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Vertical Exploration Inc
Symbol VERT
Shares Issued 46,194,165
Close 2018-04-23 C$ 0.175
Market Cap C$ 8,083,979
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Vertical estimates 14.08M tonnes wollastonite at Onge

2018-04-24 13:46 ET - News Release

Mr. Peter Swistak reports

VERTICAL OUTLINES ROBUST PIT CONSTRAINED MINERAL RESOURCES ON ITS WOLLASTONITE PROJECT

Vertical Exploration Inc. has completed its first National Instrument 43-101 mineral resource estimate at its St. Onge wollastonite project in Quebec.

Highlights:

  • High-grade wollastonite deposit at surface pit constrained resources:
    • 7,155,000 tonnes measured at 36.20 per cent wollastonite;
    • 6,926,000 tonnes indicated at 37.04 per cent wollastonite;
    • 14,081,000 tonnes measures and indicated at 36.61 per cent wollastonite at a cut-off grade of 30 per cent;
    • 17,896,000 tonnes inferred at 40.25 per cent wollastonite.

Note that mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. However, the reported mineral resources are considered by the qualified persons to have reasonable prospects for economic extraction as per Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy's 2014 definitions.

"This robust pit-constrained mineral resource estimate provides the base to our next step in the development of the company: With important resources, the company will apply for a BEX (quarry mining lease) to the MERN (Ministry of Natural Resources of Quebec) and a certificate of authorization from the MDDELCC (Ministry of the Environment of Quebec). We are in very good position to move forward now," said Peter Swistak, president of Vertical Exploration.

The company's wollastonite property is located within NTS map sheet No. 22E04, in the Saguenay-Lac Saint-Jean region of Quebec, within the regional municipality of Maria-Chapdelaine. The geographic centre of the property is at an approximate latitude of 49 degrees 09 minutes and 25 seconds north and longitude of 71 degrees 33 minutes and 50 seconds west, or 5,448,069 north and 313,061 east in UTM zone No. 19. The property covers approximately 1,520 hectares divided into 27 exploration claims. The consolidated rocks of the St. Onge township area are of Precambrian age and form part of the metamorphic rocks of the Grenville province of the Canadian Shield.

The resource calculation is accompanied by a revised interpretation for the entire area drilled at St. Onge to date. In order to prepare the mineral resource estimate, a compilation of historical diamond drill holes data was done. The historical core samples were retrieved from the original owner's residence in Lac St. Jean, and sorted and verified at Magnor Exploration Inc.'s facility at Ville de LaBaie, Saguenay. This has enabled the company to carry out core sampling, core density measurements and independent sampling. A LIDAR topography has been used and provided by Jean-Luc Corriveau, legal surveyor, who was part of the same group which surveyed two diamond drill hole collars in the 1990s.

A resampling program totalling 195 samples plus 21 independent samples has been completed.

The core sample was prepared with standard procedures to prepare a representative powder suitable for major-element analysis with X-ray fluorescence. GoldMinds has used the results of the major-element XRF into mineral norm CIPW. The norm elaborated by Kurt Hollocher of the geology department of Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., allowed the conversion of major elements into minerals. The principal minerals are wollastonite, diopside, plagioclase, orthoclase and quartz.

The XRF laboratory results and conversion with the CIPW norm results have been checked with major-element historical results and with minerals tabulated with a norm of the 1990s, and demonstrated very similar results, thus allowing their use with the new results assay for mineral calculation.

The main laboratory for this XRF assay is COREM, based in Quebec, and the independent XRF analysis was done at AGAT Laboratory in Ontario. The XRF results and check assays were performed to support the integrity of the database. The XRF control analysis meets the expected values and allows public disclosure.

About the market

As the company is contemplating selling the product as soil amendment, commodity prices have been verified with public retail selling prices. The company has elected to use a much more conservative price than the publicly disclosed selling price of the single producer of crushed wollastonite in Canada for soil amendment, hence the qualified person has fixed the selling price at $55 per tonne to maintain a conservative approach to the mineral resource. Note that this price is for crushed wollastonite rock without any beneficiation processing.

The mineral resources incorporates the new assays in the non-analyzed portions in sum of the 1990s holes.

  1. The database (*) used for this mineral resource estimate includes drilling results realized between 1991 and 1994. Additional assays from the archived drill cores were done in 2018 under the supervision of GoldMinds Geoservices;
  2. Original sample length varies from 1.45 metres to 2.9 m, composites of three metres were used for the estimation of blocks;
  3. The density to convert volume to tonnage is 2.96 tonnes per cubic metre;
  4. The geological interpretation was done by zones separated by abnormal contacts. A total of six subvertical 3-D envelopes were modelled, mainly oriented northeast;
  5. The envelopes have been filled by regular blocks (10 m E by five m N by 10 m Z block size) and only the composites within the envelopes were used to estimate the block grades;
  6. The blocks were interpolated from equal-length composites (three metres) calculated from the mineralized intervals;
  7. The pit-constrained resources were modelled within the 3-D mineralized envelopes;
  8. Search ellipsoid estimation inverse distant squared with variable direction of geolines are: 35 m by 100 m by 150 m, 50 m by 190 m by 225 m to enable connection of the structure of the northeast holes to the highly drilled sector to the southwest. Saucers dipping north-west;
  9. For mineral estimation, two runs were used. For run one the company used a number of composites limited to 15 with a minimum of five, using three composites from the same hole. For run two the company used a number of composites limited to 15 with a minimum of three, using three composites from the same hole;
  10. The classification parameters used:
    • For measured mineral resources, the company used a minimum of six composites per block with a maximum of 15 composites, using three composites from the same drill hole.
    • For indicated mineral resources, the company used a minimum of four composites per block with a maximum of 15 composites, using three composites from the same drill hole.
    • For inferred mineral resources, the company used a minimum of three composites per block with a maximum of 15 composites, using three composites from the same drill hole;
  11. Search ellipsoid radius measured 45 m by 35 m by 60 m, an indicated radius of 55 m by 50 m by 100 m, and an inferred radius of 250 m by 100 m by 250 m;
  12. The reasonable economic prospect of economic extraction is based on mining cost of $8.26 per tonne, processing cost of $13.53 per tonne, quarry recovery of 95 per cent, pit-slope walls of 45 degrees and an assumed selling price of $55 per tonne with a cut-off grade of 30 per cent wollastonite;
  13. Overall strip ratio of 2.93 to one;
  14. First 5.1 million tonnes of mineralized material at surface with strip ratio of 0.57 to 1;
  15. GoldMinds is not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues that could materially affect the mineral resource estimate except well-known normal risks associated with mineral projects in Canada for permitting process and first nation claims.

(*) The qualified person has verified the historical data. The existing historical drill hole database were compared with certificates of major-element and mineral XRF analysis, historical logs and the original legal survey of the drill hole collars and direction. The witness core has been reviewed, box numbers with length, sample tags and portion sampled connect with the historical database of XRF major elements and minerals.

The National Instrument 43-101 technical report on mineral resources for the St. Onge wollastonite deposit contained in this news release will be delivered and filed on SEDAR within the next 45 days.

Quality control/quality assurance -- preparation

The original assay of the 1990s results were analyzed at COREM and Chimitec, now ALS, and no QA/QC data was available. The new reassay program was completed by COREM and control samples were analyzed at AGAT by GoldMinds at the independent laboratory in Ontario. The half-core sample are dried, crushed to have 75 per cent passing two millimetres and afterward riffle split to have 250 grams which is pulverized with tungsten carbide puck pulverizer to have a pulp 85 per cent passing 75 microns. Afterward an XRF borate fusion with 12-element analysis was done. The independent standards and CIPW norm calculations are in line with expected results as well as laboratory QA/QC and allow public disclosure of the results.

About CIPW

Normative mineralogy is a calculation of the composition of a rock sample that estimates the idealized mineralogy of a rock according to the principles of geochemistry. The CIPW norm was developed in the early 1900s by the petrologists Cross, Iddings and Pirsson, and the geochemist Washington.

Wollastonite is a calcium inosilicate mineral (CaSiO3) which may contain small amounts of iron, magnesium and manganese substituting for calcium. It is usually white. It forms when impure limestone or dolostone is subjected to high temperature and pressure, sometimes in the presence of silica-bearing fluids as in skarns or contact metamorphic rocks. Associated minerals include garnets, vesuvianite, diopside, tremolite, epidote, plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene and calcite. It is named after the English chemist and mineralogist William Hyde Wollaston, who lived from 1766 to 1828.

Qualified persons

Claude Duplessis, Eng, Claude Bisaillon, Eng, and Merouane Rachidi, PGeo, of GoldMinds Geoservices, all qualified persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101, are responsible for the St. Onge wollastonite mineral resources and have approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About Vertical Exploration Inc.

Vertical Exploration's mission is to identify, acquire and advance high-potential mining prospects located in North America for the benefit of its stakeholders. The company's St. Onge wollastonite property is located in the Lac-Saint-Jean area in the province of Quebec.

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