VANCOUVER, BC, June 21, 2021
/CNW/ - QuestEx Gold & Copper Ltd. (TSXV:
QEX) ("QuestEx" or the "Company") is
pleased to announce that the British
Columbia ("BC") Ministry of Mines has issued a
multi-year area-based permit that will allow QuestEx to begin a
fully funded drill program at its 91 square kilometre ("km")
100% owned Sofia property in BC's
prolific Toodoggone mining district.
QuestEx deployed a field crew to the Sofia property in advance of the drill program
to facilitate archaeological and wildlife studies. With that work
now complete, QuestEx is immediately ready to build drill pads, and
drilling is anticipated to begin this week.
Tony Barresi, QuestEx's
President comments: "With the receipt of a permit to drill
the Sofia property, QuestEx's
multi-property 2021 exploration plans are now both fully permitted
and fully funded. We'll be hitting the ground running at
Sofia, drill testing both
high-potential porphyry copper-gold and epithermal gold-silver
targets. Once drilling is complete at Sofia we will move our operations to the KSP
property in BC's Golden Triangle where we will be drilling
approximately 4,200 metres ("m") at the Inel gold showing in
anticipation of a maiden mineral resource estimate that we expect
to release by the end of this year."
QuestEx is pleased the exploration program at Sofia is being supported with services
provided by Tsay Keh Dene
Nation-owned companies, Chu Cho Environmental and Chu Cho
Industries. Konaleen Drilling, a business owned and operated by
Tahltan citizens and recognized by the Tahltan Central Government,
has been awarded the drill contract for both the Sofia and KSP properties. QuestEx is committed
to engaging indigenous owned and affiliated businesses to support
its exploration programs.
About Sofia and the 2021
Exploration Program
To view a detailed presentation outlining QuestEx's 2021
exploration plans click here.
QuestEx's 100% owned, 91 square km, Sofia property in the Toodoggone District of
British Columbia is strategically
situated 35 km north of the historic Kemess mine and less than 20
km east of the historic Lawyers, Baker and Shasta mines.
Sofia occupies strategic and
prospective ground in a district that is being actively explored by
world class miners including Freeport McMoRan, Centerra, and
Hunter Dickinson (HDI), and numerous
junior explorers including Benchmark Metals and Evergold Corp. The
property is easily accessed by helicopter and lies within 6 km of
existing roads, which could potentially be extended onto the
property to support future exploration or development.
The Sofia property contains a
large 6.5 by 4 km multi-element soil anomaly that also spans at
least 700 m in elevation change from
the Toodoggone River Valley, where porphyry copper-gold
mineralization is exposed at surface, to Alunite Ridge and Quartz
Lake where high and low sulphidation epithermal gold-silver
mineralization has been discovered.
Limited historical work on the Sofia property includes 3,336 m of drilling by Stealth Minerals in 2004
and 1,514 m of drilling by BC Gold in
2007. In total the Sofia property
has only been tested with 4,850 m of
drilling and there remain a number of important targets that have
never been drill tested. One such target is the North Vein,
which has only been identified in talus and subcrop but appears to
have a 250-metre-long strike length. Six grab samples from the
North Vein have gold grades ranging from 3.6 to 25.8 grams per
tonne ("g/t") gold ("Au") and 20.6 to 286 g/t silver
("Ag"). This year the North Vein will be investigated to
identify its bedrock source and validate its grade and strike
length.
The 2021 Sofia drill program is designed to give QuestEx
shareholders exposure to multiple opportunities of exploration
success by testing three high-potential grassroots targets across
the property. The program will begin by testing two early-stage
porphyry copper-gold targets, Alexandra and Tranquillo, and then
advance to epithermal gold targets at Quartz Lake.
Alexandra
The Alexandra target is outlined by an intense and coherent
1,000 by 500 m copper-molybdenum-gold
in soil anomaly that is coincident with strongly altered volcanic
rock. The only historic drill hole to test Alexandra collared in
known gold mineralization but had almost no recovery of core in the
top 50 m, so the near surface
mineralization remains untested; it bottomed at 260 m in mineralization with 21.20 m of 0.42 g/t Au and 0.08% copper
("Cu"), just as it was approaching the outer shell of a
buried geophysical (magnetic) target that still has not been
tested. QuestEx's 2021 drilling at Alexandra will provide robust tests of the
extensive gold mineralization found at surface while thoroughly
testing for a buried porphyry system beneath.
Tranquillo
Tranquillo is the second porphyry copper-gold target that
QuestEx will drill in 2021. It was first identified as a porphyry
target based on QuestEx's 2020 field work and has never been
drilled. Tranquillo is a gold-copper-tellurium in soil anomaly
centered along an important structural corridor. The target area is
underlain by coincident magnetic and chargeability geophysical
highs. QuestEx's drill test of Tranquillo is designed to penetrate
into the structural corridor, beneath the soil anomaly and into the
modeled centers of the coincident geophysical anomalies.
Quartz Lake
The Quartz Lake vein system is part of a 4.7 km long trend of
quartz veins and low-sulphidation style gold-silver mineralization.
Surface sampling and trenching of the vein system have yielded
numerous high-grade results including a grab sample at Sickle Creek
with 100.2 g/t Au and 2,435 g/t Ag. Historical drilling at
Quartz-Lake provided an initial test of mineralization over a
225 m strike length and 150 m vertical extent and focused on just one of
at least six mineralized veins. The mineralization at Quartz Lake
includes veins up to 20 m thick, with
chalcedonic quartz, amethyst, adularia, and calcite, as well as
stockwork zones and silicified breccias. The best historical drill
intersection at Quartz Lake yielded 3.51 g/t Au and 33.1 g/t Ag
over 11.6 m in drill hole
SG04-04.
QuestEx is excited about the 2021 season and is looking forward
to unlocking shareholder value through exploration on its large
portfolio of 100% owned properties. The Company will provide
exploration updates throughout the season and will release drill
results as they are received and validated.
We seek safe harbor.
Qualified Person
Tony
Barresi, Ph.D., P.Geo., QuestEx's President, a Qualified
Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, has
reviewed and approved the technical information in this news
release.
About QuestEx
QuestEx Gold &
Copper Ltd. is exploring for high-grade gold and copper with a
focus on the Golden Triangle and Toodoggone areas of British Columbia. The property portfolio
includes the Castle property, a porphyry copper-gold project
located in the Red Chris mining district of the Golden Triangle
neighbouring GT Gold's Tatogga property, and Newcrest Mining's GJ
property. Other properties include KSP, North ROK, Coyote, and
Kingpin in the Golden Triangle, Sofia in the Toodoggone district, and Heart
Peaks and Hit in other strategic districts within British Columbia. These assets are being
advanced by a newly assembled technical and management team with
experience in exploration, permitting and discovery.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF QUESTEX GOLD &
COPPER LTD.
"Joseph Mullin"
Joseph Mullin
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Neither TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that
term is defined in the policies of TSX-V) accepts responsibility
for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements
All statements, trend analysis and other information
contained in this press release about anticipated future events or
results constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of
words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate",
"expect" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may",
"will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other
similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of
historical fact, included herein, are forward-looking statements.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in
such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable,
undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements
since the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will
prove to be correct. These statements involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual
results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in
such forward-looking statements, including the risks, uncertainties
and other factors identified in the Company's periodic filings with
Canadian securities regulators as well as the risk that the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic may have on the Company's business. Important
factors could cause actual results to differ materially from
QuestEx expectations. Forward-looking statements are based on
estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are
made. QuestEx does not undertake any obligation to update
forward-looking statements except as required by applicable
securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on
forward-looking statements.
SOURCE QuestEx Gold & Copper Ltd.