Toronto April 11, 2022: Richmond Minerals Inc. (TSX-V: RMD) (“Richmond” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the purchase of 10 exploration properties totalling 554 exploration licenses in the Carinthia and Salzburg areas of Austria, Europe. Including the licenses of Richmond’s Oberzeiring Project, the Company now holds a total 653 exploration licenses covering approximately 300 km2 within the mining districts of Central Europe. Richmond’s portfolio now includes Pb-Zn, Ag and Au as well as Ni-Co-Cu exploration prospects.
Under the terms of the agreement, Richmond made a one-time cash payment of $30,000 (Australian) to the vendor, High Grade Metals Ltd. (“HGM”) to acquire a 100% interest in the licenses. Details of the newly acquired properties are provided in the Table below.
New Gold Properties | # of Licenses | Area in Km² |
New Critical Metal Properties | ||
Leogang W+E | 63 | 29.8 |
Brixlegg | 118 | 56.5 |
Seekar + Zinkwand | 11 | 5.6 |
New Gold Properties Kreuzeck West | 44 | 19.9 |
Kreuzeck East | 42 | 19.0 |
Goldeck-Siflitz | 57 | 25.5 |
Schellgaden N+S | 219 | 99.8 |
Total | 554 | 298.9 |
New Critical Metal Properties
Five of the new properties totaling 192 exploration licenses host critical metal mineralization (ie. cobalt, copper and nickel) and are located in the federal states of Tyrol and Salzburg, Austria. These properties are referred to as the Brixlegg, Leogang West, Leogang East, Seekar, and Zinkwand Properties.
Located on the border between Tyrol and Salzburg, the Leogang Property is well known for its historical mines dating back to pre-roman times and its nickel and cobalt production in the 19th century. Geologically the Leogang Property is underlain by rocks of the Western Grauwackenzone Group, consisting of with carbonatized metasediments of Paleozoic age. The Leogang Property hosts the Nöckelberg Mine in which historical records report grades up to 8.1% Ni and 15.8% Co. HGM conducted geophysical, geochemical soil sampling, and diamond drilling at the Nöckelberg Property in 2018. Mine dump samples returned values up to 7.8% Cu, 1.1% Ni, and 0.7% Co. Geophysical work included geomagnetics and geoelectric surveys that defined potential mineralized bodies that are untested priority diamond drill targets. Geochemical soil sampling (308 soil samples in a 50×50 m sampling grid) identified an anomaly with values up to 80 ppm Co, 700 ppm Cu, and 300 ppm Ni. HGM completed 468 m of diamond drilling in four holes that returned anomalous values, with numerous prospective drill targets remaining untested.
The Brixlegg Property is located in the Inn valley close to Innsbruck and is well known for Cu and Ag mining dating back to medieval times. Co-Ni mineralization has also been documented in the region. This mineralization is hosted in Paleozoic dolomite and consists of fahlore, bornite, enargite, galena, and sphalerite sulphide mineralization. Various Ni and Co-bearing minerals such as vaesit, fersdorffite, cattierite, cobaltite are also known to occur at Brixlegg. Additionally, Ni and Co have been mined between 1941 and 1944 at Silberberg. Historical documents report grades of 1.38% Co and 0.98% Ni.
The Seekar Property is located near Salzburg and is known for its historical (dating back to 1917) Ag mining with grades reported up to 250 g/t. Zinkwand is also located near Salzburg on the Styria district border. Five different types of mineralization have been identified at the Zinkwand Property: Ag-rich Zn-Pb, Ag-rich Cu-As, Cu-Pb-Zn and Ni-Co-Bi-Ag. The potential for critical metal mineralization at the Seekar and Zinkwand Properties has never been evaluated using modern exploration techniques.
New Gold Properties
Five of the new properties (notably the Siflitz – Guginock, Leßnig, Lengholz, Fundkofel, and Schellgaden Mines) totalling 362 exploration licenses host historical gold mines and are located in the southern part of Austria in the federal states of Carinthia and Salzburg.
Gold mineralization at the Kreuzeck and Goldeck Properties is found within a 1,500 m thick succession of Ordovician to Devonian metasediments that host grayish/black ‘greasy’ quartz veins and phyllitic shear zones mineralized with arsenopyrite. In the 16th and 17th century the Kreuzeck West, East and Goldeck-Siflitz mines were well known for their gold production. Limited sampling of these mine workings in the 1970s yielded results from 4.8 to 18.2 g/t Au. In excess of 100 scattered historical adits have been identified at the Goldeck-Siflitz Property, with only mine dumps and collapsed portals still visible and accessible. Despite the dense occurrence of historic mines at these newly acquired gold properties, little in the way of modern exploration work has been conducted. The most recent reported exploration work at the Goldeck-Siflitz Property was in 2019 and consisted of local stream sediment sampling which yielded values up to 369 ppb Au, and up to 110 ppb Au at the Kreuzeck West Property.
The Schellgaden Property is located in the Kareck complex of the Tauern Formation. Gold mineralization is associated within networks of quartz veins containing arsenopyrite mineralization hosted in gneissic basement rocks. The Kareck geological unit extends 20 km to south where numerous historical small scale gold mines (Knappenbaue or Radlgraben) have operated in the past.
Stakeholder Relationships
Richmond is planning a program of data compilation, prospecting, trenching and drill target definition for this upcoming field season. HGM built strong relationships with the local landowners, who were supportive during the last field and drilling campaign in 2018. Richmond will follow this strategy in upcoming exploration efforts.
Warren Hawkins, P.Eng, a “Qualified Person”, within the meaning of Nation Instrument 43-101- Standards of Disclosure for Minerals Projects, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release. Mr. Hawkins is not considered to be “independent” of the Corporation (as defined in National Instrument 43-101), as he currently holds securities of the Corporation.
For information, please contact:
Warren Hawkins, P. Eng. Exploration Manager
E: warren@richmondminerals.com Tel: 416-603-2114
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, Richmond’s objectives, goals or future plans, including successful completion of the Transaction and Offering. There is no guarantee that the Transaction and Offering will be completed on the terms announced in this press release or at all. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in general economic conditions and conditions in the financial markets; the ability of Richmond to raise funds pursuant to the Offering; changes in demand and prices for minerals; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments, and those risks set out in Richmond’s public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Richmond believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Richmond disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward- looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.
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