December 23, 2020 – Vancouver, BC, Canada. ECC Ventures 2 Corp. (“ECC2” or the “Company”) (TSXV: ETWO.P) is pleased to announce that, further to the November 13, 2020 and December 7, 2020 news releases, its Qualifying Transaction (“QT”) target, Infield Minerals Corp. (“Infield”), has expanded the Bandit property land package by 141 new lode mining claims through ground staking. The addition of these new claims approximately triples the size of the property area, now totalling 1,725 hectares (4,260 acres) oriented along a 10.7 km northwest axis. The Company is also pleased to announce the addition of Elizabeth McGregor as a director of the resulting issuer upon closing of the QT.
On June 30, 2020, Infield entered into a three-year property option agreement with Mercury Exploration Nevada Inc. (“MExN”) to acquire 100% interest in the Bandit property (“Bandit Option Agreement”), subject to a 2% NSR royalty on 13 claims which fall under an option assignment agreement with Silver Range Resources Ltd. (“Silver Range”). The 141 newly acquired claims are now considered part of the optioned property under the Bandit Option Agreement and are not subject to any NSR royalties.
The Bandit property is located 28 km east of the town of Tonopah, Nevada, in the historic Hannapah Mining District in Nye County (Figure 1). The property lies within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest on lands open to development and is readily accessed via Highway 6 which crosses the southern portion of the property. Historical production from the nearby Tonopah mining district between 1900 and 1921 was 1.5
million ounces of gold and 138 million ounces of silver (Lincoln, F.C., 1923, p.186).
Silver and gold prospects in the Hannapah area were discovered around 1902 (Spurr, 1902, p.87), and several small mines and exploration pits were in operation until 1935. The principal mines in the area were the Hannapah mine, located on third party patented claims that are enclosed within the Bandit property, and the Richardson mine, located on the Bandit property where the historical mine headframe still stands. The Richardson mine was the largest producer in the Hannapah area during the early 1900s. It consists of a 310 ft (94 m) inclined shaft with production workings on 4 levels (USGS, MRDS ID M231601). Most modern exploration activities in the area took place in the 1980s when companies, Copper Range, WX Syndicate and Santa Fe, carried out a series of relatively shallow drilling programs.
The Hannapah District is almost completely underlain by altered Oligocene Ten Peaks Tuff and rhyolite. The Bandit property hosts locally welded rhyolitic tuff that is cut by a series of steeply dipping, west northwest trending faults. Low sulphidation epithermal silver-gold mineralization is localized along and near these faults. The Hannapah and Richardson mines, together with smaller prospects, are clustered along the Hannapah-Silver Glance Fault which trends through the property. Precious metal mineralization is strongest along this fault and in the region east of the Hannapah mine but is not restricted to the fault, occurring in parallel structures to the north and south. Silver and gold mineralization occur in quartz-sericite veins with pyrite, proustite (silver sulfarsenide), polybasite (Ag-Sb) and arsenopyrite. Reported widths of individual veins range up to 8 feet (Kral, 1951, p. 74-75) and mining to date has concentrated on the central vein system coincident with the Hannapah Fault. The tenor of mineralization along the Hannapah Fault is approximately 100 to 600 g/t Ag and 0.2 to 2.0 g/t Au from rock samples collected by Silver Range and MExN from 2017 to 2019 (Figure 2).
(1)Lincoln, F.C. (1923) “Mining Districts and Mineral Resources of Nevada”; (2)USGS MRDS Deposit ID 10310392; (3)Goldfield Historical Society
(4)Includes rock samples collected by Silver Range (independent of Infield) in 2017 that were shipped to ALS Minerals facilities in Reno, NV for sample preparation and to North Vancouver, BC for fire assays (30 g sample, ALS code Au-AA25) and geochemical analysis by Ultra-Trace Aqua Regia ICP-MS (ALS code MEMS41); by MExN (independent of Infield) in 2019 that were prepared and analysed at American Assay Laboratories in Sparks, NV for fire assays (FA-PB30-ICP) and multi-element geochemical analysis (2AM50) and in 2020 that were prepared and analysed by AGAT Laboratories in Mississauga, ON (Au: 202-051 fire assay – AAS finish, multi-element: 201-070 4-acid digest – ICP-OEC finish); and by Infield in 2020 that were prepared and analysed by American Assay Laboratories in Sparks, NV for fire assays (FA-PB30-ICP) and multi-element geochemical analysis (ICP-2A036).
Bandit Exploration and Permitting Plans for 2021
Infield is awaiting results from recently completed Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical surveys at the Bandit property. The survey grids cover the main alteration anomalies in the west and east zones for a total of 60 line-kilometres of measurements. The results of the IP surveys will be utilized in conjunction with surface mapping and sampling to outline drill targets and plan a drilling program which will form the basis of its permitting application to the US Forest Service under a Plan of Operation. Infield anticipates it will take the majority of 2021 to work through the permitting process for drilling at the Bandit property.
Resulting Issuer Board of Directors
On completion of the QT, Elizabeth McGregor will join the Company as a director, which will be further constituted by Evandra Nakano (President & CEO of Infield), Shervin Teymouri, David Hladky and Scott Ackerman, as described in the Company’s news release dated November 13, 2020.
Ms. McGregor served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Tahoe Resources Inc. from August 9, 2016 until the acquisition by Pan American Silver Corp. on February 22, 2019. Ms. McGregor is a Canadian Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) and, prior to her role as Chief Financial Officer, served as Tahoe Resource’s VP Treasurer. She directed financial planning, corporate liquidity, financial reporting and risk management. Prior to joining Tahoe Resources, she worked at Goldcorp from 2007 to 2013 where she held various financial roles including Director of Project Finance and Cost Control; Administration Manager at the Peñasquito mine; and Director of Risk. Ms. McGregor began her career at KPMG as Audit Manager. She holds a B.A. (Hons) from Queen’s University in Kingston.
Qualified Person
Scientific and technical aspects of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Richard Dufresne P.Geo., VP Exploration of Infield, who is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
The potential quantity and grade of mineralization described herein is conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.
Trading of ECC2’s common shares will remain suspended until completion of the QT.
For more information please contact Scott Ackerman, the CEO, CFO and a Director of the Company, at 778-331-8505 or email: sackerman@emprisecapital.com.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors of ECC Ventures 2 Corp.
Scott Ackerman
Director
Completion of the QT is subject to a number of conditions, including, among others, TSX Venture Exchange (“TSXV”) acceptance and if applicable pursuant to TSXV Requirements, majority of the minority shareholder approval. Where applicable, the QT cannot close until the required approvals are obtained. There can be no assurance that the Acquisition will be completed as proposed or at all.
Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the disclosure document to be prepared in connection with the QT, any information released or received with respect to the QT may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of ECC2 should be considered highly speculative.
The TSXV has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed Acquisition and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our and Infield’s plans, intentions and expectations, which are not historical in nature, are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, “forward‐looking statements”. Forward-looking statements include, among other matters, the terms and timing of QT, the growth plans of Infield and statements concerning the Company following the QT. Forward‐looking statements may be, but are not always, identified by words including “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “expects” and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward‐looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Company's and Infield’s future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties (including risks that the Acquisition does not proceed, or proceed on the expected terms, geopolitical risk, regulatory, Covid-19 and exchange rate risk) that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward‐looking statements. There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statement will prove to be accurate or that management's assumptions underlying such statements, including assumptions concerning the Acquisition or future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this new release and the Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking information included herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
