Monarca Minerals Inc. Provides Corporate Update and Announces Agreement to Terminate Consulting Agreement
Toronto, August 21, 2017 - Monarca Minerals Inc. (TSXV: MMN) ("Monarca" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the Company's recent activities. The last 12 months have been productive for Monarca Minerals Inc. With the closing of our first equity financing in over 4 years and by satisfying $463,058 of outstanding through the issuance of shares, we have improved our Balance Sheet. We presently have $1.3 million in cash and cash burn rate of approximately $50,000 per month. We have upgraded our Board of Directors with the addition of Carlos Espinosa who was born and educated in Mexico. Carlos has been developing and implementing a plan to secure the surface rights at Tejamen, Monarca's flagship property. Over the last 12 months Carlos has met with senior Government officials at the Federal, State and Municipal level. Monarca has the full support of all levels of government.
In July 2017, Carlos initiated contact and met with the leaders of the local community of Tejamen. In those meetings Carlos listened to the Community's concerns, introduced the new Monarca management team, reviewed the benefits to the Community and outlined Monarca's plans once the surface rights have been secured. Monarca is dedicated to being a responsible Community partner.
Mike Smith, President, has initiated a plan to re-analyze geological information for the Tejamen Project. This work will be focused on defining a new drilling program to follow previously drilled, at relatively shallow depths, high grade feeder veins at both the Los Mantos and Cerro Prieta portions of the project. The work will involve re-logging all drilling samples, re-interpretation of the geology and selecting drilling targets. One of the indicated veins (logged as a brecciated dike) at Los Mantos was intercepted in core hole TJBD-6 from 166 - 172m and reported 1,400 ppm silver, with 0.95 ppm gold, 0.44 % lead, 0.71 % zinc and 0.08 % copper. Lead and zinc may be at sufficiently high levels to be recoverable, as higher grade feeder vein mineralization might be milled for enhanced silver recovery.
The drilling is proposed to be extended to greater depths than in the past to test the base of the volcanic rocks where they are cut by the high-grade feeder veins and potential exists for high grade mineralization in mantos and/or carbonate replacement deposits. Upper portions of the high-grade feeder veins manifest in the known resource and appear to extend below to unknown depths. The mineralization model is Silver Standard's Pitarilla deposit, located about 75km to the north of Tejamen, where similar geological conditions have been reported.
Tejamen has a 43-101 compliant Inferred Resource of 28.7 million troy ounces of silver (15ppm cutoff), at a grade of 45ppm silver, contained in 19.8 million tonnes. The resource estimate was prepared by Gustavson Associates and reported in February of 2016.
Monarca is very excited to be moving forward with Tejamen by developing future drilling plans to test high-grade mineral potential. When surface access and required permitting is obtained, Monarca will be positioned to commence drilling.
The Monarca management team is continuing to evaluate additional property acquisitions and or joint venture opportunities to enhance shareholder value.
An updated Company presentation can be found on the Company's website at www.monarcaminerals.com.
Termination of Consulting Agreement
Monarca has entered into an agreement (the "Termination Agreement") with Golden Capital Consulting Limited ("Golden Capital") to terminate their consulting agreement dated August 1, 2012 pursuant to which the Golden Capital was to provide certain financial advisory services to the Company. In consideration the services, the Company agreed to issue to Golden Capital 2,069,000 options (pre-consolidation) (the "Options") at a strike price of $0.10 per Option and granted to Golden Capital the right to purchase a certain amount of silver if and when produced from the Company's Tejamen Project. To date, the Options have not been issued to Golden Capital.
In consideration for Golden Capital agreeing to terminate the consulting agreement, the Company has agreed to grant Golden Capital an aggregate of 1,400,000 common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") with each Warrant entitling the holder to acquire one Common Share of the Company at a price of C$0.15 per share for a period of 4 years from the date of issuance.
The completion of the Termination Agreement and issuance of the Warrants is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.
Qualified Person
Mr. Michael Smith - Registered Geologist (SME), President of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved of all scientific and technical data in this Press Release.
About Monarca Minerals Inc.
Monarca is a Canadian company focusing on the exploration and development of silver projects along a highly productive mineralized belt in Mexico. The Company has a portfolio of silver projects including a mineral resource of 28.7 million ounces of silver (19.8 million tonnes at 45.0 g/t Ag) at its Tejamen deposit.
For further information, please contact:
Allan Folk
Interim Chief Executive Officer
Monarca Minerals Inc.
E: Afolk.bb@gmail.com
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Forward-Looking Statements:
The above contains forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, mineral tenure issues and mineral recovery processes. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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