Abacus Provides Update on Willow

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Abacus Mining & Exploration Corporation (“Abacus” or the “Company”) (TSXV: AME) wishes to provide an update on its Willow and adjacent Nev-Lorraine properties in the Yerington copper camp, southeast of Reno, Nevada. The properties are collectively known as the Willow Project.

The Yerington camp contains four known porphyry copper-molybdenum (Cu-Mo) deposits, and all are associated with a particular intrusive rock known as the Luhr Hill Granite. Abacus completed geological, geochemical and geophysical work on Willow beginning in 2017 and then undertook a short core drilling program. This drilling identified the Luhr Hill Granite on Willow with associated Cu and Mo, representing a key new discovery, as there are no known instances of this granite in the camp without an associated porphyry.

The Company recently engaged a consultant to review the Willow data. He agrees with previous interpretations that Willow clearly has a signature typical of a porphyry copper or Cu-Mo deposit. He also agrees with past recommendations that the property undergo more drilling, as the porphyry center has not yet been intersected. Abacus is currently planning a drill campaign to begin in Q2 2021.

Of the porphyries in the camp, Anaconda mined the Yerington porphyry between 1952 until 1978, producing 1.6 billion pounds of copper. The undeveloped Ann Mason porphyry deposit (M&I of 1.4BT at 0.32% Cu) lies just east of Willow and is held by HudBay Minerals. Nevada Copper recently put into production its Pumpkin Hollow skarn (P&P of 572 MT at 0.4% Cu). Quaterra Resources’ MacArthur oxide project (M&I of 159MT at 0.212% Cu) is in prefeasibility*.

Abacus’s work points to the existence of a fifth porphyry on Willow, the first major discovery in the camp in over 40 years. Drilling identified Cu values in the 0.1% to 0.2% Cu range along with elevated Mo, associated with the Luhr Hill Granite (see News Release dated August 29, 2018). The Molybdenum values are a particularly strong indicator that you are close to a porphyry copper center.

The drilling also intersected porphyry dykes and “early halo” quartz veins associated with the Luhr Hill Granite. The early halo quartz veins are significant, as they are found in other porphyry copper deposits in the camp and are also associated with economic porphyry copper deposits worldwide.

The 2018 drill program was designed to test a very small portion of a 2.0 km by 2.2 km zone of intense silicic and advanced argillic alteration marked by coincident geological, geochemical and geophysical signatures typical of a porphyry copper or Cu-Mo deposit. Porphyry copper systems are large in extent, and geochemistry collected from the drilling indicates that a likely porphyry center occurs north of the area initially drilled. The Company’s target is essentially identical to the two largest porphyry deposits in the Yerington camp, namely the past-producing Yerington mine and the undeveloped Ann Mason deposit.