MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - Mar 28, 2018) - Midland Exploration Inc. ("Midland") (TSX VENTURE:MD) is pleased to announce the acquisition by map staking of a new, 100% owned, nickel-copper-cobalt project in the Churchill geological province, Quebec. This new project consists of a total of 175 claims covering about 82 square kilometers and is located approximately 150 kilometers southeast of the town of Kuujjuaq, Quebec.

The new project, called Soissons, covers a series of Ni-Cu-Co showings associated with two distinct troctolite to olivine-bearing gabbronorite intrusions (Soissons intrusive suite). Work done in 2000 and 2001 by previous explorers revealed the following Ni-Cu-Co grades in grab samples: 1.22% Ni, 0.5% Cu, 0.06% Co; 1.03% Ni, 0.47% Cu, 0.05% Co (Papavoine showing); 0.63% Ni, 0.15% Cu, 0.04% Co (A14-1W showing); 0.67% Ni, 0.43% Cu, 0.05% Co (A14-1E showing); 0.30% Ni, 0.29% Cu, 0.03% Co (A17-1 showing) (note that grab samples are selective by nature and may not be representative of mineralized zones). A limited drilling campaign in 2001 (9 drill holes) also revealed the following intersections: 1.07% Ni, 0.23% Cu, 0.09% Co / 0.75m; 0.55% Ni, 0.43% Cu, 0.03% Co / 1.7m (Papavoine); 0.57% Ni, 0.29% Cu, 0.03% Co / 1.0m (Papavoine West) (note that the true thicknesses of the mineralized intervals are still undetermined). Drilling also returned several significant intervals of disseminated sulfides with Ni values between 0.1% and 0.2% over tens of meters. Re-examination of historical borehole geophysical surveys indicates that several very promising off-hole electromagnetic anomalies remain untested in the extensions of these mineralized intervals.

Recent work by the Geological Survey of Canada has unexpectedly revealed that the troctolite/gabbronorite intrusions at Soissons are dated at 1311±1.1 Ma, an age that is close to the age of the Voisey's Bay troctolite (1332.7±1 Ma), host to the world-class Ni-Cu-Co Voisey's Bay deposit. This indicates that the Soissons intrusions belongs to the same fertile Nain plutonic suite (1330 to 1290 Ma) as Voisey's Bay and are therefore post-tectonic and undeformed. This information was not available to previous explorers. The Voisey's Bay mine is located approximately 250 km east of the Soissons project.

Ni-Cu "tenors" (metal values recalculated at 100% sulfides), calculated from existing drill holes at Soissons, are variable but are mostly clustered around 3-4% Ni, and 2-3% Cu (see table in the linked file), for basal breccias and disseminated sulfides. As a comparison, Ni-Cu tenors for the Discovery Hill orebody at Voisey's Bay are about 4% Ni and 2-3% Cu (Naldrett and Li, 2007).

Mineralization at Soissons occurs as disseminated to blotchy sulfides, within various hosts: olivine-bearing gabbro-norites, troctolites, basal magmatic breccias composed of mafic rocks and partly assimilated sulfidic paragneisses, or completely within footwall paragneisses some meters away from the mafic intrusions. These features are highly prospective for Ni-Cu-Co mineralization. The basal magmatic breccias point to a very dynamic magmatic environment that can enhance the Ni-Cu-Co grades of the sulfides by interacting with more silicate magma. The assimilation of paragneisses also provides the necessary sulfur for Ni-Cu-Co sulfides to form.

New advances in the understanding of Ni-Cu-Co deposits based on the study of Voisey's Bay and other deposits now outline the critical importance of basal magmatic breccias and feeder dykes and in the formation of Ni-Cu-Co deposits. At Voisey's Bay, the best mineralized zones are now known to be found either within the feeder dykes themselves or at the immediate junction between these dykes and the larger sill-like intrusions. These junction zones and feeder dykes can be found by identifying and following laterally-extensive basal magmatic breccias, formed at the base of sills by repeated injections of mafic magmas coming from the feeders. These concepts were poorly known at the time when the Soissons showings were last investigated. Basal magmatic breccias are abundant in some Soissons drill holes and could be used to successfully identify high-grade feeder and junction zones. Additionally, recent advances in geophysics can now be used to identify Ni-Cu-Co orebodies at much greater depths than before. Midland will use these new concepts and technologies as well as existing data to identify new drilling targets within these fertile intrusions.