Significant Cu, Ni & Co intersected from first drill hole at Jewel

Blackstone Minerals Limited (“Blackstone” or the “Company”) is pleased to inform shareholders that drilling activities have recommenced at the Company’s wholly owned exploration assets in British Columbia (the Gold Bridge Project, formerly the BC-Cobalt Project).

The first drill-hole targeting a large IP anomaly at the Jewel Prospect has intersected sulfide mineralisation:

• Large Induced Polarisation (IP) anomalies at the Jewel Prospect occur over a strike length of approximately 2km (refer Figure 3)
• Drill hole JWD21-01, the first drill hole at the Jewel prospect intersected massive Cu-Ni-Co sulfarsenide vein mineralisation (refer Figure 1)
• Within the mineralised intersection from drill hole JWD21-01, significant copper, nickel and cobalt has been confirmed by portable XRF (pXRF) (refer Tables 1 & 2 and Appendix 1)
• Further drilling will target extensions of the mineralisation discovered in JWD21-01
• Assay results are expected in 6-10 weeks including assays for gold

Scott Williamson, Blackstone’s Managing Director, said:

“Although Ta Khoa remains the Company’s primary focus, in the background Blackstone has continued to work-up its exploration targets in British Columbia. The first drill hole testing a 700 m long 24 mv/v IP chargeability anomaly at Jewel Prospect successfully encountered Cu, Ni and Co sulfarsenides is a great proof-of-concept result for the project. Initial success confirms not only the prospectivity of the Jewel IP target, but also the potential of Blackstone’s 50 km BC cobalt target zone to host Ni, Co and Cu sulfarsenide deposits of the same style as the World Class Bou-Azzer cobalt district in Morocco.”

Blackstone’s geological model for the Jewel prospect suggest that it is located within a similar setting to the underground mines of the world class Bou-Azzer primary cobalt district in Morocco. Much of the high grade underground primary cobalt mines in BouAzzer are located near the contact of the serpentinized ultramafic and quartz diorite units, of which the Gold Bridge Project is a great analogue (refer Figure 2). The historical Jewel mine is likewise located proximal to the contact of the serpentinite and granodiorite bodies (refer Figure 4).

The current exploration program builds on initial exploration success at the Little Gem prospect and involved a detailed 3D Pole-Dipole Induced Polarisation (3D IP) and Resistivity Survey (refer Figures 3 & 4). An analysis of IP survey data and regional soil, rock chip and stream sediment samples has resulted in the identification of multiple large-scale sulfide bearing targets, with the Jewel prospect being high priority.

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