Titan Mining Updates Reporting at Mineral Ridge

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Titan Mining Corporation (TSX: TI) (“Titan” or the “Company”) announces that in satisfying the reporting requirements of the British Columbia Securities Commission Titan commissioned an independent consultant to prepare a technical report on the Mineral Ridge Project.

The technical report for Titan was based on a technical report with an effective date of January 2, 2018, summarizing a feasibility study that was prepared for Scorpio Gold Corporation (“Scorpio Gold”) on Mineral Ridge. The technical report prepared for Titan differs in some respects to that prepared for Scorpio Gold given the more recent effective date of the report of December 1, 2020, and includes the reclassification of the Measured Mineral Resources within the existing heap leach pad to Indicated Mineral Resources, an addition of a surge pile to accommodate the crusher which modified the capital cost estimate, changes to the power costs that modified the operating cost estimate, review of commodity prices, and review of inputs to the economic analysis including changes to the gold price used in the analysis.

The results of the study indicated that approximately 14,000 ounces of gold had been recovered from continued leaching from the existing leach pad since the 2018 technical report. While the independent consultant has confirmed that the volume of material on the leach pad is generally unchanged (outside of the 14,000 ounces of gold recovered from continued leaching), the extraction has made it unclear where the reported Measured Mineral Resources estimated for Scorpio Gold are precisely located on the leach pad. As a result, the independent consultant revised the Measured classification to Indicated. The below updated estimate of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves reflects the foregoing revisions.

Table 1: Mineral Resources Summary

Mineral Resource Estimate for Mineralization Contained within the Heap Leach Pad

Notes:

1. The effective date of the Mineral Resource estimate is December 1, 2020. The QP for the estimate is Mr. Ian Crundwell, P.Geo.
2. Mineral Resources are quoted inclusive of Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
3. Mineral Resources are contained within the Mineral Ridge leach pad facility with the following assumptions: a long-term gold price of $1,216/oz; assumed process costs of $11/t; and metallurgical recovery for gold of 91%.
4. Silver was not used in the consideration of reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. Silver recoveries from heap leach pad material are projected to be 24%.
5. Rounding may result in apparent differences when summing tons, grade and contained metal content. Tonnage and grade measurements are in Imperial units. Grades are reported in ounces per ton.
   

Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource Estimate for Run of Mine Remnant Areas

Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate for Run of Mine Remnant Areas

Notes:

1. The effective date of the Mineral Resource estimate is December 1, 2020. The QP for the estimate is Mr. Ian Crundwell, P.Geo.
2. Mineral Resources are reported inclusive of Mineral Reserves at a gold cut-off grade of 0.01 opt. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
3. Mineral Resources are constrained to the area within the grade-shell wireframes. The areas outside of these grade shells are assumed to be at zero grade.
4. These Mineral Resource are considered to be amenable to open-pit mining. Conceptual Whittle pit shells used the following assumptions: a long-term gold price of $1,350/oz; assumed combined operating costs of $12.36/t (mining, process, general and administrative); metallurgical recovery for gold of 95%, and variable pit slope angles that ranged from 38–42º.
5. Rounding may result in apparent differences between when summing tons, grade and contained metal content. Tonnage and grade measurements are in Imperial units. Grades are reported in ounces per ton.

Table 2: Mineral Reserves Summary

Mineral Reserve Estimate for the Heap Leach Pad

Notes:

1. The Mineral Reserves have an effective date of December 1, 2020. The QP for the estimate is Mr. Jeffery Choquette P.E.
2. Mineral Reserves are contained within the Project leach pad facility with the following assumptions: long-term gold price of $1,300/oz; assumed total ore process costs of $10.59/t; metallurgical recovery for gold of 91%, and 24% for silver, refining and smelting cost of $28.39/oz of gold. Allowance has been made for the facility location which excludes 260,000 t; this material must remain in-place, based on the heap material mining and tailings placement design.
3. Rounding as required by reporting guidelines may result in summation differences.
   

Mineral Reserve Estimate for the Run of Mine Remnant Areas

Notes:

1. The Mineral Reserves have an effective date of December 1, 2020. The Qualified Person for the estimate is Mr. Jeffery Choquette P.E.
2. Mineral Reserves are reported within the pit designs at a 0.01 opt gold cut-off grade. Pit designs incorporate the following considerations: base case gold price of $1,300/oz; pit slope angles that range from 38–47º; average life-of-mine metallurgical recovery assumption of 93%; crushing costs of $1.81/t, process cost of $5.79/t, general and administrative and tax costs of $2.90/t; and average mining costs of $1.42/t mined.
3. Rounding as required by reporting guidelines may result in summation differences.
   

A technical report in support of the Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves in this news release, prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”) titled “Mineral Ridge Project, Esmeralda County, Nevada, USA” with an effective date of December 22, 2020, has been filed on SEDAR concurrently with the issuance of this news release. Readers are encouraged to review the final technical report in its entirety.  

Data Verification

Data verification performed in support of the Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates for Mineral Ridge included in the technical report prepared for Titan included site visits; review of QA/QC data, sampling analytical data and programs from Scorpio Gold and predecessor company drill campaigns; database verification; review of metallurgical data and metallurgical recovery assumptions including leach pad performance; review of mine and recovery plan assumptions; and review of commodity price, capital and operating cost assumptions.

Drilling performed by Scorpio Gold primarily in the period 2014–2017 supports the Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates. Scorpio Gold employed a QA/QC program of certified reference materials (CRMs), blanks, and field duplicates inserted in the sample stream at the rate of approximately one control for every 20 samples. The same QA/QC program was generally employed for all samples submitted to each laboratory and the Scorpio Gold on-site assay laboratory. QA/QC procedures implemented during the 2014–2017 drill programs are generally acceptable to support the analytical precision and repeatability. The nature, extent, and results of the sample preparation, security, and analytical procedures, and the quality control procedures employed, and quality assurance actions taken by Scorpio Gold provide acceptable confidence in the drill hole data collection and processing to support Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimation, and mine planning. Gold and silver assays can be used to estimate Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves for the heap leach pad. Silver was not routinely assayed for in the remnant area drill programs. As a result, only gold estimation can currently be supported for these areas.

Qualified Person

The Qualified Persons who co-authored the technical report include Mr Todd Wakefield, RM SME, Mr Bruce Genereaux, RM SME, Mr Jeffrey Choquette, P.E., Mr Brian Arthur, RM SME, Mr Ian Crundwell, P.Geo., and Mr Kevin Lutes, P.E. The Qualified Persons supervised the preparation of the information that forms the basis for this news release.

About Titan Mining Corporation

Titan is an Augusta Group company which produces zinc concentrate at its 100%-owned Empire State Mine (“ESM”) located in New York state. In addition, Titan has an option to earn a 100% interest in the Mineral Ridge gold property in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Titan is built for growth, focused on value and committed to excellence. For more information on the Company, please visit our website at www.titanminingcorp.com.

Contact

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Email: [email protected]