Tocvan Ventures Corp has announced the start of fieldwork at its Pilar gold and silver project in Mexico, which will include drilling and metallurgical studies.
"We are extremely excited to be operating once again at Pilar," said Tocvan vice-president (VP) of exploration Brodie Sutherland in a statement.
"Last year was very successful in growing the potential size of the mineralized system at Pilar, we look forward to building off that success again this year with continued drilling and trenching across the property. In addition, bulk sample composites taken from surface will aim to show our mineralized oxide zone is amenable to conventional heap leach processes," he added.
Surface mineralization will be evaluated with trenching and channel sampling followed by a series of column leach studies across the Main Zone, said the company, while between 5,000 meters (m) and 8,000m is planned, in three stages, between now and July 2022.
Drilling will focus on continued step-out drilling along the Main Zone and new 4-Trench Trend, said Tocvan, while exploration drilling will continue to evaluate target areas along the Triple Vein Zone.
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Later, the company said that metallurgical drill holes will also be completed across the Main Zone to compare the recovery of gold at depth.
The company believes Pilar is a low-sulphidation epithermal project. More than 19,200m of drilling has been completed to date and three zones of mineralization have been identified known as the Main Zone, North Hill and 4-Trench.
Soil and rock sampling at undrilled areas have indicated that mineralization extends towards the southeast from the Main Zone and 4-Trench Zone, while recent surface exploration has defined three new target areas - Triple Vein Zone, SE Vein Zone and 4 Trench Extension.
This year's Phase 2 drill highlights have included an intercept of 29m at a grade of 0.71 grams per ton (g/t) gold and 2 g/t silver from surface to 29m at the Main zone, and 15.3m at 1.1 g/t gold and 2 g/t silver from 36.6 to 51.9m at the 4 Trench Zone.
At the Triple vein zone one hole hit 1.5 meters at 0.57 g/t gold and 139 g/t silver from 216.6 to 218.1m depth.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com