Kootenay Silver Inc told investors its joint venture with Aztec Minerals Corp has commenced reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Cervantes porphyry gold-copper property in Sonora, Mexico.
The company said the JV plans a 22-hole, 5,000-metre (m) RC drill program over the next three months to test four main targets.
Cervantes is a highly prospective porphyry gold-copper-molybdenum property located in southeastern Sonora state, Mexico. The project lies 160 kilometres (km) east of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, within the famous Laramide porphyry copper belt approximately 265 km southeast of Grupo Mexico’s Cananea porphyry copper-molybdenum mine.
READ: Kootenay Silver says its joint venture with Aztec Minerals will begin reverse circulation drilling at Cervantes in November
“The primary objectives of the drilling program are to better define the near-surface, oxide gold potential of the porphyry gold oxide cap at California, evaluate the potential for deeper copper-gold porphyry sulphide mineralization underlying the oxide cap, test for north and west extensions of the California mineralization at California North and Jasper, and assess the breccia potential of Purisima East,” Kootenay said in a statement.
Drill targets:
- At the California target, where Aztec previously discovered extensive oxide porphyry gold-copper mineralization, it said the JV will drill 14 infill and step-out holes at a 50m spacing to expand and better define the area of mineralization, followed by two 500m deep holes to test the depth extent of the strong IP chargeability anomaly
- At the California North prospect, the company said one hole will test the coincident IP chargeability and gold-copper-molybdenum soil geochemical anomaly;
- At the Jasper prospect, one hole will test the outcropping copper mineralization and copper-molybdenum soil geochemical anomaly
- At the Purisima East target, six holes will test the high-grade gold mineralization in the Glory Hole mine working area and coincident IP chargeability and gold-copper-molybdenum soil geochemical anomaly within a breccia along the rim of a brecciated QFP porphyry intrusion
The company noted that Cervantes also lies along an east-west-trending gold belt 60 km west of the Mulatos epithermal gold mine, belonging to Alamos Gold, 45 km west of Agnico Eagle’s La India mine, and 40 km northwest of Mineral Alamos’ Santana gold deposit.
- Large well-located property (3,649 hectares) with good infrastructure, road access, a local town, all private land, water wells on property, power grid nearby
- Seven prospective mineralized zones related to high-level porphyries and breccias along a 7 km east-northeast corridor with multiple intersecting northwest structures
- Distinct geophysical anomalies, California target marked by high magnetic and low resistivity anomalies, high radiometric and chargeability anomalies responding to pervasive alteration
- Extensive gold mineralization at California zone, 118 soil samples average 0.44 g/t gold over 900m by 600m area, trench rock channel samples up to 0.47 g/t gold over 222m
- Already drilled the first discovery hole at the California zone, intersected gold oxide cap to a classic gold-copper porphyry deposit, drill results up to 0.77 g/t gold over 160m
- Excellent gold recoveries from preliminary metallurgical tests on drill core from California zone; oxide gold recoveries in bottle roll tests range from 75% to 87%
- California geophysical anomaly wide open laterally and at depth, IP chargeability strengthens and broadens to greater than 500 m depth over an area 1,100m by 1,200m
- Three-dimensional IP survey conducted in 2019 extends strong chargeability anomalies to the southwest covering Estrella, Purisima East and Purisima West, coinciding well with alteration and Au-Cu-Mo soil geochemical anomalies, all undrilled
From 2017 to 2018, Kootenay said Aztec completed a Phase 1, 17-hole diamond core drill program, totalling 2,675m. The Phase 1 drilling tested the California target 900m by 600m gold-in-soils anomaly that averaged 0.44 (grams per tonne) g/t covering hydrothermal breccias within a quartz-feldspar porphyry stock intruding Paleozoic siliciclastic sediments.
The Phase 1 drill program consistently intersected an oxidized gold cap to a porphyry-type gold-copper-silver system at California, including multiple 100-plus-metre widths exceeding 0.40 g/t gold, spanning an 800m length and a 200m breadth, to a maximum vertical depth of 150m. The area tested by drilling represents only 30% of the surface gold soil anomaly, the company added.
Kootenay Silver is actively engaged in the discovery and development of mineral projects in the Sierra Madre Region of Mexico and in British Columbia, Canada.
Aztec is a mineral exploration company focused on the discovery of large polymetallic mineral deposits in the Americas.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com