News Release - Tuesday, October 04, 2016
Radcliff Joint Venture reports initial production in mineralized zone.
Vancouver, B.C.: CMC Metals Ltd. (the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company and Pruett-Ballarat Inc. ("PBI"), the mine operator and the Company's joint venture ("JV") partner at the Radcliff Mine Property, have increased staffing and commenced routine mining. The JV previously announced September 1, 2016 the Company announced an agreement for toll milling of gold ore with Klondex Mines Operations Inc. ("Klondex"). The renewable agreement for purchase and sale of gold ore allows for Klondex to process up to 6,000 tons of oxide-dominated gold-bearing rock, in batches of 1,500 tons, at its ore processing mill at the Midas mine, situated in Elko county, Nevada. The agreement allows for an initial smaller test batch of Radcliff mineralized rock to be treated (approximately 500 tons). With an estimated 160 short tons ("tons") of development material existing at Ballarat camp, a further estimated 100 tons has been extracted and located at the Ballarat camp under the new routine mining regime, where the Company is equipping a loading station and commencing operations with a new download truck in preparation for shipping to Midas; the JV plans to commence trucking on or about October 15th. Material not qualified for processing at Midas will be stockpiled for processing at the Company's mill at Bishop California.
In the period since September 1, 2016, the JV has commenced a series of site modifications to ensure compliance with certain 'Cal OSHA' (California Occupational Safety and Health Administration) requirements in addition to the MSHA requirements previously reported. These requirements arise from a recent OSHA site visit in preparation for routine operation.
The Company's business plan is to selectively mine "high grade" portions1 of an indicated resource at Radcliff, with run-of-mine grade calibrated sub-sampling of mined material at the run-of-mine sub-sampling plant located at the 5510-level portal. Sampled material is submitted to an off-site laboratory.
1 The presence of "high grade material" at Radcliff is documented in the NI43-101 compliant technical report filed on SEDAR. The mineral resources as stated January 9, 2013, remain current mineral resources.
In parallel with the work at the Radcliff Mine, the Company is staffing to allow re-start of operations at its 100% owned Bishop Mill in Q1 2017. Work towards the implementation of a bond arrangement acceptable to the California Regional Water Quality Control Board - Lahontan region before year-end has commenced to allow the use of the Company's lined tailings impoundments facility. The Company is contracting to install vadose zone monitoring equipment adjacent to the facility, and has placed purchase orders for all major equipment for mill completion by year-end. The Mill is expected to process materials from the Radcliff mine, and other regional mineralized occurrences.
CMC President, Ian Graham commented: "The steady ramp-up at Radcliff is resulting from the sequential implementation of equipment and training of new staff: in parallel, compliance with multiple state regulators is a priority for allowing steady-state operations to commence."
The Company further wishes to announce that it has granted 550,000 common shares pursuant to incentive stock options under the Company's Rolling Stock Option Plan, which Plan received shareholder approval at its last Annual General Meeting held July 7, 2016. The options granted will be set for a two year period expiring October 4, 2018 at the exercise price of $0.125 per share. This transaction is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
The Company further wishes to announce the cancellation of 321,428 common shares at $0.35 (post-consolidation), to certain directors of the Company, which options were originally set to expire on April 15, 2017.
On behalf of the Board:
"Michael Scholz"
Michael Scholz, Director
CMC METALS LTD.
AI
