Macarthur’s Retention of Pilbara Tenements Provides Opportunity to Explore for New Partners

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Macarthur Minerals Limited (ASX: MIO) (TSX-V: MMS) (OTCQB: MMSDF) (the “Company” or “Macarthur”) announced last week that it is retaining 100% of its tenements in the Pilbara region of Western Australia following the end of the Option Agreement (“Agreement”) entered into with Fe Limited (“FEL”) in 2019. The tenements, held by the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary Macarthur Lithium Pty Limited (“MLi”), include the Hillside, Panorama, Strelley’s Gorge and Tambourah projects. These projects are considered prospective for gold, copper, lithium and iron.

Following last weeks’ announcement (see release here) the Company has already received a number of new enquiries regarding future joint venture opportunities.  This early interest augurs well for the future of the Pilbara projects and the value potential for Macarthur’s shareholders. Macarthur continues to primarily focus its resources on bringing its flagship Lake Giles Iron Project into production and is seeking options to advance the Pilbara tenements to realise shareholder value without incurring material expenditure or significant management time.

The terminated Agreement with FEL has delivered value to Macarthur. Macarthur retains 26,666,667 FEL shares, which were issued following FEL’s election to exercise the option for an earn in. FEL has also contributed to exploration expenditure over the last 12 months including an initial drilling program at the Hillside project with encouraging results from this first phase drilling program as reported on 10 February 2020 (see FEL release dated 10 February 2020 here).

Over the last 12 months, the program of exploration that has been undertaken across the Pilbara tenement portfolio has provided very positive early results for a range of base and precious metals. A summary of the previously reported prospectivity of the tenement portfolio is outlined below:

Hillside Gold and Copper Project

The Hillside Gold and Copper Project (“Hillside”) includes four tenements covering 400 km² located approximately 185 km south east of Port Hedland and 50 km south west of Marble Bar. The project is situated in an area of highly prospective greenstone terrane that includes the Apex and Euro Basalts and other units of the Warrawoona group. Numerous surface gold and copper rock chip occurrences suggests this area is highly prospective for gold and copper mineralisation.