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April 10, 2014 --- Vol. 08, No. 15April 2014

Northwest Territories

GOLD – Nighthawk Gold Corp. April 10 reported additional assay results from 16 historic holes drilled in 1987 on its Cass gold deposit located on Nighthawk’s Indin Lake Gold Property in Northwest Territories. Among highlights of the results: Hole C87-16 intersected 80.70 meters of 4.53 grams per metric ton gold, including 20.40 meters of 7.83 g/t gold and 19.95 meters of 6.16 g/t gold; hole C87-23 intersected 61.50 meters of 4.24 g/t gold, including 6.70 meters of 12.11 g/t gold, 8.0 meters of 5.54 g/t gold and 11.85 meters of 5.51 g/t gold; hole C87-25 intersected 18.40 meters of 10.03 g/t gold, including 9.60 meters of 11.81 g/t gold; and hole C87-15 intersected 12.80 meters of 10.30 g/t gold, including 5.90 meters of 20.06 g/t gold and 11.20 meters of 5.76 g/t gold. Nighthawk President and CEO David Wiley commented, “The 1987 historic drill results from Cass demonstrate the deposit’s continuity and widths of mineralization. We continue to analyze additional historical drill results for the Kim and Cass deposits and anticipate reporting more results over the coming weeks.” The Cass deposit is characterized by broad zones of near-surface stockwork-style gold mineralization within an elongate and vertically dipping gabbroic body. Previously reported highlights from 1986 drilling define continuous mineralization over significant core lengths within 75 meters of surface. Areas below the 1986 drilling were targeted by the 1987 drilling, extending mineralization over a strike length of 360 meters and to a depth of 210 meters, thus confirming the deposit’s continuity and widths of mineralization. Drilling verifies the exploration opportunities to depth and along strike, distinguishing Cass as a vastly underexplored deposit type within the Indin Lake Gold Camp. The Cass deposit represents a higher grade open pit mining opportunity complimentary to Nighthawk’s Colomac Gold Property, which contains an estimated inferred mineral resource of 39.815 million metric tons with an average grade of 1.64 g/t gold for 2.101 million ounces gold using a cut-off grade of 0.6 g/t gold. The Kim and Cass gold deposits, which are connected by road to Colomac located 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) to the northeast, provide considerable exploration upside and unrealized potential to significantly grow Nighthawk’s resource base. In the mid-1990s, Royal Oak Mines Inc. planned to develop the Kim and Cass deposits as open pit operations and process the ore at its Colomac Mill, however the company closed its Colomac operation before achieving production from the deposits.

DIAMONDS – Canterra Minerals Corp. April 9 said it has staked 43 new mineral claims covering more than 43,000 hectares (106,253 acres) in the southern portion of the Slave Province of Northwest Territories, as part of the company’s return to diamond exploration. “Through this staking initiative, Canterra has increased its land holdings in an area that continues to deliver significant diamond discoveries. Our team is focusing its attention on the Southern Slave based on our vast diamond knowledge, and the systematic study of our large proprietary dataset accumulated over a period of 15 years. Analysis of this data with new advances in techniques and technology has re-ignited our interest in diamond exploration and will be the company’s focus going forward,” Canterra President and CEO Randy Turner said. The Slave Province, including the prolific Lac de Gras and Southern Slave areas, has a proven history of diamond discovery and development. It is host to three of Canada’s four producing diamond mines, making Canada the world’s third-largest diamond producer on a value basis. The recent staking provides three new properties to the company’s asset portfolio and expands two existing properties which were maintained by the company due to their considerable potential for the discovery of new diamondiferous kimberlite bodies. Each of these properties host indicator mineral trains which are composed of numerous G10 garnets, chromites and ilmenites sourced from within the diamond stability field, and which are potentially associated with diamond-bearing kimberlite sources. Canterra acquired the King Property in 2000. Seven mineral claims have been staked northeast of the existing mineral leases, increasing the property size to about 13,500 hectares (33,359 acres). The company continues to evaluate other areas within the Southern Slave for future land acquisition. When completed, the company will be announcing the details of the exploration programs currently being planned for these properties.

DIAMONDS – North Arrow Minerals Inc. April 7 said it has initiated ground geophysical surveys at the Redemption diamond project located 32 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of, and 47 kilometers (29 miles) west of the Ekati and Diavik diamond mines, respectively. North Arrow said the current exploration program will consist of ground geophysical surveys over selected targets that have been prioritized based on results of a 2013 airborne gravity gradiometry survey as well as a review of earlier acquired airborne and ground magnetic and electromagnetic geophysical datasets. Targets have been further prioritized based on their location with respect to the up ice termination of the South Coppermine kimberlite indicator mineral train which represents one of the last well defined and unsourced KIM trains in the Lac de Gras region. A total of 21 grids are planned for the program, covering approximately 40 individual targets. The program is scheduled to run for about 28 days and the survey results will be used to select targets for follow up exploration, including drilling.

GOLD – TerraX Minerals Inc. April 7 has mobilized a second drill and commenced drilling at the Crestaurum gold deposit on its Yellowknife City Gold Project, which encompasses 8,400 hectares (20,756 acres) of contiguous land immediately north of the City of Yellowknife in Northwest Territories. Drilling is still underway at the Homer Lake base metal/precious target at the north end of the property. The second drill rig has commenced drilling at the south end of the property at Crestaurum, where the gold mineralized shear structure has been identified over 1.4 kilometers (0.8 miles) of strike-length and is open along strike and down dip. TerraX has reported assay results from re-logging and sampling of core from historical drill holes that included 6.87 meters grading 13.07 g/t gold in hole 85-118; 5.00 meters grading 20.66 g/t gold near surface in hole 85-187; and5.00 meters grading 62.90 g/t gold less than 50 meters from surface in hole 85-150. The Crestaurum drilling will consist of 12-15 holes focusing on twinning historical holes from the 1940s to 1960s that did not have core available for re-logging and re-sampling and infill drilling around 1985 drill holes that have been re-logged and re-sampled by TerraX in 2013. The aim of the Crestaurum drill program is to advance this zone of mineralization towards a mineral resource. The mobilization of this second drill was moved up to take advantage of excellent winter access conditions that are persisting in the project area. The first drill rig is continuing to drill at the Homer Lake base metal/precious metal target. Once this drilling is completed this drill will be moved to the Barney Shear (28.32 meters grading 2.97 g/t gold), which is the extension of the Con Mine/Giant Mine shear system that has hosted more than 13 million ounces of gold production from the two mines. Crestaurum and the Barney Shear are currently TerraX’s highest priority gold targets. TerraX’s first drill campaign will total about 6,000 meters testing the three initial target areas. TerraX has carried out a strategy of acquiring prospective ground adjacent to Northbelt and in October 2013 entered into an option agreement whereby it can acquire a 100 percent interest in the Walsh Lake gold property, which is contiguous with and immediately east of Northbelt. The Walsh Lake property consists of seven leases and five claims totaling 6,659 acres (2,695 hectares). TerraX has also staked and acquired ground to the west of Northbelt to cover prospective geology that is on strike from Northbelt structures.

COBALT – Fortune Minerals Ltd. April 4 said it is pleased by recent reports that Tesla Motors Inc. plans to source its critical raw materials as close as possible to its planned US$5 billion lithium-ion battery “gigafactory” in the Southwest United States – with a preference for North America suppliers to minimize environmental impacts and material costs. Fortune’s proposed refinery near Saskatoon in western Canada, the Saskatchewan Metals Processing Plant, will be constructed in the community of Langham, and will stand out as a North American facility dedicated to the production of cobalt chemicals needed to manufacture rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles like Tesla’s as well as in portable electronic devices. The Tesla Model S uses Nickel Cobalt Aluminum cathode chemistry from Panasonic containing 9 percent cobalt by weight. Lithium-ion batteries using other cathode chemistries can contain up to 60 percent cobalt by weight, Fortune said. The SMPP will also produce gold, bismuth metals and chemicals, and byproduct copper. Notably, the bismuth market is experiencing significant demand growth as a non-toxic, environmentally safe replacement for lead in a number of products, including automotive anti-corrosion coatings, windshield frits, pearlescent paints and electronic solders. Fortune envisions that the SMPP facility also could be expanded to include battery and metal recycling as a future business opportunity in Langham. Tesla spokesperson, Liz Jarvis-Shean, has noted that the electric car manufacturer will look for North American suppliers of cobalt and other materials needed to “establish a supply chain that is local and focused on minimizing environmental impact.” She further commented, “One of the key reasons is to more completely consider the total environmental impact of the supply chain while significantly reducing battery cost. Our goal is to build batteries with the lowest environmental impact possible and that necessitates looking at where the raw materials come from and how much impact there was in mining, processing and transporting them.” Mike Romaniuk, Fortune’s vice president operations and chief operating officer, said, “Tesla’s approach is a positive development for the future of our SMPP. Our NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth copper project comprised of a mine and mill in the Northwest Territories and the processing facility in Saskatchewan will make us a vertically integrated North American supplier of the cobalt chemicals needed by battery manufacturers like Tesla.” Cobalt is a critical metal used in a number of important metallurgical and chemical products, but susceptible to supply concerns with more than 60 percent of mine production currently sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. China is currently responsible for roughly 40 percent of refined cobalt production, primarily from DRC material. “Our company has been very aware of the pending proliferation of electric vehicle use. It is gratifying to hear Tesla’s recent announcement confirming Fortune’s NAFTA advantage as a future Canadian supplier of the cobalt chemicals required by the automotive and rechargeable battery industries,” said Romaniuk. “We expect the economic impact of this demand to create over 100 new jobs in surrounding communities and millions in other spin-off benefits for the area.” Fortune has already received its environmental assessment approvals for the NICO mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories as well as for the refinery in Saskatchewan. In early April, the company reported the results of an updated feasibility study for the project by Micon International Ltd. that is being used to advance negotiations with potential strategic partners and their banks.

MINERAL PRODUCTION – The overall value of mineral production rose in Nunavut in 2013, but decreased in the Northwest Territories, according to Natural Resources Canada statistics. In the NWT, the value of diamond production from the territory’s three diamond mines dropped to C$1,561.227 million, a 4 percent decrease of C$64.831 million from 2012, despite production having increased by 1 percent. Tungsten production increased by 8 percent at the Cantung Mine, and the production value of tungsten increased by C$11.4 million to C$99.8 million, while the value of copper decreased by C$1.5 million to C$2.2 million. In Nunavut, the value of gold and silver production from the territory’s sole mine, Meadowbank, increased by C$16 million (3 percent) to C$627 million from C$611 million in 2012, while gold production increased by 16 percent. In comparison, the value of mineral production in Canada in 2013 totaled $43.6 billion, down from $45.9 billion in 2012 and $50.87 billion in 2011. The NWT and Nunavut statistics generally reflected market trends as reported by NRCan in its Information Bulletin, March 2014, titled, “Weaker Prices Result in Lower Mineral Production in 2013; Still a Robust $44 Billion.” According to the bulletin: “Despite an overall decrease in production value, down 5 percent to C$43.6 billion, minerals and metals products continued to be a key contributor to Canada’s economy in 2013. Canada’s top five mineral products had shipments valued at over C$26 billion in 2013. The three commodity groups – metals, nonmetals, and coal – all had reduced production values as a result of lower commodity prices for most major minerals and metals. Notwithstanding price decreases, some commodities, such as gold and copper, had increased output and value. Potash, gold, and iron ore were the leading commodities by production value in 2013.


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