Silver Spruce Announces Phase 1 Exploration on El Mezquite Au Project, Sonora, Mexico
BEDFORD, NS / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2020 / Silver Spruce Resources Inc. (TSXV:SSE)(Frankfort:S6Q1) (“Silver Spruce” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that its Phase 1 ground exploration program on the El Mezquite Au Project will be activated during the first week of August 2020. Silver Spruce recently signed a binding Option Agreement with Colibri Resource Corp. (the “Vendor”) to acquire 50% interest in its wholly owned Mexican subsidiary Yaque Minerales S.A de C.V. (“Yaque”) which holds the El Mezquite Gold project (“the Property”), a drill-ready precious metal project located 10 km northwest of the town of Tepoca, and 170 km southeast of the capital city of Hermosillo, eastern Sonora, Mexico.
“We are very excited to initiate our Phase 1 ground exploration on El Mezquite, a low grade, epithermal target typical to the regional operations in a very productive, mining-friendly region. The Company is continuing with its review of the current geological database and developing additional exploration plans, including expansion of the geophysical grid area and optimization of drill targets to earn its 50% interest in Yaque,” stated Greg Davison, PGeo, Director and QP of Silver Spruce. “We believe that the Phase 1 mapping and sampling for both precious metals and alteration style will generate opportunities to add further targets associated with the regional and property-scale structural patterns. Ground truthing of the epithermal Au-Ag system coupled with advanced spectral and lineament analysis, leading to a first-ever drilling program, will provide the Company with another quality opportunity for growth.”
The El Mezquite Project is located within the west-central portion of the Sierra Madre Occidental Volcanic Complex within the prominent northwest-trending “Sonora Gold Belt” of northern Mexico and parallel to the well-known, precious metals-rich Mojave-Sonora Megashear.
The Property is very well situated in terms of logistics for exploration and is located only twelve kilometres northwest of the Nicho deposit currently under mine development by Minera Alamos. The 180-hectare Property is easily accessible from Mexican Highway #16 via a southerly-trending unpaved road which traverses through the centre of the known gold mineralization. High voltage power lines are positioned along Highway #16.
Exploration in the surrounding area is very active with adjacent and nearby properties held by Evrim, Newmont, Garibaldi, Kootenay Silver and Penoles. Other nearby large operating mines include Alamos Gold’s Los Mulatos gold mine and Agnico Eagle’s La India gold mine located 50 and 58 km to the northeast, respectively, Agnico’s Pinos Altos Mine, 100 km southeast and Argonaut’s La Colorada Mine, 100 km west.
Phase 1 Exploration Program
The Company has arranged a four-person team with two senior geologists and two samplers, with all necessary logistical support, to undertake a more detailed exploration program which was recommended in part by the independent 43-101 report, including geological mapping of the entire property and additional rock sampling for precious metal analysis, and alteration intensity and style using the Terraspec hyperspectral tool for definition of the silicate, carbonate and hydrous oxide species. The mapping also will document any structural data which may be correlated with the known geophysical trends, and applied to the interpretation of the property-wide mapping.
The Phase 1 work program will include a QA/QC program with standards, blanks and duplicates to accompany the in-house programs at the selected commercial assay laboratory. All aspects of the exploration program will be conducted with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols for personal safety.
Concurrently with the Phase 1 field program, the Company will initiate scheduling for the requisite environmental permitting for drilling access and pads, data compilation and Leapfrog modeling, analysis of geologic structures and lineaments from the February 2020 ortho-mosaic photography, acquisition of ASTER imaging maps for spatial alteration and rock type distribution, and collar location planning for the first exploration drill campaign.
The presence of historical artisanal mining in highly altered and oxidized andesites, rhyolitic breccias and veins, coincident chargeability anomalies, and discrete geochemical and structural trends containing broad areas of elevated precious metal values to 3.41 g/t Au and 198 g/t Ag clearly warrants the Company’s investment in the El Mezquite exploration.
Exploration
Exploration work carried out between 2010 and 2019 consisted primarily of rock chip sampling and surface prospecting of numerous altered exposures and historical artisanal workings with 2011 geophysical surveys conducted on the eastern portion of the Property. To date, there has been no detailed geological mapping or drilling on the project.
The mineralization in the region commonly consists of disseminated gold hosted in strongly argillized and moderately silicified andesite rocks, typical to the Sierra Madre geological model of the principal deposits. The gold and silver mineralization appears to be related to a silicified feldspar porphyry, which outcrops along the southern bank in the bottom of the largest arroyo. Rhyolite breccias and multi-phase breccia veins are also noted.
Two surface rock chip sampling campaigns were completed during 2010 and 2014, totaling 321 samples. An additional 12 independent verification samples were collected in October 2015. Another 25 surface samples were collected in 2019 by Colibri Resources. A second Property visit for the independent 43-101 report (October 2019) verified that no other significant exploration activities have been conducted in the area since 2015. Past prospecting and rock sampling focused principally on the central target area with limited sampling on the remainder of the El Mezquite property as shown in Figure 1.
Assay results from 362 rock chip samples indicate that 22 of the samples report values of gold >0.5 g/t, averaging 1.35 g/t Au and 54.4 g/t Ag. These samples are distributed along an area that extends for 600 metres in a north-south direction and 300 metres E-W. The highest values of gold and silver reported are 3.41 g/t Au and 198 g/t Ag. The most recent surface sampling campaign in 2019 confirmed the anomalous values, with precious metal values ranging up to 1.63 g/t Au and 155 g/t Ag.
Figure 1.
The key sampling points and anomalous assay results relevant to the central target and the coincident geophysical anomalies are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Alteration and Mineralization
Four main zones of alteration on the Property have been identified. The principal El Mezquite target area is defined as an alteration zone that extends for about 2 km in a north/south direction and is about 1 km wide. There are at least four of these colorful, hydrothermally altered, contact zones within the El Mezquite prospect area. The yellow, orange and reddish colors of the highly altered areas are caused by hydrothermal solutions oxidizing sulphides. The sulphides are related to gold and silver values and geochemical anomalies which are mostly associated with these zones of alteration. The major trends of the alteration zone are generally northerly to northwesterly; however, the major trend of mineralization within the Property has been reported as NE-SW.
Geophysical Surveys
The ground surveys covered a 600metre by 1200 metre area on the northeastern area of the El Mezquite property. The magnetic and 3DIP survey (Three-Dimensional Induced Polarization) was completed by SJ Geophysics in 2011 along seven lines, being 1,200 metres long and spaced by 100 metres. One magnetic baseline running perpendicular to the main grid lines covered 8.75-line km of magnetic data. The magnetic response (Figure 3) is generally subdued with NE-SW features in the southeastern grid area and other minor offsets were interpreted. Resistive anomalies can be interpreted as areas of rhyolite breccias and/or areas of silicification, the latter associated with mineralization. Discrete NW-SE-trending chargeability anomalies coalesce through the central geological target and with coincident alteration and numerous gold values from rock sampling, provide a high priority drilling target (Figures 4 and 5).
The geophysical study reported that the orientation and amplitude of the chargeability anomalies was consistent with the mapping, structural and geochemical trends within a high sulphidation system. Expansion of the geophysical grid area to the south and west may be warranted upon completion of the Phase 1 alteration and mapping exercise and comparison to the known geological features from the principal target area.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Maps, documents including the recent NI 43-101 report, and site photographs will be posted this week on the Silver Spruce website (www.silverspruceresources.com) and the geological program updates will be reported and posted on the Company website in due course.
Qualified Person
Greg Davison, MSc, PGeo and Silver Spruce Director, is the Company’s internal Qualified Person for the El Mezquite Project and is responsible for approval of the technical content of this press release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”), under TSX guidelines.
About Silver Spruce Resources Inc.
Silver Spruce Resources Inc. is a Canadian junior exploration company which has signed Agreements to acquire 100% of the Melchett Lake Zn-Au-Ag project in northern Ontario and with Colibri Resource Corp. to acquire 50% interest in Yaque Minerales S.A de C.V. holding the El Mezquite Gold project, a drill-ready precious metal project in Sonora, Mexico. The Company also is pursuing exploration of the drill-ready and permitted Pino De Plata Ag project in western Chihuahua, Mexico. Silver Spruce Resources Inc. continues to investigate opportunities that Management has identified or that have been presented to the Company for consideration.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The company seeks Safe Harbour.
Contact:
Silver Spruce Resources Inc.
Brian Penney, Chairman and CEO
(866) 641-3397
info@silverspruceresources.com
www.silverspruceresources.com
SOURCE: Silver Spruce Resources Inc.
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