Montreal, Québec, Canada, June 3, 2021 – MONARCH MINING CORPORATION (“Monarch” or the “Corporation”) (TSX: GBAR) (OTCQX: GBARF) is pleased to announce that it plans to reopen its wholly-owned Beaufor mine and Beacon mill by June 2022. The mine and mill are located some 20 kilometres east of Vald’Or, Québec.
The Beaufor mine has produced over 1.1 million ounces of gold at an average grade of 7.50 g/t Au since the early 1930s. The mine is currently on care and maintenance, which enabled Monarch to undertake a huge diamond drilling program of 42,500 metres in June 2020 aimed at expanding and better defining the resource at the mine. The Corporation has reported the results for 14,465 metres of drilling, about 34% of the program, including the following high-grade intersections: 783 g/t Au over 0.2 m and 293 g/t Au over 0.5 m (press release dated October 1, 2020), 35.87 g/t Au over 9.8 m (press release dated January 19, 2021) and 187.0 g/t Au over 0.5 m, 151.5 g/t Au over 0.5 m and 147.5 g/t Au over 0.3 m (press release dated April 29, 2021). In addition, BBA Inc. is scheduled to prepare a new resource estimate in the summer of 2021 (press release dated May 10, 2021).
The 750 tonne-per-day Beacon mill, just 7 kilometres from the Beaufor mine, has also been on care and maintenance since being acquired in 2016. The mill is fully permitted to process up to 1,800,000 tonnes of tailings, representing some nine years of ore processing at full capacity.
“We are at the stage where we are ready to proceed with the decision to restart the Beaufor Mine and the Beacon Mill,” said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and CEO of Monarch. “Following the release of our drill results last April, our technical team did their own internal compilation of the historical data and the drill results obtained to date, and they have given us the green light to proceed with the restart process. The next steps will mainly be to continue exploration, definition and development work, recruit the required personnel and purchase the equipment needed for production.”
“Our new production strategy will focus on operating the Beaufor Mine through two accesses, the production ramp and the shaft, whereas historical production was always from the shaft. Ever since the mine was temporarily closed in 2019, our goal has been to restart the mine with a view to creating long-term value and good-quality jobs in the Abitibi region. We still believe that the Beaufor Mine has excellent gold potential in the vicinity of the existing mineralized envelope and at depth, and we are confident of realizing its full potential,” added Mr. Lacoste.
The new job openings will be posted on the Corporation’s website over the next few weeks, at www.monarchmining.com.
The technical and scientific content of this press release has been reviewed and approved by Christian Tessier, Geo., the Corporation’s qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.
About Beaufor
The Beaufor Mine is located within the Bourlamaque Batholith at the eastern contact with the Dubuisson Formation. The Bourlamaque Batholith, a synvolcanic intrusion, is a major geological feature of the Val-d’Or mining camp. It is a quartziferous granodiorite cut by fine-grained dioritic dykes. Gold mineralization occurs in veins associated with shear zones dipping moderately south. Mineralization is associated with quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veins resulting from the filling of shear and extension fractures. Gold-bearing veins show a close association with mafic dykes intruding the granodiorite. A National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate for the Beaufor Mine property was prepared for Monarch Mining in December 2020 by Carl Pelletier, P. Geo., InnovExplo Inc., and John Langton, P. Geo., JPL GeoServices Inc. The mineral resource estimate is listed in the table below.
Table 1: 2020 mineral resource estimate for the Beaufor Mine
Mineral Resource Estimate notes:
About Monarch
Monarch Mining Corporation (TSX: GBAR) is a fully integrated mining company that owns four advanced projects, including the fully permitted past-producing Beaufor Mine, which has produced more than 1 million ounces of gold over the last 30 years. Other advanced assets include the Croinor Gold, McKenzie Break and Swanson properties, all located near Monarch’s wholly owned and fully permitted Beacon 750 tpd mill. Monarch owns 28,725 hectares (287 km2) of mining assets in the prolific Abitibi mining camp that host 588,482 ounces of combined measured and indicated gold resources and 329,393 ounces of combined inferred resources.
Forward-Looking Statements
The forward-looking statements in this press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Monarch’s actual results, performance and achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied therein. Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
Table 2: Monarch’s consolidated gold resource
1 Source: Monarch Gold prefeasibility study (January 19, 2018) and resource estimate (January 8, 2016). This resource estimate was prepared for Monarch Gold and has not been reviewed by a qualified person for Monarch Mining as required under National Instrument 43-101 and is thus considered as an historical estimate.
2 Source: NI 43-101 Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate for the Beaufor Mine, December 18, 2020, Val-d’Or, Québec, Canada, Carl Pelletier, P. Geo., InnovExplo Inc. and John Langton, P. Geo., JPL GeoServices Inc.
3 Source: NI 43-101 Technical Evaluation Report on the McKenzie Break Property, February 1, 2021, Val-d’Or, Québec, Canada, Alain-Jean Beauregard, P.Geo., Daniel Gaudreault, P.Eng., Geologica Groupe-Conseil Inc., and Merouane Rachidi, P.Geo., Claude Duplessis, P.Eng., GoldMinds GeoServices Inc.
4 Source: NI 43-101 Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate for the Swanson Project, January 22, 2021, Val-d’Or, Québec, Canada, Christine Beausoleil, P. Geo. and Alain Carrier, P. Geo., InnovExplo Inc.
5 Numbers may not add due to rounding.
President and CEO
1-888-994-4465 x 201
jm.lacoste@monarchmining.com