Phase Two Drilling Intersects Further High-Grade Gold-Silver-Copper Mineralization At San Francisco
VANCOUVER - Turmalina Metals Corp. reported that the first three holes of our Phase Two (~5000 meter) drilling program at the San Francisco project has intersected broad intervals of high-grade gold-silver-copper mineralization at the San Francisco de Los Andes (SFdLA) breccia.
These high-grade intersections remain open both at depth and laterally. The breccia textures observed in the drill core confirm that the current intercepts are related to the very top of the breccia system. Mineralization in the top of tourmaline breccias may have a different orientation to the orientation of the breccia pipe (such as forming flat-lying ‘ceiling’ zones): Should the above drill intersections be at an oblique angle to mineralization then the true width of mineralization will be less than the reported intersections. Further drilling and geological modeling is required to constrain the geometry of mineralization within the SFdLA breccia.
The current Phase Two drilling program tests for extensions to high-grade gold-copper-silver mineralization encountered in the first phase of drilling completed by the Company in 2019, which included intersections of 36.9m @ 6.3 g/t Au, 122 g/t Ag & 0.88% Cu (8.7 g/t AuEq, SFDH-001) and 85.3m @ 4.4 g/t Au, 109 g/t Ag & 0.79% Cu (6.6 g/t AuEq, SFDH-002).
Rohan Wolfe, Chief Executive Officer and Director, said, “These outstanding initial results from our Phase 2 drilling indicate that high-grade mineralization not only continues at depth at SFDLA but, as expected by our geological model, the SFdLA breccia pipe is starting to expand in width as we go deeper. Our 2019 campaign tested the SFdLA breccia pipe to a depth of 150 meters. These initial Phase 2 holes test the breccia pipe 30 to 150m below the 2019 drill holes and have returned similar high grades. Most tourmaline breccias are considered to be gold-rich at 1 g/t gold – so the broad intersections of gold-mineralized breccia returning 9-10 g/t gold at San Francisco are quite remarkable. With high-grade mineralization open at depth and laterally these are exciting times for Turmalina Metals and we look forward to keeping the market informed of new drilling results both at SFdLA and at satellite breccias that will be tested by the current program. We have also been actively consolidating our holdings in the region with the recent acquisition of the neighboring Miranda properties. While our focus remains very much on San Francisco we have also strengthened our overall portfolio by acquiring the Chanape project in Peru, which contains a cluster of strongly gold-copper mineralized tourmaline breccias. We look forward to providing more detailed information on our acquisitions as we complete field work on these projects.”
Drilling continues at the San Francisco Project, with 14 holes completed to date for a total of 3890m. Ten of these holes tested the SFdLA breccia pipe while four holes tested two breccia targets identified during the summer field program. The assays for the first three Phase 2 holes have been returned and are reported in this release, samples from a further three holes have been dispatched for assay at a commercial laboratory, and drill core from the remaining holes are currently being logged and sampled prior to dispatch for assay. The current drilling aims to extend mineralization at SFdLA to greater depths as well as test for lateral extensions. In addition, the current program tests four of over sixty gold-copper mineralized breccias identified during the summer field program.
As part of the regional consolidation around the San Francisco project the company under its Argentinian subsidiary Aurora Mining S.A, entered into an option agreement with third parties to acquire a 100% interest in the 17,690 ha Miranda properties, located ~4 km to the east and northeast of our Project area. The Company can acquire a 100% interest in the Miranda properties. The Miranda properties covers a large area prospective for gold and base metal mineralization on the eastern margin of the San Francisco Project.
As part of the Company’s strategy to possess several high-grade projects in our portfolio the Company under the Peruvian subsidiary Aurora Copper Peru S.A.C, entered into an option agreement with third parties to acquire a 100% interest in the Chanape Project, located in Lima district, Peru. The Company can acquire a 100% interest in the 680 ha property. The Chanape Project hosts over 50 tourmaline breccias, however previous exploration focused on testing porphyry copper-molybdenum mineralization on the property (i.e. 284m @ 0.32% copper, 82 ppm molybdenum and 6 g/t silver). The last two holes drilled by the previous operators tested two tourmaline breccias and returned the best intersections drilled to date at the project (i.e. 71m @ 1.92% copper, 0.84 g/t gold & 42 g/t silver and 108m @ 2.0 g/t gold & 41 g/t silver). These breccias remain largely untested and are open at depth and along strike. Turmalina Metals plans to review and prioritize tourmaline breccia mineralization on the project.