Kinross Commences 8,000m Drilling Program on BTU's Dixie Halo Property Adjacent To Kinross' Great Bear Project

Associated Press

20-05-2025

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / May 20, 2025 / BTU METALS CORP. ('BTU' or the 'Company') (TSXV:BTU)(OTCQB:BTUMF) is pleased to announce that Kinross, pursuant to the option agreement between the parties, has just commenced a significant core drilling program on the Company's Dixie Halo property adjacent to Kinross's world class Great Bear gold deposit southeast of Red Lake, Ontario.
The Company is also commencing work on its Hubcap property adjacent to the south boundary of the Red Pine Exploration Ltd. (Red Pine) Wawa Gold Project.
Dixie Halo Project - Kinross Option
The Company completed several drill campaigns on the Dixie Halo project over the time period Great Bear Resources Ltd. was successfully outlining extensive gold mineralization on its Dixie Project before Kinross acquired Great Bear Resources Ltd. for approximately C$1.8 billion (February 2022). Subsequently, the Company entered into an option agreement with Kinross in a transaction that closed in Q2 of 2023. Since then, Kinross has been evaluating all of the available data on the Company's Dixie Halo option property in preparation for follow-up drill testing target areas that may host gold mineralization. Part of that evaluation work involved re-logging of the drill core from the Company's drill programs on the Dixie Halo property in addition to a full re-interpretation of all available data.
With all the pre-drill stage technical evaluation work now complete, Kinross has secured the required permits and has budgeted for an extensive drilling campaign on the Dixie Halo Option properties. The drill program just commenced and is planned to include approximately 8,000 metres on various target areas identified as priority locations for potential gold mineralization.
Paul Wood, CEO, commented: 'We're excited that Kinross has completed their full evaluation of the historic work on the Dixie Halo project and are now embarking on their initial drilling of the resultant target areas. We hope they are successful in finding new areas of alteration and gold mineralization that will add to the already significant milestones they are achieving on the Great Bear project.' Mr. Wood went on to add: 'Additionally, based on the success of our recent work at Wawa the team is keen to reunite for a site visit next week to plan and commence follow up work.'
In its Management Discussion and Analysis for the period ending March 31, 2025 Kinross disclosed the following regarding the Great Bear project updates and developments; 'Given Kinross has already drilled out a significant inventory in the Preliminary Economic Assessment providing an initial 12-year mine life, demonstrated continuation of mineralization beyond that, and the high cost of drilling at depth from surface, Kinross has shifted its focus from drilling the LP zone to regional exploration work. Kinross commenced regional exploration drilling in the first quarter of 2025 targeting both near-surface and underground targets delineated by lithostratigraphic models and geophysical surveys. The program is ongoing with more than 50,000 metres anticipated to be drilled by year-end.'
Wawa Area Properties Update
Figure 1: BTU Wawa Area Property Portfolio outlining Hubcap, Centennial, and Echum Projects
Wawa Area Hubcap Project
The Company is preparing to follow-up on areas of strong shearing, sulphide mineralization and quartz veining identified in the work programs completed late in 2024 on the northern part of the Hubcap project located immediately south of the Red Pine Wawa Project (Figure 1).
Encouraging results and information from prospecting, geological mapping and a compilation of historic results has allowed the Company to plan and now prepare to execute additional work programs that will include geological mapping, prospecting, and geophysical surveying during the 2025 field season.
The results released by neighboring Red Pine Exploration Inc. (a few hundred metres from the common boundary with Red Pine will be a priority area for initial prospecting in the early part of the program. On November 27, Red Pine released the results of 18 grab samples from the War Eagle area approximately 3km south-southeast of its 2024 Mineral Resource Estimate area that was released in a press release September 30, 2024. Results of the assays from the 18 samples ranged from 0.72 g/t gold to 17.10 g/t with the overall trend of the shears and mineralization indicated to be south-southwest toward the common boundary with the Company approximately 750 metres farther southwest.
Late in the field season last year, prospecting samples were collected near the common boundary on the Company's side of the boundary from scattered surface exposures of sheared, quartz veined, and carbonate altered outcrop that included disseminated pyrite. Assay values received ranged from trace to 6.13 g/t gold** from mineralized quartz veining and sheared wall rock as shown on Figure 2. A map with an overview of all Fall 2024 surface sampling results above 0.5 g/t Au is available in Figure 3.
Figure 2: Strongly altered, sheared, and mineralized volcanics with quartz veining in area of recent surface sampling results.
Figure 3: Hubcap Fall 2024 Surface Sampling Results Above 0.5 g/t Au.
Wawa Area Echum Project
The Company completed an initial six drill hole program on the 100% owned 14,262-hectare Echum Project in Wawa, Ontario. The project is an extensive gold-silver-critical minerals prospect located adjacent to Alamos Gold Inc. ('Alamos') (AGI-TSX) property that hosts the Island gold mine and the Magino gold mine.
Interpretation of the available geology and geophysical data indicate the overall stratigraphic sequence on the Alamos ground extends southerly to southeasterly onto the Company's Echum property. Historic work on the Echum property has indicated the presence of both gold and base metal occurrences at several locations and much of the property is overburden covered or has been rather inaccessible due to a lack of road access.
Initial drilling focused on testing anomalies and targets identified in data collected in the 2021 Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetic (VTEM) and 2023-2024 Induced Polarization (IP) surveys. These anomalies have had scarce, if any historic drill testing.
The Company wishes to thank the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP) for funding in support of advancing the Echum Project. Drill holes were designed to test a number of separate anomalous chargeability features in areas where little geological information existed. Drill core logging revealed some low copper and zinc values as well as the occurrence of significant mineralized quartz veining (with sulphides such as pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite) generally associated with moderate to strong shearing, which may indicate the presence of regional scale deformation zones. No significant gold values were found in the core samples analyzed.
Drilling to date at the Echum Project intersected anomalous near-surface copper and zinc mineralization and confirmed strong correlation with VTEM and IP anomalies. Notably, some features of the wide mineralized zone appear visually similar to gold systems elsewhere in the Wawa gold district, such as Alamos' Island Gold Mine, suggesting potential for the discovery of gold mineralization on the property in new locations as well as in the area known as the Ballard Lake gold occurrences, an area explored historically. The Company has yet to compile and carry out work in this area. The six holes drilled in late 2024 and early 2025 tested only to a maximum depth of 200m, and totaled only 807 metres. Ongoing interpretation of the complex structures intersected will enhance the understanding of the Echum Project, where multiple additional targets remain to be tested.
Sample Preparation & Analysis
All drill holes were logged, sampled, photographed, and cut at a secure logging facility in Shining Tree, Ontario. All samples were cut using a Vancon core saw, and the top half was collected and placed in sample bags secured with zip ties with unique sample IDs. The samples were delivered to AGAT Laboratories facility in Sudbury, Ontario, and were prepared and analyzed in Thunder Bay, Ontario and Calgary, Alberta.
A description of the sample preparation and analysis methods are listed below:
The following QAQC procedures were used:
The Company also announces it has set 4,300,000 options to directors, officers and consultants at $0.05 for a period of two years in accordance with the Company's stock option plan.
Qualified Person
Bruce Durham, P. Geo., VP Exploration of the Company is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this press release.
About BTU
BTU Metals Corp. is a junior mining exploration company looking to acquire high quality exploration projects to add to its portfolio for the benefit of its stakeholders. The Company's main assets are the Dixie Halo Project located in Red Lake, Ontario (optioned to Kinross) immediately adjacent to the Kinross Great Bear Project and its gold and critical minerals properties in the active Wawa gold district. The Company has no debt and minimal property obligations.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
'Paul Wood'
Paul Wood, CEO, Director
[email protected]
BTU Metals Corp.
Telephone: [phone]
Toll Free: 1-888-945-4770
Cautionary Statement
Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains certain 'forward-looking information' within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws that are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. The information in this release about future plans and objectives of the Company is forward-looking information. Other forward-looking information includes but is not limited to information concerning: the intentions, plans and future actions of the Company.
Any statements that involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as 'expects', or 'does not expect', 'is expected', 'anticipates' or 'does not anticipate', 'plans', 'budget', 'scheduled', 'forecasts', 'estimates', 'believes' or 'intends' or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results 'may' or 'could', 'would', 'might' or 'will' be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information and are intended to identify forward-looking information.
This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: risks relating to the global economic climate; dilution; future capital needs and uncertainty of additional financing; the competitive nature of the industry; currency exchange risks; the need for the Company to manage its planned growth and expansion; the effects of product development; protection of proprietary rights; the effect of government regulation and compliance on the Company and the industry; reliance on key personnel; global economic and financial market deterioration impeding access to capital or increasing the cost of capital; and volatile securities markets impacting security pricing unrelated to operating performance. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the normal course of business. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking information other than as required by law.
SOURCE: BTU Metals Corp.
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