Tocvan Ventures Corp. (CSE:TOC) says drilling is ongoing at its El Picacho Gold-Silver Project in Sonora, Mexico, with initial drilling focused on two primary areas within the San Ramon Prospect, Las Guijas and San Ramon.
Both target areas have returned high-grade gold with silver mineralization associated with historic mine workings.
"We are very excited to be drilling at El Picacho where there is no shortage of drill targets to evaluate the potential of this highly prospective area,” CEO Brodie Sutherland said in a statement.
“San Ramon has long been our priority target due to the established historic workings identifying high-grade structures with the potential of low-grade mineralization in between. There are a lot of parallels to the local San Francisco Mine which was discovered from very similar surface characteristics and substantial artisanal workings. We look forward to evaluating these results as we start to unlock the potential of El Picacho.”
READ: Tocvan Ventures says preparations underway for maiden drill program at El Picacho gold-silver Project in Mexico
2022 Phase Tocvan Ventures said preparations are underway for the maiden drill program at El Picacho gold-silver Project in MexicoIII diamond drilling highlights include (all lengths are drilled thicknesses ):
- 116.9 metres (m) at 1.2 g/t gold, including 10.2m at 12 g/t gold and 23 g/t silver;
- 108.9m at 0.8 g/t gold, including 9.4m at 7.6 g/t gold and 5 g/t silver; and
- - 63.4m at 0.6 g/t gold and 11 g/t silver, including 29.9m at 0.9 g/t gold and 18 g/t silver.
2021 Phase II RC drilling highlights include (all lengths are drilled thicknesses):
- - 39.7m at 1.0 g/t gold, including 1.5m at 14.6 g/t gold;
- - 47.7m at 0.7 g/t gold including 3m at 5.6 g/t gold and 22 g/t silver;
- - 29m at 0.7 g/t gold; and
- - 35.1m at 0.7 g/t gold.
In 2012, three reconnaissance RC drill holes were completed by Timmins Gold.
All three drill holes intersected low-grade mineralization and alteration associated with multiple shear zones, de-risking the potential for continued mineralization at depth.
The high-grade corridors associated with the old mine workings were never drill targeted.
The company plans to tie together the low-grade mineralization seen in historic drilling with the high-grade sampled from the workings through targeted drilling.
Analysis and interpretation of this data will be used to plan follow-up drilling. El Picacho is host to several other target areas permitted for drilling that span across the 24-square-kilometer project area.
El Picacho Property
The El Picacho Gold-Silver property is interpreted as an orogenic gold system within the regional Caborca Orogenic Gold Belt known for producing gold mines that include La Herradura and San Francisco. The project, 140 kilometers (km) north of Hermosillo and only 18km southwest of the producing San Francisco Mine, totals 24-square-kilometers. Five primary zones of mineralization have been identified across the property totalling over 6km of prospective trends. Surface sampling and historic workings have identified high-grade gold and silver values.
The project has only seen widely spaced reconnaissance drilling with no follow-up. Tocvan believes this provides an excellent opportunity for the discovery of a multi-million-ounce district.
Pilar Property
The Pilar Gold-Silver property has recently returned some of the region’s best drill results. Coupled with encouraging gold and silver recovery results from metallurgical test work, Pilar is primed to be a potential near-term producer.
Pilar is interpreted as a structurally controlled low-sulphidation epithermal system hosted in andesite rocks. Three primary zones of mineralization have been identified in the north-west part of the property from historic surface work and drilling and are referred to as the Main Zone, North Hill and 4-T.
The Main Zone and 4-T trends are open to the southeast and new parallel zones have been recently discovered. Structural features and zones of mineralization within the structures follow an overall NW-SE trend of mineralization.
Mineralization extends along a 1.2-km trend, only half of that trend has been drill tested so far.
To date, over 22,000 m of drilling has been completed.
Tocvan, an exploration development company, was created to take advantage of the prolonged downturn in the junior mining exploration sector, by identifying and negotiating interest in opportunities where management feels they can build upon previous success. The company is earning 100% from two exciting opportunities in Sonora, Mexico: the Pilar Gold-Silver project and the El Picacho Gold-Silver project.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com