Vancouver B.C.: TNR Gold Corp. (“TNR” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that exploration work has commenced on its 100%-owned lithium and rare metals properties, Niemi Lake, Forgan Lake, & Mavis Lake, all of which are located in Ontario, Canada.
The exploration program will focus on sampling of the known pegmatite occurrences and obtaining historic grade confirmation of both lithium and other Rare Metals.
The exploration program is being directed by Dr. Fred Breaks, a special advisor to the TNR Board. Dr. Breaks is a Ph.D. and Professional Geoscientist who is well known as a Lithium and Rare Metals expert in Canada. A proven explorer, he discovered two significant lithium-rich deposits: Avalon Venture Ltd’s Big Whopper pegmatite near Kenora, Ontario and Houston Lake Mining Inc’s Pakeagama Lake pegmatite in the North Spirit Lake area of Northwestern Ontario. His ability to create exploration models of lithium-rich, pegmatite deposits was developed during his career at Ontario Geological Survey where he authored and coauthored over 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers.
ABOUT FORGAN & NIEMI LAKE
The Forgan and Niemi Lake projects are located east of Forgan Lake within the Thunder Bay District of Ontario. Forgan Lake has four previously explored spodumene-bearing pegmatites yielding positive results such as 4.23% Li2O over 7.5 m and and two samples 68.6 m farther southwest averaging 1.98% Li2O over 7.6 m.
Furthermore, all identified pegmatites have not been fully delineated at Forgan Lake and thus the extent of the deposits remains open. All identified historic work preformed by Lun-Echo Gold Mines Ltd analyzed drill core exclusively for Li2O.
Historic drilling on the Niemi project, also undertaken by Lun-Echo Gold Mines Limited, returned values of 4.72m of 1.02% Li2O and 1.52m of 2.0% Li2O.
ABOUT MAVIS LAKE
The Mavis Lake Project covers the eastern extent of the Mavis Lake pegmatite group, encompassing nine identified rare-element-bearing pegmatites within a 512 hectare claim block. Located only 15km northeast from Dryden Ontario, Mavis is workable year round with excellent infrastructures. Historical lithium and tantalum values at the Mavis Lake property include 2,320 ppm of Li2O and 170 ppm of Tantalum over 1.3 metres.
Tantalum is a rare metal with diverse applications across several industries — capacitors in portable devices such as cell phones, computers, micro-sensors, precision laboratory gear, surgical equipments, camera lenses, and more. The corrosion-resistant, hard, and blue-gray metal is estimated to comprise 1-2ppm of the Earth’s crust and is mainly produced by Australia (Talison Minerals Corp.), China, and Ethiopia with Canada and Brazil adding to output as a by-product from niobium mining.
The results from the initial property evaluation will allow TNR to prioritize the development of its large portfolio of lithium and rare earth projects.
Ike Osmani, P.Geo, is the company’s qualified person on the project as required under NI 43-101 and has reviewed the technical information contained in this press release.
To help understand the technical aspects of Lithium and Rare Metals please visit TNR’s website at www.tnrgoldcorp.com
ABOUT TNR GOLD
TNR is a diversified metals exploration company focused on identifying and exploring existing properties in Argentina and Alaska and new prospective projects globally. Upon approval of pending licences in Ireland, TNR will have a total portfolio of 32 properties, of which 16 will be included in the proposed spin-off of International Lithium Corp.
In addition to shareholder’s current share of TNR, they will receive one share and one full tradable warrant of International Lithium Corp. for every 4 shares of TNR held as of the yet determined record date. This will result in TNR shareholders owning shares in both TNR and International Lithium. For further details of the spin-off please refer to TNR’s April 27, 2009 news release or visithttp://www.internationallithium.com
The recent acquisition of lithium projects in Argentina, Canada, USA and Ireland confirms the Company’s commitment to project generation, market diversity and building shareholder value.
On behalf of the board,
Gary Schellenberg
President