2.27      162.50      9.85%      20.63% 
------------------------------  -------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  ---------  ----------  ---------- 
 

Jacques Vaillancourt, Chairman of Mineral and Financial, commented: "This hole is a very positive and hugely encouraging first hole. The size and grade of this intercept gives us confidence that our targeted resource increase to between 8.0Mt and 10.0Mt at LS-1 is achievable. IN addition to the LS-1 resource and the newly identified Central Sector mineralization, Lagoa Salgada hosts at least 16 other gravimetric anomalies that need to be explored using 21(st) century intelligence and technology. This underscores our belief that Lagoa Salgada could host more than one orebody that could become a mine. M&FI has a strong working capital position of GBP2.5 million of which GBP1.0 million is in cash, which will allow us comfortably to support our 49% interest in TH Crestgate.

LOCATION OF LS-1 SECTOR RESOURCE & "CENTRAL SECTOR" ALONG WITH NEW (Green) AND HISTORICAL (Black) DRILL HOLES

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The LS-1 resource expansion drill program of 6 angled holes will additionally help define the true width of the mineralization. Based on cost estimates provided by TH Crestgate to Mineral & Financial, the Company has adequate resources to provide support for this programme. There are 4 geological zones characterizing the mineralization of the Lagoa Salgada project, and specifically the LS-1 zone. The first is tertiary cover, then there is a gossan cap and then massive sulphides. Alternatively the massive sulphides may be substituted with zones of stock-works.

Central Sector Drilling

TH Crestgate has also reported the results of drill-hole LS ST-03 which was the last hole of the Central Sector 4 hole drilling program. This drill program succeeded in identifying a mineralized zone 180m in length, 140m in width and up to 240m in thickness. LS ST-03 was a 145m step-out hole to the east of hole LS ST-02. The LS ST-03 hole was drilled to a total depth of 425 m of depth at a 60(0) angle.

Drill-hole LS ST-03 was planned to intercept the 12m lens of massive sulphides intersected in the LS 23 historical drill hole. The LS ST-03 drill hole intersected many lenses of semi-massive and massive sulphides of minor expression (10.00 - 20.00 cm). In total, this drill hole intersected 11 different massive sulphide intervals. The amount of sericitic alteration can be seen to be very high and the number of semi-massive and massive sulphides sectors found indicates that this section is at the edges of a massive sulphides zone. Although the hole did not yield the grades intersected elsewhere in the Central Sector, it provide a large amount of technical information that proves that this sector warrants further exploration works in the future, with a particular focus on the massive sulphides. The LS_ST_03 drill hole appears to confirm the existence of at a stockwork mineralization that is distinct, but adjacent to, the massive sulphide mineralization that hosts the LS-1 preliminary resource of the LS-1 (see "Asset Description" below)

Cross Section of Current Resource Drilling at Lagoa Salgada

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 Hole         Depth (m)   Thickness    Cu     Zn     Pb      Au       Ag     Cu Equiv.   Zn Equiv. 
                             (m)       (%)    (%)    (%)    (g/t)    (g/t) 
                                                                               (%)(1)      (%)(1) 
-----------  ----------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  -------  ----------  ---------- 
               202 to 
 LS ST-03        204        2.00      0.26   0.08   0.04    0.05     3.00      0.42%       0.88% 
-----------  ----------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  -------  ----------  ---------- 
               297 to 
 LS ST-03        306        9.00      0.16   0.06   0.02    0.02     4.56      0.26%       0.54% 
-----------  ----------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  -------  ----------  ---------- 
               304 to 
  Including      306        2.00      0.44   0.09   0.04    0.03     9.00      0.60%       1.27% 
-----------  ----------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  -------  ----------  ---------- 
               319 to 
 LS ST-03        321        2.00      1.18   0.08   0.02    0.04    11.50      1.37%       2.30% 
-----------  ----------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  -------  ----------  ---------- 
               325 to 
 LS ST-03        328        3.00      0.21   0.33   0.14    0.12     9.33      0.60%       1.25% 
-----------  ----------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  -------  ----------  ---------- 
               342 to 
 LS ST-03        345        3.00      0.43   0.05   0.02    0.10     7.00      0.61%       1.27% 
-----------  ----------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  -------  ----------  ---------- 
               388 to 
 LS ST-03        390        3.00      0.08   0.07   0.03    0.40    10.50      0.50%       1.06% 
-----------  ----------  ----------  -----  -----  -----  -------  -------  ----------  ---------- 
 

The 13,400-hectare Lagoa Salgada project currently has 17 identified gravimetric anomalies as well as a preliminary resource. The preliminary resource is located on one of these gravimetric anomalies, the LS-1 zone. The Central Sector is located within the LS-1 zone and is approximately 1,200 meters SE of LS-1's 4.5 million tonne zinc-lead polymetallic preliminary resource. The 'Central Sector' was the subject of a 4 drill-hole program undertaken by a previous operator in the early nineties.

Asset Description

The Lagoa Salgada resource is centred on one gravimetric anomaly called LS-1. There are a total of 17 gravimetric anomalies on the property. These anomalies remain to be fully tested. A petrographic study recently undertaken by TH Crestgate focused on the LS-1 area of the Lagoa Salgada property and also indicated the presence of anomalously high levels of indium. The orebody is composed of a central stock work zone - a more than 700m thick volcano-sedimentary complex - and a massive sulphide lens in the northwest. It is covered by more than one hundred meters of sediments of the Sado Tertiary basin (Lima et al., 2013, see below).

The historical, Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM) compliant, resource estimate, located on LS-1, completed in 2012 by Paul Daigle, P.Geo, is summarized below:

 
 Category                                      LS-1 Resource Summary 
----------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------------- 
                                                                      Contained 
   LS-1 Sector             Tonnes                 Mineral     Grade    Metal          Units 
----------------------  ---------------------  ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Pb (%)      2.94      190,686,436   Lbs. 
----------------------  ---------------------  ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Zn (%)      3.40      220,521,729   Lbs. 
                                               ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Cu (%)      0.34      22,052,173    Lbs. 
                                               ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Ag (g/t)    54.72     5,175,824     Oz. 
                                               ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
            Indicated               2,942,000   Au (g/t)    0.82      77,562        Oz. 
----------------------  ---------------------  ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Pb (%)      2.50      85,648,710    Lbs. 
----------------------  ---------------------  ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Zn (%)      1.80      61,667,071    Lbs. 
                                               ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Cu (%)      0.35      11,990,819    Lbs. 
                                               ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Ag (g/t)    51.00     2,548,073     Oz. 
                                               ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
            Inferred                1,554,000   Au (g/t)    0.78      38,971        Oz. 
----------------------  ---------------------  ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Pb (%)      2.79      276,335,146   Lbs. 
----------------------  ---------------------  ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Zn (%)      2.85      282,188,800   Lbs. 
                                               ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Cu (%)      0.34      34,042,992    Lbs. 
                                               ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
                                                Ag (g/t)    53.43     7,723,897     Oz. 
                                               ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
            Total                   4,496,000   Au (g/t)    0.81      116,532       Oz. 
----------------------  ---------------------  ----------  --------  ------------  -------- 
 

Source: Tetra-Tech Wardrop

Financial Results

The Company expects to release financial results before the end of the month.

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 14 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 wholly owned subsidiary of TH Crestgate GmbH, and has consented to the inclusion of the material in the form and context in which it appears.

This report should be seen as indicative of possible mineral content and not definitive, as the sample group is insufficient to arrive at any economic conclusions.

For more information:

   Katy Mitchell, WH Ireland                                         [phone] 
   Alastair Ford, Chief Operating Officer                       [phone] 

[1] Cu. and Zn. equivalency calculated using the following spot prices: Cu $5,782 /t; Zn $2,761/t; Pb $2,307/t; Au $1,252/oz.; Ag $18.33/oz.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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June 19, 2017 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)