SEARCH MINERALS EXPANDS CRITICAL RARE EARTH ELEMENT MINERALIZED ZONE AT FOX MEADOW, SE LABRADOR

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Search Minerals Inc. (TSXV: SMY) (“Search” or the “Company”) is pleased to report assay results from FOX MEADOW, its third major mineralized zone in it’s Critical Rare Earth Element (“CREE”) District in SE Labrador. Trenching/channelling (6 new channels), mapping/prospecting and a UAV Magnetometer Survey indicate that the surface expression of this mineralized zone is up to 124m wide and 650m long. This surface expression is significantly larger than those over the related FOXTROT and DEEP FOX Resources. The mineralization is similarly hosted by peralkaline volcanic rocks and contains similar grades of the REE magnet materials (Nd, Pr, Tb and Dy); Zr and Hf also occur in significant concentrations. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF FOX MEADOW 2019 CHANNEL PROGRAM

• FOX MEADOW (all true widths) exhibits higher grade mineralization (> 190 ppm Dy) measuring at least 21.2m to 46.0m over 200m strike length; and, measuring at least 7.1m to 46.0m over 450m strike length;
• Channel assay highlights (all true widths):
  • Section FMC-19-01: 244 ppm Dy, 1098 ppm Nd, 270 ppm Pr, 838 ppm La over 15.79m;
  • Section FMC-19-02: 234 ppm Dy, 1184 ppm Nd, 296 ppm Pr, 943 ppm La over 7.8m;
  • Section FMC-19-03: 221 ppm Dy, 990 ppm Nd, 241 ppm Pr, 763 ppm La over 10.84m;
  • Section FMC-19-04: 269 ppm Dy, 1486 ppm Nd, 370 ppm Pr, 1126 ppm La over 4.61m;
  • Section FMC-19-05/06: 220 ppm Dy, 1456 ppm Nd, 373 ppm Pr, 1399 ppm La over 3.23m.
• Section FMC-19-01contains 85.1m higher grade mineralization over 123.6m total thickness;
• FOX MEADOW CREE mineralization is similar to DEEP FOX and FOXTROT; third potential CREE deposit in the Port Hope Simpson-St. Lewis CREE District of SE Labrador.

Greg Andrews, President/CEO states; “These results are very encouraging and support the vision of multiple deposits of High Grade CREE’s in our CREE district.  FOX MEADOW will be advanced through further exploration work to better define the surface expression to make the project drill-ready.  We congratulate Dr. Randy Miller and his team with identifying this prospect.  It is the surface expression channels widths, up to 124m, which is compelling to explore.  A potential drill program would help to understand whether the geological model is similar to FOXTROT and DEEPFOX.  Also, the assays contain significant quantities of zirconium (0.79 to 1.54% Zr) that mostly occurs in the mineral zircon in these rocks. We will investigate the possibility of extracting the zirconium as a value-added product from our existing processing flow sheet, which could also benefit the FOXTROT and DEEPFOX projects”.

The 2019 channelling program at FOX MEADOW (totalling 308.1m) consisted of adding new channels/sections through the mineralized zone. Four new sections and one extended section, with mineralization, were sampled into treed areas with significant overburden; a mini-excavator with a backhoe-like bucket was used to expose bedrock in several sections. This program exposed mineralization between (joining) the southern and northern mineralized bands identified in the 2018 program (see Search Minerals news release, March 14, 2019). Section FMC19-01 (123.6m) and Section FMC19-04 (111.8m) sampled the entire mineralized zone (southern and northern mineralized bands combined). New sections FMC19-02, FMC19-03 and FMC19-05/06 and a previously sampled section (Section FMC16-01; see Search Minerals news release, November 3, 2016) currently sample only a portion of the mineralized zone.

Assay results for seven medium- and high-grade mineralized zones in Section FMC19-01 and some representative mineralized zones in other sections are found in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively.

Section FMC19-01 contains seven major mineralized units (Table 1) that range from 3.3 to 25.7m thick. These mineralized units, in aggregate, make up 85.1m of the 123.6m thickness of the FOX MEADOW mineralized zone. Intervening units consist of thinly interbedded un-mineralized and mineralized units.

Many of the assay intervals in Table 1 and Table 2 contain significant quantities of zirconium (0.79 to 1.54% Zr) that mostly occurs in the mineral zircon in these rocks. The company is currently exploring the potential/possibility of producing and marketing a zircon concentrate, in addition to a mixed REE concentrate, from the mineralized peralkaline rocks in the Port Hope Simpson – St. Lewis CREE District.

The trenching/channelling programs at FOX MEADOW have outlined a mineralized zone of up to 123.6 m wide and at least 500m in strike length; mapping and airborne magnetic anomalies suggest that the zone is up to 650m long. The mineralization is hosted in felsic, mostly magnetite bearing, peralkaline volcanic flows and ash-flow tuffs and subvolcanic equivalents; pantellerite, Zr-poor pantellerites, Zr-rich pantellerite and trachytic pantellerite equivalents. Mineralized units are up to 5m thick and are commonly separated by thin un-mineralized zones of pegmatite or mafic volcanic rocks.

In contrast, both the DEEP FOX and FOXTROT mineralized resources are about 350-450m long and up to 40m thick. The surface expression of the FOX MEADOW mineralized zone is greater than that of DEEP FOX and FOXTROT combined.

The FOX MEADOW prospect occurs about 11 km west of Port Hope Simpson and 1 km from a gravel-covered, three-season forest access road. Port Hope Simpson is about 40 km northwest of FOXTROT and 50 km from DEEP FOX on paved and all-season gravelled roads.

Quality Assurance / Quality Control (QA/QC):

Channel samples, 10cm deep and 8cm wide, are cut by gas-powered diamond saw from cleaned outcrops to provide samples for assay and logging/reference. Each channel is cut into two vertical sections, similar to drill core, with a 6 cm thick section (weathering removed) being sent out for assay to Activation Laboratories Ltd. A 2 cm thick section is stored in channel boxes for reference and to provide due diligence/verification samples. The channels are cut perpendicular to strike, pieced together, logged and photographed to produce geological and geochemical sections. These channel samples, or horizontal drill holes, produce the same data as vertical diamond drill holes, except the data is from horizontal geological sections and the collected sample is 6 to 8 times bigger than NQ drill core. Additional 8 cm wide cuts from a channel interval make excellent preliminary metallurgical samples (1m of channel yields about 30kg of sample).

Lithogeochemistry samples, all from bedrock, are collected by Company personnel, bagged and described. Reference samples are also collected for each grab, lithogeochemistry and channel sample. The samples are shipped to Activation Laboratories Ltd. (ActLabs) sample prep facility in Ancaster, Ontario, where they are crushed to 80% -10 mesh and riffled to produce a representative sample. This sample is then pulverized to 95% -200 mesh with the pulverizing mills being cleaned between each sample with cleaning sand. A representative sample is treated by a lithium metaborate/tetraborate fusion and then analyzed by ICP and ICP/MS techniques. Mass balance is required as an additional quality control technique and elemental totals of the oxides should be between 98% and 101%. For QA/QC purposes Search requires pulp and coarse reject duplicates every 20 samples and two Search reproducibility standards every 40 samples. ActLabs analyzes duplicates and splits approximately every 15 samples and also analyses 29 measured standards for QA/QC. To further enhance our QA/QC procedures Search has a program of checking analytical results with other labs to confirm the ActLabs results. ActLabs is a ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory.

Qualified Person:

Dr. Randy Miller, Ph.D., P.Geo, is the Company's Vice President, Exploration, and Qualified Person (as defined by National Instrument 43-101) who has supervised the preparation of and approved the technical information reported herein. The company will endeavour to meet high standards of integrity, transparency, and consistency in reporting technical content, including geological and assay (e.g., REE) data.

About Search Minerals Inc.

Led by a proven management team and board of directors, Search is focused on finding and developing resources within the emerging Critical Rare Earth Element (“CREE”) District of South East Labrador. The Company controls a belt 63 km long and 2 km wide including its 100% interest in the FOXTROT and DEEP FOX Projects, which are road accessible and at tidewater. Exploration efforts have advanced FOX MEADOW as a new CREE prospect very similar to and in close proximity to FOXTROT and DEEP FOX. The FOXTROT Project has a capital cost to bring the initial project into production ($152 M), a short payback period and is scalable due to Search’s proprietary processing technology. 

For further information, please contact:

Greg Andrews
President and CEO
Tel: 604-998-3432
E-mail: info@searchminerals.ca

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