RNC Minerals Provides Production and Exploration Update, Reports Discovery of Significant Extension at A Zone and Positive Re-interpretation of Western Flanks at Beta Hunt

TORONTO, Jan. 18, 2017

TORONTO, Jan. 18, 2017 /CNW/ - RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX) ("RNC") is pleased to announce the discovery at its Beta Hunt Mine in Western Australia of a significant extension of the A Zone gold structure and a re-design of the mining approach for the Western Flanks to larger and more productive bulk mining based on new data showing greater continuity of grade between previously interpreted vein structures.

Drilling highlights from the extension of the A Zone include:

• WF16-016 - 4.45 m at 7.31 g/t including 2.05 m at 10.15 g/t
• WF17-008 - 4.45 m at 4.77 g/t, including 1.5 m at 11.38 g/t
• WF16-015 - 2.85 m at 6.71 g/t, including 1.00 m at 8.74 g/t
• WF16-014 - 2.80 m at 4.24 g/t including 1.00 m at 7.99 g/t

(see Table 1 for full assay highlights)

"We will achieve a key milestone this month with the first large Western Flanks stope beginning production this month enabling us to achieve the previously announced 60,000 ounce annualized run rate gold production during Q1 and production of 65-70,000 ounces of gold at Beta Hunt in 2017. The development of this first much larger 20 m wide stope is also leading to a re-interpretation of Western Flanks mineralization as being more continuous and amenable to much larger bulk stopes, rather than those previously planned on the multiple narrower 3-10 metre wide veins. This re-interpretation has the potential to increase the Western Flanks resource and decrease development and production costs. Beta Hunt's tremendous resource potential is further underscored by the high grade A Zone drilling results that extend its strike length by more than 40%. More importantly, this southern-most extension of the A Zone has the potential to become another important production area in the near-term as it lies within 35 metres of existing infrastructure and is above the current development level of the Western Flanks decline." said Mark Selby, President and CEO of RNC.

Beta Hunt Production Update
Production from the first large, higher grade (3+ g/t) Western Flanks stope will commence this month and is expected to put the mine on track to achieve previously announced guidance of annualized production rates of 60,000 ounces of gold in the first quarter of 2017. This first large high grade stope, combined with a large A Zone stope, and several smaller high grade mining areas coming online by March 2017, is expected to deliver full year 2017 gold production of 65-70,000 ounces at an all-in-sustaining-cost of $US900-1,000 per ounce. During 2017, it is expected that costs will initially be higher and then decrease as production levels rise. Costs will also be affected by the level of nickel production which, given recent market volatility, is under consideration.

Fourth quarter 2016 mined gold production of approximately 7,600 ounces fell short of forecast as a result of one-time equipment availability issues during the Christmas period in late December. Since the resolution of these issues in late December, annualized mined gold production from Beta Hunt has averaged over 40,000 ounces – the highest gold production rate yet achieved for the mine.