Nicola Mining Announces Completion And Positive Results From Reverse Circulation Drilling On Portal-3060

TSX.V: NIM
NEWS RELEASE

March 01, 2019, Vancouver, BC – Nicola Mining Inc. (the “Company”) is pleased to announce final results on its 39-hole Reverse Circulation drill program on the 3060-Portal (“3060 RC Program” (Table 1). This program is designed to evaluate the copper equivalent grade and volume of historical material excavated from underground workings of the Craigmont Mine and piled at 3060-Portal (Figure 1). These results confirm significant grades of copper and magnetite, which are combined to create a copper equivalent (“CuEq”)[1].

The historical mine terraces, which equate to approximately 80-90 million-tonnes, surrounding the Craigmont Mine Open pit (Figure 2) and 3060-Portal benefit from having previously incurred all costs associated with mining, which is greater than 50% of the cost of production[2]. The Company previously announced positive 3060-Portal RC drill results, however these results did not incorporate the CuEq contribution from magnetite[3].

The second phase of RC drilling, conducted in 2018, use an updated CuEq calculation[4] for both 2017 and 2018 RC drill holes. The highlights of these results include:

• An average grade of 2424 ppm Cu and 0.4% CuEq for the 39 drill holes
• An average grade of 9095 ppm Cu (1.03% Cu) and 1.08% CuEq for Hole CC-RC-18-63
  • An average grade of 10,332 ppm Cu (1.03% Cu) and 1.27% CuEq for Hole P-34
  • An average grade of 8632 ppm Cu (0.86% Cu) and 1.03% CuEq for Hole P-72

Assay results from the drill program are summarized in Table 1. All results are calculated from surface.

Table 1: Composite of Reverse Circulation (“RC”) Drill Results at Portal 3060

Figure 1: Map of Reverse Circulation (“RC”) drill locations proximal to the 3060 Portal.

Figure 2: Map of completed RC Drill Program (Phase 1 and Phase 2) on historic terraces.

Results on the Phase 1 and Phase 2 targets of the historic terraces will be released in 1H of 2019.

Peter Espig, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented, “The Phase 1 RC Program proved extremely valuable as it provides us with insight into the significant economic potential of the material surrounding the historic pit, historically considered to be non-economic based on a $0.60/lb. copper price. We are encouraged that the Cu and magnetite grades of these terraces are associated with location and not depth, which limits amount of material that needs to be processed and allows the Company to focus on areas of most economic potential. In addition, because the largest cost of mining, which includes engineering, infrastructure, surveying, and blasting have all been incurred, the value of the historic terraces is significant.

Quality Control

The Company implemented a quality control program for this program to ensure best practices are utilized for sample collection and analysis of RC cuttings. Samples were collected at 2.0 m intervals down hole with lithology, alteration and mineralization documented for each interval. Quality control measures include insertion of standards and duplicates into the sample stream at a frequency of 1 blank and 1 standard for every group of 20 samples, and field duplicates at a rate of 3 per 100 samples. Activation Laboratory (ISO 17025 Certified) in Kamloops, British Columbia conducted sample analysis using ICP Aqua Regia 38-element (IE3) and fire assay gold (IA2) packages. Certified reference standards and rock blanks were placed in the sample stream with a ratio of approximately one sample out of 10.

Qualified Person

Kevin Wells, P.Geo, a consulting geologist to the Company is the independent qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

About Nicola Mining

Nicola Mining Inc. is a junior mining company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and is in the process of recommencing mill feed processing operations at its 100% owned state-of-the-art mill and tailings facility, located near Merritt, British Columbia. It has already signed four mill profit share agreements with high grade gold producers. The fully-permitted mill can process both gold and silver mill feed via gravity and flotation processes. The Company also owns 100% of Treasure Mountain, a high-grade silver property, and an active gravel pit that is located adjacent to its milling operations.

About New Craigmont Property

In November of 2015, Nicola became the first group in decades to In November of 2015, Nicola became the first group in decades to consolidate ownership of the New Craigmont Project (the “Property”) and has been actively conducting mineral exploration since. The Property is a wholly owned copper property with an active mine permit (M-68), located 33 km south of the world-class Highland Valley porphyry district. It lies at the southern contact between the Nicola Group rocks and Guichon Creek batholith, of which the latter is known to be a precursor to mineralization at Highland Valley. For further details on the Property, see the technical report entitled “Technical Report on the Thule Copper– Iron Property, Southern British Columbia, Canada”, filed on May 8, 2013 on Sedar at www.sedar.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

“Peter Espig”                             

Peter Espig

CEO & Director

For additional information contact:    

Peter Espig
Telephone: (778) 385-1213
Email: peter@nicolamining.com

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.

[1] Magnetite contribution to CuEq used the average of four values:  high-grade / high recovery, high-grade / low recovery, low-grade / high recovery and low-grade / low recovery.

[2] U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1988). Copper: Technology and Competitiveness–Chapter 9 Production Costs [online] Available at: https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk2/1988/8808/880811.PDF [2019-02-25]

[3] Nicola Mining Inc. (2017) Nicola Mining Announces Results Of Reverse Circulation Drilling On 3060-Craigmont Portal Terraces [News Release] 26 September. Available at: http://nicolamining.com/nicola-mining-announces-results-of-reverse-circulation-drilling-on-3060-craigmont-portal-terraces/

[4] Nicola Mining Inc. (2018) Nicola Mining Announces Test Results From Magnetite Recovery Which Results In An Increase In Copper Equivalent Grades Of Up To 34% [News Release] 19 February. Available at: https://nicolamining.com/nicola-mining-announces-test-results-from-magnetite-recovery-which-results-in-an-increase-in-copper-equivalent-grades-of-up-to-34/