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ePower Metals Inc. (TSXV:EPWR) (the “Company” or “ePower Metals”) announces that: The Company has independently identified and acquired a 100% interest in the Brokopondo Cobalt Project in Suriname, South America. Brokopondo is an ~8,900-hectare laterite-hosted, cobalt-manganese project with historic grades of 0.5-1.5% Co sampled by the USGS (USGS MRDS 1993). The project hosts cobalt-manganese bearing …
ePower Metals Inc. (TSXV:EPWR) (the “Company” or “ePower Metals”) announces that:
- The Company has independently identified and acquired a 100% interest in the Brokopondo Cobalt Project in Suriname, South America.
- Brokopondo is an ~8,900-hectare laterite-hosted, cobalt-manganese project with historic grades of 0.5-1.5% Co sampled by the USGS (USGS MRDS 1993).
- The project hosts cobalt-manganese bearing laterites in a land package traversed by paved roads, high tension power lines and a navigable river. The Company views the Brokopondo Project as well positioned for fast and inexpensive exploration toward defining a meaningful resource that has the potential to address global cobalt demand.
- Laterite hosted cobalt deposits tend to be free digging, low arsenic sources of cobalt. The Company believes these types of deposits are amenable to a simple crush and leach process, which can be designed and built on a timeline that could address market demand for additional cobalt supply.
- Surname is home to the IAMGOLD Rosabel Mine and Newmont’s Merian Mine. Suriname has a clear process for the development of mineral resources.
- ePower Metals is focused on identifying new cobalt camps/projects globally and the company continues to work on developing cobalt projects globally.
Michael Collins, President and CEO of ePower Metals, comments, “ePower believes that it is necessary to look beyond current cobalt deposits to find new cobalt supplies that will address the pending shortfalls of cobalt in the battery market. The Brokopondo Cobalt Project has the potential to be a significant source of cobalt for the expanding cobalt market medium term. This is the first to be announced of several newly identified cobalt project areas that ePower believes are undervalued, strategically positioned and have the potential to provide future cobalt supply to the growing rechargeable battery sector. ePower continues to negotiate transactions to acquire interests in those other cobalt project areas.”
The Brokopondo Cobalt Property
ePower Metals has staked an ~8,900 ha prospecting permit in Suriname based on historic USGS reports of laterite hosted Cobalt-Manganese with grades of 0.5-1.5% Co, (USGS MRDS 1993)*. The property lies 85 kilometres south of the capital of Paramaribo, a paved highway and high-tension power lines traverse Brokopondo, just north of the Afobaka Hydro Dam. Historic exploration for bauxite and placer gold mining has left the project area crisscrossed by tracks and trails and well suited for rapid exploration and development. The Company is operational in Suriname and in the field conducting orientation surveys. Work will expand to property-wide prospecting utilizing cup augers to sample on a 200-metre grid before September, with infill drilling planned on areas that demonstrate anomalous cobalt/manganese from the auger samples starting in mid to late October.
*The grades stated in the USGS report have not been verified by the Company, and readers are cautioned not to place undue weight on such results. The historical grades are considered relevant; however the reliability, assumptions, parameters and methods used in preparing the reports are unknown.
Targeting laterite hosted Cobalt-Manganese Deposits
ePower Metals target model is similar to cobalt/manganese deposits delineated in Cameroon. For an example, Geovic Mining Corp. has identified cobalt-manganese hosted in asbolane and/or lithiophorite minerals with a estimated Measured Mineral Resource of 59.8MT grading 0.24% Co, 1.37% Mn and 0.68% Ni, (NI43-101 report; Geovic Mining Corp. Nkamouna and Mada Deposits, June 2, 2011. These resources are historic in nature and while we believe the resources have been completed to the standards of the day, they should not be relied upon by the reader). These laterite deposits are formed over tropically weathered ultramafic bodies, which results in the enrichment and concentration of elements such as cobalt, nickel and manganese in the oxide facies. Cobalt mineralization is found in concretions with manganese and nickel. These concretions are amenable to physical upgrading through screening and washing which results in a concentrate, which can be 2 to 4 times higher than run of mine ore. These coarse-grained concentrates can be processed through a conventional crush and vat leach process that typically is simpler and cheaper than pure clay or silicate type nickel-cobalt laterite deposits, which require high pressure acid leach processing with associated complex and capital intensive technologies.
Laterite hosted cobalt-manganese deposits tend to be free-digging, low-arsenic sources of cobalt. The Company believes these types of deposits are amenable to a simple crush and leach process, which can be designed and built on a timeline that could address the market demand for additional cobalt supply.
Figure 1: ePower’s Brokopondo Project in Suriname
To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5688/38086_brokopondo.jpg
Bruce Kienlen, P.Geo., is Vice President of Exploration for the Company and is the qualified person for the Brokopondo Project.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Michael Collins
President and CEO
For further information, please contact:
Nancy Curry
VP Corporate Development
ePower Metals Inc.
1507 — 1030 West Georgia Street,
Vancouver BC, V6E 2Y3
Telephone: (604) 428-6128
Facsimile: (604) 428-6430
Website: www.epowermetals.com
Forward Looking Information
Information set forth in this document may include forward-looking statements. While these statements reflect management’s current plans, projections and intents, by their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond the control of ePower Metals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. ePower Metal’s actual results, programs, activities and financial position could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
We seek safe harbor.
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Source: www.newsfilecorp.com