2019 Mineral Resource Estimate Update

HIGHLIGHTS o Updated Minerals Resource estimate complete o Peer review of 2017 MRE and best practice recommendations adopted o Peer review of 2019 MRE complete confirming JORC 2012 compliance o Resulting resource places the Talisman Mine amongst the highest grade JORC 2012 compliant resources in the World The Board of New Talisman Gold Mines Limited, (NTL) is delighted to announce the results of the latest Mineral Resource Estimate, (MRE) for the Company's 100% owned asset, the Talisman Mine. Additionally, the resulting review of the 2019 MRE by a world class independent expert has now been completed and the results outlined in this report. Following completion of the 2017 MRE which increased the Talisman resource from a previous estimate in 2004 of 920,000t at an equivalent bullion grade of 7.8 g/t Au to 950,000t at 15 g/t equivalent bullion grade, an overall increase of 240,000 equivalent bullion oz, the company undertook to update the mineral resource estimate for the Maria and Mystery veins as new information became available. The update included all the previous resource areas with the exception of the Crown resource which remains at 31,000 equivalent bullion ounces. This update includes all geochemical and geotechnical data and incorporates new survey data gathered by the Company during the reopening of the mine's No 8 level. It incorporates several recommendations made by GEOS Mining during their independent review of the 2017 MRE as well as those recommendations made by AMC following their review of the 2017 MRE also being adopted in the update undertaken in 2019. Potential extensions to the current resources have also been identified within the main quartz vein host structures and proximal veins. These are in the process of being prioritized with the focus on those areas that can, with additional cost effective exploration, be developed into viable exploration targets and upgraded to an appropriate resource category under JORC 2012. The resource update, report and data were submitted for independent peer review by Mr. Peter Stoker of AMC Consultants (Pty) Ltd. AMC are an internationally recognised consultancy. Mr. Stoker is past Chairman, and current Deputy Chairman, of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) and is regarded as a world leading authority on the reporting of mineral resources. Resource Category Ore Zone/Vein Tonnes Grade g/t Ounces Bullion equivalent Indicated Talisman Bonanza 29,000 4.3 4,100 Indicated Dubbo 15,000 9.0 4,400 Indicated Dubbo splay 4,300 19.0 2,600 Indicated Woodstock 35,000 5.1 5,600 Indicated Woodstock splay 22,000 5.1 3,600 Total Indicated 110,000 6.0 20,000 Inferred Talisman-Bonanza 300,000 19.0 190,000 Inferred Dubbo 150,000 23.0 110,000 Inferred Dubbo splay 560 14.0 250 Inferred Woodstock 62,000 5.6 11,000 Inferred Woodstock splay 20,000 4.7 2,900 Inferred Mystery 14,000 25.0 11,000 Total Inferred 550,000 19.0 330,000 Total Resources (* Crown excluded) 660,000 17.0 350,000 *including 2004 Crown Resource 810,000 15.0 380,000 AMC initially recommended alternative estimation techniques that it believed would further enhance the quality of the estimate. NTL adopted these recommendations and produced a second estimate for comparison. There was no material difference between the two estimates and AMC concluded that the first updated estimate was acceptable and suitable for public reporting by NTL. The results of the estimate are presented in the following table and the areas referred to shown in the accompanying diagrams. Note: - Data sources include historic bullion samples, drill holes and underground channel samples o Mineral Resources are reported on a 100% basis to a nominal 2.2 grams per tonne cut-off grade which was determined in 2017 based on estimates of mining costs, metallurgical recoveries, treatment and refining costs, general and administration costs, royalties, and commodity prices. o Ounces are estimates of metal contained in the Mineral Resource and do not include allowances for processing losses. o Tonnage and grade measurements are in metric units. Gold ounces are reported as troy ounces. Rounding as required by reporting guidelines may result in apparent summation differences between tonnes, grade and contained metal content. The updated resource estimate for the Maria and Mystery vein systems stands at 350,000 ounces of bullion equivalent, which is some 60,000 ounces gold equivalent less than the 2017 estimate of 410,000 ounces bullion equivalent, allowing for approximately 30,000 oz of estimated historic level depletion that was subtracted from the 2019 MRE but had been overlooked in the 2017 estimate, and excluding the 2004 Crown MRE. The Mineral Resource Estimate for the Crown/Welcome vein system, estimated previously at 31,000 equivalent bullion ounces and reported under a previous version of the JORC Code, remain part of the total Talisman Mineral Resource Inventory, which stands at 810,000t at 15g/t equivalent bullion grade for 380,000 equivalent bullion ounces. A revised assessment of the resource potential of Crown/Welcome, conforming to the reporting standards of the 2012 JORC Code, is planned for the future which will include the remaining data acquired in 2004. The decrease is attributed in part to larger than expected historical excavation of the BM37 stope within the Dubbo Zone and associated challenging geotechnical environment that was encountered during rehabilitation of the mine in 2019. New Talisman has continued to pursue the long held geological conceptual view that there is the potential for the Mystery vein to continue towards surface to intersect the Rhoderick Dhu Vein. The Company is greatly encouraged by the increased grade of the Mystery Vein, (14,000 tonnes at 25 g/t Au equivalent grade for 11,000 ounces inferred). This supports NTL's view of the future production potential of the Mystery and as part of the ongoing drive to production from this area, planned sampling in the next quarter will focus on increasing the resource quantum and level of confidence. Revision of geological models confirmed that there are several potential exploration targets within the Maria vein, Crown/Welcome vein, in the footwall of Maria, and in the corridor between Maria and Welcome, where the Mystery vein may extend northward to connect with the Rhoderick Dhu quartz reef that outcrops near-surface some 600m to the north. The northern strike extent of the Mystery vein remains untested, and represents an exploration target with resource potential of between 200,000t to 500,000t at between 10g/t Au and 20g/t Au. Note that this potential grade and tonnage, and the connection between Mystery and Rhoderick Dhu is conceptual in nature until it can be tested by step-out drilling, prior to which there is potential to track the southward extent of the Roderick Dhu vein, and other veins that crop out in the corridor between Maria and Welcome using lower-cost, surface exploration techniques. Technical summary 1. Regional Geology The Talisman mining permit is located within the southern part of the Hauraki Goldfield, a 200-km long metallogenic zone of epithermal gold-silver and porphyry copper-gold mineralisation that extends from Great Barrier Island in the north to as far south as Te Aroha and Te Puke (see figure 1). The permit covers part of the historically mined Karangahake gold-silver deposit, which is one of the largest-known epithermal deposits of the Hauraki Goldfield and is hosted within hydrothermally-altered volcanic rocks of the Coromandel Volcanic Zone (CVZ). Karangahake is located near the western fault-bounded margin of the Coromandel Volcanic Zone and is also at the south end of a north northeast-trending structural corridor that extends northward to Ohui and hosts several epithermal gold-silver deposits including Waitekauri, Maratoto and Komata. 2. Project Geology Gold-silver mineralization at Karangahake is hosted in quartz veins within a sequence of andesitic lavas, dacitic lavas and tuffs of the Coromandel Group and within quartz vein stockwork in overlying rhyolite of the Whitianga Group. Rhyolite on the summit of Mt Karangahake is correlated with rhyolitic tuffs that outcrop at the Rahu prospect some two kilometres to the north of Karangahake. The volcanic rocks are underlain by greywacke basement, reported at 335m below sea level in a hole drilled in 1903. In part the permit is deeply transected by the Karangahake Gorge and Waitawheta River, resulting in exposure of mineralization at surface over some 485 metres of vertical relief. Surface exposure in the gorge features prominent silicified ridges and bluffs, whereas elsewhere the permit is blanketed at surface to depths of up to eight metres by post-mineralisation ash cover. 3. Mineralisation The Karangahake epithermal vein deposit comprises a simple vein swarm, with fissure fill of narrow veins that trend northeast to north northeast and dip moderately to steeply west. Mapped quartz veins occur within a zone 3.5 x 2 km that includes at least 30 discrete veins up to 5m wide, and 50m to 1300m in strike length. The most prominent veins, the Maria and Welcome, average 1m to 3m and 0.5m wide and crop out over 1,300m and 1,100m, respectively. Veins are located within a broad hydrothermal alteration cell that extends over approximately 12 square kilometres and includes both Karangahake and Rahu. A quartz vein stockwork is developed in the silicified and clay-altered rhyolitic cap on Mt Karangahake. A silicified and quartz-veined zone that is exposed within rhyolitic tuff on the Rahu Ridge area to the north of Karangahake is interpreted as the strike extension of the mineralised system. The Maria Vein has the largest recorded production of the Karangahake veins exceeding 700,000 bullion ounces, and has a vertical extent exceeding 700m. Its dip varies from 45oW to near vertical (80o W). In longitudinal section, there are four distinct ore shoots - Woodstock, Talisman, Bonanza and Dubbo. Historically, most of the ore came from the Talisman and Bonanza Shoots. Within the Maria vein, there is strong vertical zonation of both primary vein and supergene mineralogy. An oxidized zone extends to the level of the Waitawheta River and is dominated by mesocrystalline quartz and manganese oxide. Localised colloform or crustiform banding of quartz, carbonate and sulphides and secondary enrichment of gold and silver are associated with high-grade ore. The richest areas of the historic mine occurred below the oxidised zone and are localised within steeply-plunging ore shoots, particularly the Talisman and Bonanza ore shoots, associated with the steeper sections of the Maria vein, and separated by east southeast-trending faults. Primary quartz sulphide mineralisation occurs in the lower levels of the Maria vein as banded quartz-rhodochrosite-calcite-sulphide vein filling, described as a base metal carbonate association. The sulphide bands are composed of sphalerite, galena, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and electrum, and display the typical crustiform textures of epithermal ores. The northern end of the Maria vein is exposed on Taukani Hill, and was worked to a limited extent in the historical Ivanhoe workings within the near-surface oxidised zone. Numerous other veins within the Talisman Mining Permit were prospected historically within the near-surface oxide zone and minor extraction of high-grade ore is recorded for several of these, including Adeline, Imperial and Earl of Glasgow. Substantial mining of approximately 200,000 ounces bullion was recovered historically from the linked Welcome and Crown veins, which are approximately parallel to the Maria Vein and have not been explored below the oxide zone. The prospective corridor between the Maria and Welcome veins is between 400m to 600m wide and approximately 1 kilometre long and is largely unexplored. In a cross-cut extended between Maria and Welcome by Cyprus discovered the Mystery vein, which has potential to connect some 800m further north to the near-surface Roderick Dhu vein. Development work by New Talisman continues to extend the known extent of the Mystery vein northwards. 4. Sampling Techniques 4.1. Historic sampling Historic channel sampling on the Maria Vein has been captured from long section stope plans created by the Talisman Gold Mining Company and dated 1919. Grades on these early plans are recorded as bullion value in pounds shilling and pence and sample intervals are recorded in feet and inches. It is not possible to know exactly how the samples were taken however classical gravimetric fire assay techniques and channel sampling technics were well established by this time and on the balance of probability these are considered valid having been plotted on maps signed by the mine management of the day. 4.2. Pre-2004 sampling Channel sampling pre-2004 is generally not well-documented, other than a small number of channel samples from the BM37 zone by Southern Gold that are documented in a 1991 report to the Crown. 4.3. Post-2004 sampling NTL completed a programme of channel sampling of accessible areas to establish resources remaining in the 7, 7A, 8 Level of the Talisman Mine and the 5A level of the Crown Mine. This work was done using handheld electric powered diamond saws and resulted in around 920 channels samples being collected. Channel samples were taken at a nominal 5m spacing along strike of veins where exposed. Sample widths across veins were determined by the geology of the vein width and do not exceed a 1.4 metre sample width. Sample size was generally 5kg and collected in bins by chipping out each sample with a small pneumatic drill and by hand with cold chisels. The bins were cleaned between each sample to reduce chance of contamination. Care was taken to ensure representative, equal-mass extraction along the entire channel. All drillcore was halved using a diamond saw. Mineralized intervals were sampled on nominal 1m lengths or to geological boundaries. The remainder of non-mineralised material was sampled on 2m intervals. 4.4. Drilling techniques A drill program by NTL utilized an underground Longyear LM55 electric wireline rig with a LM75 power pack to drill 18 holes. Diamond coring was mostly triple tube HQTT with a 1.5m core barrel or reduced to NQ (core size NQTT) where ground conditions dictated. Drillcore was oriented using plasticine and holes surveyed with Eastman multi or single shot cameras every 25m and at end of hole. NTL also conducted a program of 5 holes drilled using a small conventional Kempe rig in the Woodstock section of the mine. Core size was LTK60. This core was not oriented and only collar positions were surveyed as holes were generally less than 15m. 4.5. Sample recovery Core recovery for the Kempe rig holes averages 92.8% (55.55m total metres). Core recovery for the 18 wireline holes averages 96.43% (1058.55m total metres) 5. Geological modelling Information from drill hole geology, surface and underground mapping and geochemistry is adequate to support confidence in geological continuity for the domains that have been estimated. The geological understanding of the setting, the structural controls on mineralization continuity and geometry is sufficient to support estimation of Mineral Resources to the levels conferred by Resource Classification in accordance with the JORC Code 2012. Geological interpretation of the Maria Vein and the ore zones within it have been updated in 2019 by compiling all mapping and drill hole data and by detailed digitizing of georeferenced historic mine plans, including vein positions, mapped vein widths and faults, on a level by level basis. Vein positions were checked against several of the levels where NTL had its own data to check consistency as a back-up against the historic mapping and more recent mapping by modern explorers. Mapped vein positions were wireframed in 2019 using Datamine and Leapfrog software to form enclosed vein models suitable for estimation purposes. 6. Estimation Estimates were restricted to hard-bounded domains based on 3D vein models. A new wireframe model was created for the Maria Vein. Three separate ore shoots are recognized within the Maria Vein from historic mining, including the Dubbo Zone, the Talisman-Bonanza Zone, and the Woodstock Zone. Separate block models were created for each of the three Maria domains and estimated separately. The Mineral Resource Estimates also include minor splay veins from the footwall of the Dubbo section of Maria and from the hangingwall of the Woodstock section over a strike extent of 350m and 400m respectively between 345m and 40m RL. A footwall vein in the footwall of the Talisman-Bonanza section of Maria was prospected and mined historically but has no documented sample data available that could be included in the estimate. The Mystery Vein, which is located approximately 400m to the east of Maria, is included in the resource estimate over a strike extent of 270m and depth between 240m and 100m RL. Historic mine plans give a detailed view of areas that were stoped in the historic Talisman Mine. Wireframe models of the stopes were created by digitising from historic long sections and the bullion equivalent content in them was interrogated, using the same parameters as associated vein domains. The estimated bullion mined from these stopes was subtracted from the overall resource bullion equivalent content. Leapfrog EDGE software was used to complete inverse distance squared estimations for each domain. Each of these was validated by comparison with ordinary kriged estimation, for which the results were found to be closely comparable for all estimation runs. A further check estimate utilised a 2D estimation method with compositing across the full width of the vein and a high-grade restriction approach. The resulting check estimate was not materially different with respect to global estimate and contained metal. Topcuts of 120g/t Au and 220g/t Ag were determined from combined analysis of histograms, probability plot inflections and the 97th percentile and were applied during estimation. Interpolation parameters were based on variography, generally with an ellipsoid orientation of dip 45?, dip direction 288 ? and pitch 113 ? in the plane of the vein domain. A declustering function was used to reduce sampling bias. The estimation took account of localised variation in strike and dip of vein domains through a Leapfrog EDGE "variable orientation" function. Estimation parameters were validated against outcomes by visual comparison with informing data in plan and section view and by inspection of the extent to which blocks were populated. An ordinary block model was created for the Mystery vein and all other models were sub-blocked. Average distance to samples and minimum number of samples were used to define resource categories approximately based on drill spacing for Indicated categories and on ranges determined by variography. Estimated grade has been reported as bullion equivalent based on the formula Bulleq = Au g/t + (Ag g/t x 0.031609) in accordance with historic gold/ silver valuations. There is insufficient data for detailed modelling of gold: silver ratios or for modelling of density variation across the estimated domains. 7. Classification Criteria Resource classification is in accordance with the requirements of the 2012 JORC Code, to ensure appropriate account was taken of whether the nature, quality, amount and distribution of data are sufficient to allow confident interpretation of the geological framework and to assume continuity of mineralisation, and whether the estimates are supported by information sufficient to support detailed mine planning and technical studies. Initial classification was based on minimum average distance to samples and minimum number of samples. The initial classification was then assessed as to whether the 2012 JORC Code criteria were met for each category and revised where appropriate. 8. Cut Off Grades Cut off grades were based on a preliminary assessment of the likely direct mining costs. A grade/tonnage curve was used to estimate the likely applicable cut-off grade to achieve the required ROM grade. This was determined as a 2.2 g/t Au for the Dubbo Talisman Zone and Woodstock Zones. Full details of the methodology and approach taken to the resource modelling can be found in the accompanying Table 1 to this release. Competent Persons Statement The information in the report to which this statement is attached that relates to Exploration Targets or Mineral Resources is based on information compiled by Jackie Hobbins, a Competent Person who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. She has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Ms Hobbins is an independent consultant employed by Hobbins Consulting Limited and has no financial interests in New Talisman Gold Mines Limited or any associated companies and was remunerated for this report on a standard fee for time basis. __________________________________________________________________________ About New Talisman Gold Mines Ltd New Talisman Gold is a dual listed (NZSX & ASX: NTL) with over 2800 shareholders who are mainly from Australia and New Zealand and has been listed since 1986. It is a leading New Zealand minerals development and exploration company with a mining permit encompassing the Talisman mine, one of New Zealand's historically most productive gold mines. The company has commenced prospecting and upgrading activities at the mine and advance the exploration project to increase its considerable global exploration target into JORC 2012 resources. Its gold properties near Paeroa in the Hauraki District of New Zealand are a granted mining permit, including one of New Zealand's highest-grade underground gold mines, which has recently been updated to a JORC 2012 compliant mineral resource. End CA:00355173 For:NTL Type:GENERAL Time:2020-06-24 15:36:10