February 21, 2013, Oakville, ON, Canada – Canada Carbon Inc. (formerly Bolero Resources Corp.) (the “Company”) (TSX-V: CCB), (FRANKFURT: U7N1) is pleased to announce its first grab sampling results from their past producing Miller lump/vein graphite mine approximately 60 km west of Montreal. The new grab samples were taken from graphite-rich veins (15 cm thick) clearly visible in the open pit(see pictures below) and yielded remarkably significant grades upon assaying by Actlabs in Ancaster, Ontario. The sampling program represents the initial steps in Canada Carbon’s plans to re-open the former Miller mine as quickly as possible.
Mr. Paul Ogilvie, the CEO of Canada Carbon commented: “Success in the graphite sector is a function of many elements but at the top of that list is access to high grade natural graphite It offers the opportunity for low production and product costs which in turn will attract customers and represent a key competitive advantage in the graphite markets. Our team has extensive experience in the graphite space and most have never seen anything like these new samples from Miller. It is not uncommon to encounter properties where graphite flakes can be disseminated in grades from as low as 1.2% to 22%. To be seeing grades from Miller in our first grab samples as high as 49.4%C is encouraging and supports our belief that our lump/vein project warrants further research and material sampling”.
Stephen Riddle, CEO of Asbury Graphite Mills Inc., a widely regarded expert in the graphite and carbon industry commented: “Canada Carbon’s Miller Mine has a unique natural graphite vein. I am told the Carbon grade runs between 49 to 85% graphitic carbon which should then make this graphite deposit less expensive to increase the purity to current Natural Graphite market purity requirements. Knowing that the Miller Graphite Mine operated in the past should also be a benefit. The graphite industry looks forward to seeing a new long term source of Natural Graphite available from this Mine.”
This view was supported by Dr. Remi Charbonneau, Ph.D., P.Geo an associate of Inlandis Consultants and Canada Carbon’s qualified person (QP) on the Miller project: “As a geologist it is always interesting to observe exceptional geological formations holding a commercial development potential. In the case of Miller, we have established the distribution of these Lump veins which may offer Canada Carbon the opportunity to supply the market with a high-quality low cost natural graphite product”.
THE MILLER PROPERTY
The former producing Miller property is situated approximately 60 miles west of Montreal and approximately the same distance east of Ottawa. It is located north of Grenville city in the Laurentian Hills. The entire region has been the subject of extensive review and past production going back 100 years or more. According to a publication for the Canadian Department of Mines published in 1907 (historic and non-compliant by NI 43-101 standards) and entitled ‘Graphite: Its Properties, Occurrence, Refining and Uses’ by Mr. Fritz Cirkel, M.E., in the early 1900’s sixty-five tons of vein graphite were mined from Miller and sent to the Globe Refining Company of Jersey City, N.J. This yielded thirty-two tons of clean crucible graphite. The Morgan Crucible Company of London and also J.H. Gauthier and Company, Jersey City, used some of this graphite in their crucibles and pronounced it equal to the best graphite known to come from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
The field team was able to localise a pit that correspond with such historic production. The access is easy due to existing trails. The pit is about 85 metres long and 6 to 10 metres wide. The pit is made of three sections making a “Z” form with the longest line being of east-west direction (see figure below). One of the mineralized veins of the Miller Mine was found at surface, along the southern pit wall on the southwest section of the pit.
The mineralization consists of two massive veins (70-90% visual graphite) of 4 centimetres to 15 centimetres thick in a graphitic marble unit (10-30% graphite). This zone was found a few metres away from a pegmatite and marble contact, which is coherent with historic data. Samples A41170 (49.4% Cg) is a grab sample coming from the graphite veins and the mineralized marble while sample A41171 (32.4% Cg) is a grab sample coming from the overall mineralized zone. The orientation of the vein is N240°, steeply dipping to the northwest with a dip of 80°.
A smaller 2 centimetres vein was found a few metres north of the mineralized zone and had an orientation of NNW-SSE with vertical dip. Sample A41172 (10.7% Cg) is a grab sample from this veins and its graphitic marble host. Other samples were grab samples in paragneiss all around the pit and contained 0.22% Cg to 1.2% Cg.
Observation of a high grade graphite vein left untouched at surface of the pit gives a good idea of the graphite grade mined and what was considered good material for mining at the time. This also reveals that we can hope to find equal or better grade graphite where mining ceased in 1900 on the other 4 veins mined on the property. Vein type deposits usually hold high purity graphite along with bigger flake size in comparison with other deposit types, allowing a favourable mining context. Scanning Electron Microscope in the near future will allow determining the morphology, size, and purity of the graphite crystals.
LUMP/VEIN GRAPHITE
Natural graphite occurs in three forms: flake, amorphous and lump/vein. Grades (ie. %Cg) within these forms can range from 2% to upwards of 50% depending on its type and location. Lump or vein deposits such as those found most often in Sri Lanka often display these high grade profiles and are highly sought after by both producers and graphite customers. This is because purity is a key consideration within the graphite sector. For producers, the higher the grade, the lower the production cost. This also often means that milling plants can be constructed with a lower overall capital expenditures (capex) budget, and in turn produce higher rates of investment return.
For customers it offers the opportunity to reduce supply costs, decrease subsequent processing costs, and offer more flexibility in product applications. For example, lump or vein graphite has been shown to be highly conductive and requires less binder compounds when being formulated into finished products. It is therefore significant that the initial samples from Canada Carbon’s Miller property are demonstrating the extremely high grades associated with lump or vein-like properties in Sri Lanka.
CONCLUSION
Canada Carbon believes that if the Miller mine can be brought back into production, the combination of a potentially high grade natural graphite lump/vein property located so strategically near all necessary infrastructure and North American markets could represent a breakthrough in low cost graphite production that would be extremely attractive to graphite customers. Proposed plans are subject to definition of current resources and analysis of economic viability. There is no certainty of success. In light of these significant preliminary results CCB is planning a comprehensive geological evaluation of the property commencing immediately. This will entail complete mapping, further identification of the past pits and production zones; an IP survey; a larger more detailed surface sampling program including channel samples; high purity testing; and plans for a broad drill program this spring. CCB will be mobilizing its geological team shortly based on site conditions. It will also begin work on completion of a new NI 43-101 for the Miller property and will provide shareholders with additional updates in the coming weeks.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Canada Carbon has implemented a quality assurance/quality control program at the Miller property supervised by Mr. Remi Charbonneau, Ph.D., P.Geo. To ensure samples and data are collected accurately a clear chain of custody of samples is used from the site to the laboratory. The samples were bagged on site and were shipped by courier for analysis to Actlabs in Ancaster, Ontario. Actlabs is anaccredited Laboratory meeting international standards ISO 9001:2000 with certification No. CERT-0032482 and the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation Inc. Standard ISO/IFC170252005 accreditation No. A3200. At the laboratory, the samples were prepared by drying, crushing (<7 kg) up to 90% passing 10 mesh, riffle splitting (250 g) and pulverizing (mild steel) to 95% passing 105µ. Graphitic carbon assaying was done by multistage furnace treatment and infrared absorption. 49 Multi-element analysis was also done on the samples by aqua regia digestion and Varian ICP analysis. The analytical package include analysis for Ag, Cd, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Zn, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Co, Cr, Fe, Ga, Hg, K, La, Mg, Na, P, S, Sb, Sc, Sr, Ti, Te, Tl, U, V, W, Y, and Zr. Duplicate analyses were done at the laboratory for purpose of quality assurance and quality control. No other quality assurance or quality control program was carried on for the purpose of this exploration program.
Shown in the table below is the list of samples assembled during initial review of the property in early February, and the assay results provided by Actlabs. Grab samples are selective by nature and are unlikely to represent average grades of the deposits.
MILLER GRAPHITE PROPERTY
INITIAL GRAB SAMPLING PROGRAM RESULTS FEBRUARY 14, 2013 |
|
Sample ID |
X (UTM NAD83 Z18) |
Y (UTM NAD83 Z18) |
Assayed Grade |
|
A41170 |
530714 |
5058006 |
49.4% |
|
A41171 |
530714 |
5058012 |
32.4% |
|
A41172 |
530713 |
5058003 |
10.7% |
Qualified Person: Rémi Charbonneau, Ph.D., P. Geo #290 an Associate of Inlandsis Consultants s.e.n.c., is the Independent Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Rémi has reviewed and approved this release and was involved in the preparation of the technical information.
ABOUT CANADA CARBON INC. (CCB - TSX.V)
Canada Carbon is a carbon sciences company - our goal is to be an efficient graphite mining, sales andproduction company. We are trying to achieve this by deploying proprietary technologies in our post mining and pre-milling air classification systems, sound environmental policies, best practices companywide and employing the best people available to us. Together, our goals will be realized by being customer centric and using leading edge technologies.
Canada Carbon holds 100% interest in five graphite properties: The Asbury, Miller, Walker, Dun Raven and Maria. The Asbury Mine is located north of the Ottawa-Gatineau area. The open pit mine and mill were in operation from 1980 to 1989 where a total of less than 70,000 tons were processed. The Miller mine is located northeast of Ottawa in Grenville Township. This mine was worked around 1845 and was probably the first graphite operation in Canada. It is reported that 25 cars of lump graphite were shipped from this deposit in the 1900s.
The Walker Mine is a past producer with about 816 tons of graphite extracted from the mine between 1876 and 1920. The mine is located northwest of Buckingham, in Buckingham Township. The Dun Raven graphite deposit is easily accessible a few hours west of Montreal, in Thorne Township. The Maria Graphite Project is located in Maria Township, south of the community of Bissett Creek on the Trans Canada Highway between the cities of Ottawa and North Bay, Ontario. These claims surround and are contiguous to Northern Graphite's Bissett Creek graphite deposit. Northern Graphite recently reported the extraction of very large high purity flake graphite consistent across the entire resource with overall recovery rates of 97%. (NGC.V News Release 23/04/2012).
Contact Information
Paul Ogilvie
Chief Executive Officer
E-mail inquiries: pogilvie@canadacarbon.com
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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management’s current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forwardlooking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new eventsor circumstances.
All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com).
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