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Message: TNR 2010 summary and 2011 outlook news release

TNR Gold reviews 2010, looks forward to 2011

2010-12-23 14:18 ET - News Release

Mr. Gary Schellenberg reports

CORPORATE UPDATE

TNR Gold Corp. has provided a summary and review of the corporate highlights reported in 2010, and the anticipated milestones to watch for in 2011.

In 2010, TNR focused on unlocking the value of the enterprise through identifying the critical business units within TNR, reorganizing the corporate structure to support the divisions as individual sustainable corporate entities and laying the foundation for the achievement of their potential.

The bulk of the effort was provided to TNR's wholly owned rare-metals-focused subsidiary, International Lithium Corp. (ILC), to capitalize on the burgeoning lithium sector and the advent of the electric vehicle. Nine of TNR's 18 active projects will be assigned to ILC upon completion of a plan of arrangement that will see ILC spun out of TNR, fully financed and listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. This year promises to be very exciting with an aggressive field season planned and the anticipation of advancing a few of ILC's premier projects.

The Mariana lithium brine project in Argentina, covering an expansive 160 square kilometres, revealed highly compelling geochemistry from a cursory investigation, reporting average grades of 440 milligrams per litre lithium and 12,700 mg/l potassium. The potassium levels were unexpected and represent one of the highest grades compared with any of the neighbouring salars outside of the world-class operation on the Atacama salar. In early 2011, the phase 1 drill program is planned to target and isolate separate brine horizons for a first-time representative characterization of the subsurface brine geochemistry. Subsequent drilling will continue to delineate and add to the confidence level of the geochemistry of the subsurface brine pool with an inferred resource estimate targeted for the end of the year.

The Mariana project is expected to experience the most rapid advancement of any of the projects within the current TNR portfolio.

ILC holds three additional lithium brine properties in Nevada (Fish Lake, Runway1 and Sarcobatus Flats) located in adjacent valleys to the Silver Peak operation in Clayton Valley, the sole lithium brine producer in North America which has been in operation since 1966. This past year, in an integrated regional lithium exploration approach using geochemical and basin modelling utilizing a detailed gravity survey, ILC identified multiple drill targets across all three properties. These targets exhibit analogous geological features which provided both a source and trap for the lithium brines currently extracted at Silver Peak. In the first half of 2011 ILC is planning to mobilize a drill to all three properties, target the lithium brine aquifers within the stratigraphy and test their viability.

The company considers the Nevada region as highly strategic, possessing excellent opportunity and significant potential, which may well become a centerpiece in ILC as the story unfolds.

ILC's property portfolio is well balanced by a number of highly prospective rare metals, hard-rock pegmatite projects that have been painstakingly selected by ILC's technical experts under stringent guidelines. The key outstanding characteristics shared by all the rare metals projects are their underexplored nature, excellent accessibility, underanalyzed rare metals history, initial high-confidence level that additional exploration will add project value and ultimately the potential to develop the projects to address the global technological growth in demand for the rare metals suite of elements.

Highlighting these rare metals projects is the Moose property located near the shore of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, which was a minor lithium and tantalum producer in the 1950s with reported production of 119 tonnes of lithium ore and an estimated 4,409 tonnes of high-grade tantalum-niobium ore. The surficial area is disturbed from the historic mining activity with the 2010 exploration program limited as to exposure; however, a channel sample returned 1.50 weight per cent Li2O (lithium oxide) over 7.5 metres confirming the continuity of high-grade lithium across substantial widths within the pegmatite, and a muck pile returned 8.44 weight per cent Li2O indicating that the source pegmatite is highly evolved and underscores the future potential of the property. In support of the untested potential, the historic exploration and mining did not penetrate below the 25-metre mark or extend beyond the local workings. In addition, surface exploration on the Mavis Lake rare metals project, located 15 kilometres northeast of Dryden, Ont., revealed high-grade well-evolved lithium and tantalum zonation as well as significant levels of cesium and rubidium across multiple pegmatite bodies.

Both the Moose and Mavis Lake projects are clearly emerging as premier multielement rare metals projects and warrant drill programs in 2011 to determine their potential.

The merits of ILC's portfolio of lithium and rare metal projects, particularly the Mariana, have garnered significant interest from retailers, institutions and potential international strategic partners. A fruitful effort has been expended this year in the establishment of a strong network of interested parties. ILC is currently pursuing confidential discussions and undergoing due diligence with strategic investors to negotiate a beneficial transaction that may dramatically assist ILC in the attainment of its objectives. Significant advancement of ILC's projects through 2011 in conjunction with the progression of the lithium and other rare metals sectors will potentially have a profound effect on the company in the coming period.

Ameri Gold Corp., an Alaska-focused gold exploration company, was incorporated this year as a wholly owned subsidiary of TNR Gold Corp. Major advancements were realized in the amalgamation of a 100-per-cent interest in the Shotgun project through the acquisition of NovaGold Resources Inc.'s 50-per-cent interest in the project. Previous work at Shotgun Ridge by NovaGold has estimated a non-NI 43-101-compliant historical resource of 980,000 ounces grading 0.93 gram per tonne (g/t) at a cut-off of 0.5 g/t. The coming year will see the continued succession of Ameri Gold into a separately listed company, and the management teams' dedicated focus on proving and expanding the mineralization at Shotgun.

The formation of Ameri Gold is another step in the process of maximizing the asset value for the shareholders of TNR by a timely capitalizing on historic high-gold prices.

Compania Minera Solitario de Argentina SA is the long-standing wholly owned subsidiary of TNR focused on gold and copper in Argentina. A number of projects have been advanced by joint venture companies throughout the year. One project in which Solitario claims an interest is the Los Azules project operated by Minera Andes Inc. that on Dec. 16, 2010, disclosed in Stockwatch significant results reported from an updated preliminary assessment. As most recently disclosed by the company in its Stockwatch press release of Nov. 4, 2010, the company is involved in a legal dispute with MAI whereby Minera Solitario has served notice exercising its 25-per-cent back-in right to certain of the properties comprising the Los Azules project. Solitario's right to back in to the properties is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Minera Andes, and the terms of the back-in right are the subject of litigation between Solitario and Xstrata. The trial date is scheduled for June 20 to July 15, 2011. Two prominent drill-ready properties in the Minera Solitario portfolio are the El Tapau gold-copper project that has been subjected to very limited drill coverage consisting of seven holes which returned a significant intersection of 82 metres grading 0.49 per cent Cu that hasn't been followed up on and the El Salto Cu project where previous work has delineated a large chargeability anomaly (six by 1.5 kilometres) that was widely tested by 12 drill holes, one of which returned 55 metres of 0.21 per cent Cu and 0.012 per cent molybdenum. In 2011, the expectation is to launch a follow-up drill program on the core areas identified as exhibiting the highest potential.

TNR Gold staked the Big Beaver House rare earth element (REE) property, one of the largest carbonatite complexes in Ontario at five by five kilometres in scale. The project has experienced limited historic drilling with only partial elements analyzed for. When the Ontario Geological Survey analyzed the historic drill core for the full spectrum of elements, significant REE mineralization was confirmed with reported neodymium-lanthanum-cerium grades up to 3,200 parts per million indicating significant REE potential. The Big Beaver House project represents an excellent exploration target for REEs and is a prime example of the opportunities that the company continues to source out, identify and acquire.

In summary, the past year was primarily focused on increasing the value of the company, more specifically the value of the projects themselves, for the shareholders through a strategic restructuring. In the past as one company, one entity with a multitude of projects, the underlying value of the myriad of projects has not been realized regardless of their individual inherent value. In addition, the complexity of multiple commodities and jurisdictions does not translate very well to the marketplace or the shareholder. To address and resolve the situation, TNR has evolved and will continue to evolve by setting up separate management teams that are focused on fundraising, exploration and advancement of the company's specific property portfolios. This initiative is anticipated to provide the direct benefit of unlocking the value of the projects and will be able to move not only the company forward, but the companies that are derived or spun out of TNR Gold Corp.

The majority of the companies' projects are staged for the next phase of exploration, and the forthcoming period will see significant resources applied to the advancement of those properties. The company is anticipating a very busy and exciting year ahead.

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