Franconia Signs Land Agreement for Maturi Copper-Nickel-Platinum Group Metals Property

Franconia Minerals Corporation announces that it has reached an agreement with the South Kawishiwi Association LLC, a group of nearby cabin owners who are exchanging surface lands with the US Forest Service for surface rights over a portion of Franconia’s Maturi mineral deposit. Under the terms of the agreement, Franconia reinforces its right to access the Maturi Cu-Ni-PGM deposit – via a defined easement – in order to conduct further exploration and possible future development and mining. The agreement also gives Franconia the future right to purchase up to 15 acres of land from the cabin owners for surface facilities in connection with underground mining operations. With the signing of the agreement, the Company agrees to support the cabin owners’ land exchange with the Forest Service.

For their part, the cabin owners will receive an initial cash payment and future annual payments. Further, the agreement establishes conditions and procedures by which the cabin owners and Franconia will work together in the future.

The Maturi deposit is one of three copper-nickel-PGM resources outlined thus far in the Birch Lake Project – the other two being the Birch Lake and Spruce Road deposits – in the highly prospective Duluth complex in northeastern Minnesota. The Maturi deposit is the shallow, up-dip extension of Duluth Metal’s huge Nokomis deposit. ACNC, and its parent company Inco Limited, did extensive drilling at Maturi between 1950 and 1974 and developed a 1,100-foot deep exploration shaft. The uppermost portion of the Maturi deposit reaches within 175 feet of the surface. Maturi is three miles northeast of the Birch Lake deposit.

“While our primary focus remains on the Birch Lake deposit, Maturi holds substantial resources of its own and, along with Spruce Road, clearly demonstrates the excellent additional upside we hold in the Duluth Complex,” said Brian Gavin, Franconia’s President and CEO.