Foran Continues to Intersect High Grade Mineralization

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 20, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Foran Mining Corporation (TSX.V:FOM) (“Foran” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce results of an additional five holes from its resource definition and expansion drill program at its 100% owned McIlvenna Bay zinc-copper property (“McIlvenna Bay” or “Property”) in Saskatchewan. McIlvenna Bay is the largest undeveloped Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (“VMS”) deposit along the 225 kilometre Flin Flon greenstone belt.

Highlights:
Assays from an additional five holes contain high-grade zinc and copper intervals (see Table 1), including the following:

• 6.74% Zn, 0.13% Cu, 12.64 g/t Ag, 0.11 g/t Au over 5.23m in MB-18-193; and,
• 4.85% Cu, 1.91% Zn, 41.93g/t Ag, 1.39 g/t Au over 1.15m in MB-18-195.

Patrick Soares, President & CEO of Foran noted, “McIlvenna Bay infill drill results continue to impress us with their consistency. Geotechnical core logging and metallurgical sampling in support of the Feasibility Study has been placed as a priority, and as a result, slowed the delivery of samples to the analytical lab. We now expect to receive a stream of additional drill results from a number of holes at depth in the deposit over the next few weeks.”  

This release provides the results from five holes of the 2018 winter drill program at McIlvenna Bay. All holes originally planned for the program have been completed. The technical team laid out four wedges, resulting in four additional mineralized intercepts. This year, 30 holes and over 14,000m have been completed.

Technical Information
The McIlvenna Bay deposit consists of several distinct zones of VMS mineralization, including massive to semi-massive sulphide in the Main Lens and Lens 3, and the underlying stockwork-style sulphide mineralization in the Copper Stockwork Zone (“CSZ”). The Main Lens at McIlvenna Bay is comprised of the zinc-rich Zone 2 and the copper-zinc bearing Upper West Zone (“UWZ”). Detailed results from the latest five holes are provided in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Significant drill intercepts from the winter drill program¹:

These additional infill holes help to better define the up-plunge boundaries of the resource and continue to enhance our understanding of the deposit in preparation for a revised resource estimate in the fall of 2018. These latest five drill holes include three holes from the upper portion of Zn-rich Zone 2 massive sulphide and two holes in a weathered  near surface portion of the Cu-Zn-rich UWZ massive sulphide.

A significant Zone 2 intersection 380m below surface in MB-18-193 assayed 5.23m grading 6.74% Zn. This massive sulphide intersection further defines and expands a well-developed linear trend of above-average thickness within Zone 2.

Drill hole MB-18-195 intersected partly oxidized UWZ massive sulphide approximately 50m below surface. Mineralization assayed 4.85% Cu, 1.91% Zn, 1.39 g/t Au over 1.15m underlain by 11.34m of CSZ stringer sulphide that assayed 1.36% Cu, 0.59 g/t Au. A strongly weathered interval of Lens 3 in this hole assayed 8.40% Cu, 23.65 g/t Ag over 1.35m, roughly 30m below surface. All the core is recovered in the weathered mineralized intervals.

Drill testing in weathered regolith of near surface UWZ massive sulphide in MB-18-196 returned local highly elevated copper mineralization with assays up to 11.54% Cu over 0.28m at 47.38m downhole. This interval corresponds to the top of an upper chaotic, bleached and lower strongly chloritized zone that assayed 1.21% Cu, 1.04% Zn over 8.62m, and is believed to correspond with the upper Lens 3 mineralized zone.

The drill program, with up to four drills this winter, was fast-tracked after the January 2018 decision to advance the McIlvenna Bay deposit to feasibility. Glencore Canada Corporation (“Glencore”) and Foran signed a Technical Services Agreement in December 2017 which contemplates Glencore contributing its considerable technical expertise towards the preparation of the Feasibility Study. The infill drill program has been designed by Foran and Glencore to upgrade and expand inferred resources to the indicated category and provide additional geotechnical information, all of which will be incorporated into the Feasibility Study. 

A summer drill program is scheduled to commence after spring break-up and is intended to target areas of the deposit that can be drill-tested under summer conditions. Additional holes may be added to the summer program if deemed to have potential to expand and/or upgrade the known McIlvenna Bay resource.

Figure 1.  McIlvenna Bay Feasibility Drill Plan is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/ddb903ec-bdbc-403b-93c1-1412ed463906

Figure 2.  McIlvenna Bay Long Section is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/139c3051-b8ca-4b28-9559-84d0bdfc2912

Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Drilling was completed using NQ size diamond drill core and core was logged by employees of the Company. During the logging process, mineralized intersections were marked for sampling and given unique sample numbers. Sampled intervals were sawn in half using a diamond blade saw. One half of the sawn core was placed in a plastic bag with the sample tag and sealed, while the second half was returned to the core box for storage on site. Sample assays are performed by TSL Laboratories Ltd. (“TSL”) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. TSL is a CAN-P-1579, CAN-P-4E (ISO/IEC 17025:2005) accredited laboratory and independent of Foran. Analysis for Ag, Cu, Zn and Pb is performed using atomic absorption spectrometry (“AA”) after multi-acid digestion. Au analysis is completed by fire assay with AA finish. Any samples which return results greater than 1.0 g/t Au are re-run using gravimetric finish. A complete suite of QA/QC reference materials (standards, blanks and pulp duplicates) are included in each batch of samples processed by the laboratory. The results of the assaying of the QA/QC material included in each batch are tracked to ensure the integrity of the assay data.

About Foran Mining
Foran is a zinc-copper exploration and development company with projects in the Flin Flon Greenstone Belt. The McIlvenna Bay Project, Foran’s flagship asset located within the Hanson Lake District, is part of a world class VMS belt that extends from Snow Lake, Manitoba, through Flin Flon to Foran’s ground in eastern Saskatchewan, a distance of over 200 kilometres. McIlvenna Bay is one of the largest undeveloped VMS deposits in Canada. The Company is currently conducting a resource definition and infill drilling program in preparation for producing a feasibility study on the McIlvenna Bay deposit.

On December 4, 2017, Foran announced the execution of a Technical Services Agreement with Glencore Canada Corporation (“Glencore”). Glencore has agreed to provide technical expertise and advice in order to advance the McIlvenna Bay deposit to feasibility in exchange for an off-take agreement on the metals and minerals produced from the deposit.

On November 12, 2014, Foran announced a positive preliminary economic assessment (“PEA”) for McIlvenna Bay, with an estimated pre-tax NPV7% of $382M ($263M after-tax) & 22% IRR (19% after-tax) at a Zinc price of US$1.06/lb. Spot Zinc price today is US$1.40/lb. See below and Foran’s news releases from November 12 and December 22, 2014 for important disclosures with respect to the McIlvenna Bay PEA.

The PEA is considered preliminary in nature and includes mineral resources, including inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves have not yet demonstrated economic viability. Due to the uncertainty that may be attached to mineral resources, it cannot be assumed that all or any part of a mineral resource will be upgraded to mineral reserves. Therefore, there is no certainty that the results concluded in the PEA will be realized.

David Fleming, P.Geo., VP Exploration for Foran and a Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release.

Foran trades on the TSX.V under the symbol “FOM”.

For additional information, please contact Foran Mining Corporation:

Patrick Soares
President & CEO
904 – 409 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6C 1T2
Phone: +1 604-488-0008
Email:  ir@foranmining.com

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, Foran’s objectives, goals or future plans, statements regarding the Technical Services Agreement and, if a feasibility study will suggest an economically viable project, estimation of mineral resources, exploration results, and potential mineralization. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, work performed under the Technical Services Agreement related to preparation of a feasibility study, the failure of such study to suggest an economically viable project, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in Foran’s public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Foran believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Foran disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.