Firesteel Resources Inc. Shareholder Update
Vancouver, July 18th, 2018 - Firesteel Resources Inc. (TSX-V: FTR) ("Firesteel") today released the following shareholder update:Work continues at Laiva Mine to restart the mine according to the Boyd plan outlined in the recently released PEA.
The final PEA report shows better results, (NPV5 After Tax $21,763, 000 more) than first reported. Our second press release covering the filing of the PEA now includes the tax loss provisions. The details of the PEA can be found in the About the Company section of this release.
Mine Management Team:
Firesteel have succeeded in establishing a high-quality management team to head up the Nordic operations. The team is now in place and is advancing the project according to the PEA KPI's. The General Manager, Joe Ranford is an Australian mining engineer with 25 years of mining and gold production experience. He has an MBA and good financial experience from working with mining and contracting companies in senior operational and corporate management positions.
Key leadership roles, charged with executing the project plan are 3 senior managers, each with excellent experience in international business. Mining is headed up by Vern Langdale, a Camborne School of Mines, mining engineer with around 30 years of practical gold mining and mine management experience.
Scott Salisbury, a mechanical engineer with around 30 years of maintaining, managing and building gold processing facilities heads up the operations for the ore treatment, metallurgy and tails disposal side of the business.
Finance and administration is headed up by Juha Tianen, a proud Finnish patriot with many years of industrial finance and administration experience in Finland's major businesses. Bringing contacts and in-country knowledge required to be successful in the Nordic region.
Cash Position:
The company is well financed and cash at the time of writing is approximately US$8,500,000. Pre-production capex is US$7,100, 000, however roughly US$4,000,000 of that has already been incurred.
Analyst Tour:
Mining Finland is running an analyst's tour through a number of Finland's resource projects during the week of 20th August. A group of 10 analysts and journalists will be given a personalized guided tour, meeting the operational personnel driving their project's success. The tour will spend half a day at the Laiva Gold Mine on 23rd August providing an opportunity to see firsthand the quality assets and preparation taking place. A few positions are still available for interested analysts and journalists to join the tour.
Mining:
Dewatering the pits of four years of collected water has been a focus since the winter thaw. Additional pumping and pump lines have been installed above the normal operating capacity to expediate the project. Production in the mining schedule starts in the South pit so dewatering has been prioritized there. A start-up mining fleet has been mobilized to site with three excavators and a fleet of trucks undertaking the mining preparations. Initial clearing and overburden removal has commenced for the North Pit cutback along with infill grade control drilling in the area. The upper mining benches of the South Pit have been cleared ready for production drilling and the cut back has been marked out for clearing prior to stripping. Mining and stockpiling of the pre-blasted ore has already started with 15,000 tonnes of ore on the ROM pad ready for mill start-up. The first production blast is scheduled for first week of August with supply and delivery of explosives by Orica.
Pit cutbacks outlined in green. Current pits are shown by the grey contour The Red lines are shears associated with gold mineralisation.
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Ground mag surveys on the permitted mining property and exploration properties are completed.
Mine planning is ongoing as more data is collected through grade control and modelled. Production, aligned with the PEA mining schedule, will be ramped up from early August in conjunction with the contract miner and explosives supplier's mobilization schedule.
Process:
Mill Refurbishment and preventative maintenance is underway. As mentioned earlier, minimal capex is required to bring the mine back to production as the work required is mostly of a maintenance nature. Currently work is proceeding on crusher maintenance and wearplate replacement, refurbishment of the agitator blades in the CIL tanks and mill relining. The Pebble mill relining is complete, and the AG Mill will be complete by the end of July. Most of the maintenance is conventional with several pumps, pipes and conveyor parts needing replacing.
The mill maintenance is on schedule to be ready to enable a first pour of gold in the fourth quarter.
About the Company
Firesteel is a junior mining company with a near production gold mine in Finland. The mine is fully built, fully permitted and financed to production via a gold forward sale. Production is scheduled to start in the 4th quarter of 2018.
A recently released PEA was conducted by John T. Boyd Company of Denver, Colorado ("Boyd").
Summary of the PEA results include:
| Model | IRR | NPV 5 | Payback (Yrs) |
| Pre Tax | 44.6% | $91,540,000 | 1.7 |
| After Tax | 36.5% | $68,965,000 | 2.1 |
Other Highlights include:
Pre-production capex $7,115,103
75,981 ounces of average annual gold production at a cash cost of $863 per ounce and AISC of $974 per ounce
Measured mineral resources of 355,000 tonnes at 1.132 g/t Au and Indicated mineral resources of 3,442,000 tonnes at 1.248 g/t Au
Inferred mineral resources of 9,030,000 tonnes at 1.531 g/t Au
Mill grade of 1.45 grams per tonne with a recovery of 90.4%
Life of Mine production of 456,600 ounces gold over a 6-year mine life
The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. There is no certainty that PEA results will be realized. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.
Disclosure: Companies typically rely on comprehensive feasibility reports on mineral reserve estimates to reduce the risks and uncertainties associated with a production decision. The Company has not completed a feasibility study on, nor has the Company completed a mineral reserve estimate at the Laiva Mine and as such the financial and technical viability is deemed to have higher risk than if this work had been completed. Based on historical engineering and geological reports, historical production data and current engineering work completed or in process by Firesteel, the Company intends to move forward with the development of this asset.
The Company further cautions that it is not basing any production decision on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability, and therefore there is a much greater risk of failure associated with its production decision. In addition, readers are cautioned that inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves.
Firesteel currently has one highly prospective property in British Colombia.
The Star property is currently operated under a Joint Venture agreement between Firesteel (49%) and Prosper Gold. (TSX-V: PGX) (51%).
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul Sarjeant, P.Geo., a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 and a director of the Company.
For a detailed overview of Firesteel Resources Inc. please visit: www.FiresteelResources.com
For further information, please contact:
Firesteel Resources Inc.
Michael Hepworth, President and Chief Executive Officer
(416) 419 5192
mhepworth@firesteelresources.com
www.firesteelresources.com
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Neither the 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
Advisory Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements. Users of forward-looking statements are cautioned that actual results may vary from forward-looking statements contained herein. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections and other similar statements concerning anticipated future events, conditions or results that are not historical facts. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". While the Company has based these forward-looking statements on its expectations about future events as at the date those statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee of the Company's future performance. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot give any assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.
The Company's forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date of this new release. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not intend nor does it undertake any obligation to update or review any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent information, events, results or circumstances or otherwise.
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