ANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – Dec. 16, 2014) – Henning Gold Mines Inc. (the „Company„) reports that as a result of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission (the „BCSC„), the Company is issuing the following news release to clarify its disclosure.
The Company’s April 2013 and June 2013 news releases posted to its website disclosed resource or reserve estimates and economic analysis related to its Eight Mile Lake and Toop properties, and triggered requirements under NI 43-101 for the Company to prepare and file NI 43-101 technical reports to support its disclosure within specified time periods. In order to address and rectify this matter, the Company has removed all of its previous news releases from its website and the Company is retracting the previous statements on its website which disclosed scientific and technical information relating to its material properties.
Further, the BCSC noted in its review a number of technical disclosure issues regarding information contained on the Company’s website, including in news releases posted to the Company’s website, and property reports distributed by or on behalf of the Company. The Company wishes to retract the following reports: „Mining Plan 2014, Eight Mile Lake Production Site“ dated February 10, 2014 by geotec Rohstoffe GmbH, Berlin (the „Eight Mile Lake Report„), „Technical Report, Exploration Drill Road Map 2014“ dated February 10, 2014 by Geotec Rohstoffe GmbH, Berlin (the „2014 Exploration Report„), and „Technical Report Geology and Resource Estimation Toop Placer Deposits“ dated October 20, 2012 by Geotec Rohstoffe GmbH, Berlin (the „Toop Report„).
The Company has now filed an initial NI 43-101 technical report (the „Eight Mile Lake Technical Report„) with the BCSC containing a mineral resource estimate for the Eight Mile Lake Property. The Eight Mile Lake Technical Report supports an inferred resource of 2,459,000 cubic meters grading 0.43 grams gold per cubic meter containing a total of 34,000 ounces of gold. See „Eight Mile Lake Property Mineral Resource Estimate“ below for details.
Based upon the BCSC’s review:
- The mineral resources and reserves that are contained in the Company’s prior news releases, Eight Mile Lake Report and the 2014 Exploration Report are restricted by or not compliant with NI 43-101. The Company is therefore retracting those estimates, and has now prepared a resource estimate for purposes of the Eight Mile Lake Technical Report. See „Eight Mile Lake Property Mineral Resource Estimate“ below.
- The Eight Mile Lake Report discloses a quantity designated as „geological potential“ that does not comply with or is restricted by NI 43-101. The Company is therefore retracting that statement.
- On the Company’s website, and in the Eight Mile Lake Report, the Company discloses results of an economic analysis, including profit margin, which are restricted by NI 43-101 until the Company has completed a technical report describing a preliminary economic assessment, or the Company has delineated mineral resources in the indicated or measured categories and then completed an advanced mining study such as a preliminary feasibility study, supported by a technical report. The previously disclosed economic analysis was not based on a valid mineral resource estimate or technical report and the new Eight Mile Lake Technical Rueport does not support estimates of the magnitude used to do that analysis. The Company is therefore retracting this economic analysis.
- In some of the Company’s prior news releases, the gross in-situ values which the Company disclosed on a deposit scale for its Eight Mile Lake and Toop properties may be misleading, as they fail to take into consideration operating and capital costs, recoveries, smelter costs and other factors relating to the potential mining, extraction and recovery of gold. The Company is therefore retracting these statements as to gross in-situ values.
- In the Company’s website disclosures, the Eight Mile Lake Report and the 2014 Exploration Report, the Company failed to identify and disclose the relationship to the Company of the qualified person who prepared or supervised the preparation of the technical information it is disclosing. Going forward, the Company will make this „qualified person“ disclosure.
- On occasion, the Company has summarized previous exploration results by reporting only the highest or best values, which practice does not provide the level of detail required under NI 43-101 and may be materially misleading to readers. The Company is therefore retracting those statements relating to previous exploration results.
For the above reasons, all of the Company’s prior news releases, the Eight Mile Lake Report, the 2014 Exploration Report and the Toop Report should not be relied upon until the deficiencies have been corrected, verified, and supported by technical reports, as applicable. With respect to the information posted on the Company’s website, the Company has made modifications to provide further and updated information regarding the Eight Mile Lake Property, including a link to the full text of the Eight Mile Lake Technical Report. In the instances where the Company has retracted, revised, clarified or updated previous disclosure, the Company advises readers not to rely on such previous disclosure as it may continue to be found in the public domain.
Eight Mile Lake Property Mineral Resource Estimate
The Company has recently obtained an independent mineral resource estimate for the Eight Mile Lake Placer deposit, the results of which are summarized in the table below.
Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate for Eight Mile Lake Placer Deposit
| Cubic Metres (000) |
Grade (g/m3) |
Contained Gold (oz) |
| 2,459 | 0.43 | 34,000 |
Note: Includes areas where the vertical extent of overburden has a gold grade > 0.2 g/m3. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.
The Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate for the Eight Mile Property was completed by independent Qualified Person Robert Sim, P.Geo. of SIM Geological Inc. and is reported in accordance with the guidelines of the Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101. The effective date of the resource estimate is August 7, 2014. The estimate is generated using gold grade analyses conducted on samples, averaging 1.5m in length, taken in overburden from 36 reverse circulation drill holes completed during 2013 and 2014. The drill holes are spaced at 30m to 50m intervals in an area measuring roughly 300m x 300m. The depth extent of the resource is limited by a surface representing the overburden – bedrock interface, interpreted using a combination of drilling data and seismic refraction and resistivity information.
The estimate of mineral resources is derived using a 3D block model in which grade estimates are integrated into a regular matrix of model blocks using the available drill hole sample data. The block size in the 3D model is 5 x 5 x 2 m (L x W x H) and gold grade estimates are made into model blocks using ordinary kriging. Prior to block grade interpolation, the effects of potentially anomalous high-grade samples were controlled through top-cutting to a grade threshold of 7 g/m3.
The resources are classified according to their proximity to sample locations and are reported, as required by NI 43-101, according to the CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. Blocks in the model within a maximum distance of 50m from a drill hole are included in the Inferred category.
As required under NI 43-101, the mineral resource must exhibit reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction. The Eight Mile Lake Placer Deposit is comprised of unconsolidated overburden which contains variable quantities of free gold. It is assumed that there would be no vertical selectivity of the resource during mining and, therefore, all material from surface to bedrock would be removed and fed through a process plant. The resource model was tested using a floating cone pit shell based on reasonable projections of technical and economic parameters. The results show that areas above a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/m3 could be amenable to open pit extraction methods. These tests are very preliminary in nature and are intended to determine the general projections for reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction of the mineral resource. There are no mineral reserves at the Eight Mile Lake Property.
There are no known factors related to mining, metallurgical, infrastructure, environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing or political issues which could materially affect the mineral resource.
Full details of the Eight Mile Lake Placer resource modeling parameters and assumptions are contained in the Eight Mile Lake Technical Report, which has now been filed with the BCSC and which is available on the Company’s website at www.henninggoldmines.com.
Toop Property Update and Clarification
Regarding the Toop Property, on about April 1, 2013, the registered owners of the Toop Property granted the Company an option to acquire the Toop Property. The Toop Property consisted of one placer lease, two placer claims and 14 mineral claims, 10 of which mineral claims were „cell“ mineral clams and four of which mineral claims were „legacy“ mineral claims.
In British Columbia, placer claims and mineral claims are renewed electronically.
The registered owners of the Toop claims provided Henning with certain electronic information in order that the Company could renew the two placer claims and the 14 mineral claims (the placer lease had been previously renewed by Henning).
On July 1, 2013 the placer claims and mineral claims were scheduled to expire if they were not renewed prior to midnight. On July 1, 2013 the Company renewed the two placer claims and the 10 cell mineral claims, but the Company was unable to renew the four legacy mineral claims. Accordingly, those four legacy mineral claims expired at midnight on July 1, 2013.
The Company subsequently made no further option payments to the registered owners of the Toop Property and the Company ceased exploration on the Toop Property.
On October 31, 2014, the registered owners of the Toop Property served the Company with a Notice of Civil Claim claiming, in part, damages for breach of contract and an indemnity for forfeited legacy claims and reclamation costs. The Company is in the process of responding to this claim.
The registered owners of the Toop Property claim that the Company does not have an interest in the Toop Property and have excluded the Company from the Toop Property. In these circumstances, the Company cannot draft and file with the British Columbia Securities Commission a National Instrument 43-101 technical report to support the Company’s previous disclosure of resource estimates at the Toop Project.
Robert Sim, P.Geo. of SIM Geological Inc. is the qualified person under NI 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this news release relating to the estimate of mineral resources for the Eight Mile Lake Placer deposit; Detlef Eberle, Pr.Sci.Nat. (RSA) of geotec Rohstoffe GmbH is the qualified person under NI 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the other scientific and technical information in this news release relating to the Eight Mile Lake and Toop properties.
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