Drilling At Las Conchitas Confirms High Grade Gold Mineralization

 

VANCOUVER - Mako Mining Corp. reported positive drill and trench results from the Las Conchitas area of its wholly-owned San Albino-Murra Property located in Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua. The goal of the 2018 drilling program at Las Conchitas was to confirm the sub-surface down-dip continuation of mineralization encountered in trenches and to test for additional veins within the area. The Company has completed 49 shallow drill holes totaling 2191.74 meters.  

Kevin Bullock, CEO said, "We are pleased with the 2018 drill program at Los Conchitas in that the results support our view that there is potential to find further high-grade, open pittable, mineralization along the Corona de Oro Gold Belt. These results at Las Conchitas have only tested the very near surface mineralization at quite a shallow depth."  

The Las Conchitas area represents an important component of a large gold bearing system lying within a 20 kilometer structural corridor (Corona de Oro Gold Belt), spanning the Company's landholdings. Las Conchitas is situated between two past-producers, San Albino Mine and El Golfo Mine.  It lies only 500 meters south of the San Albino Gold Deposit, which the Company is planning to construct, develop, and operate on a 500 tonne per day mining and milling basis. The San Albino Gold Deposit, covers only 0.6 square kilometers of the Company's highly prospective 138 square kilometer land package. The structural setting and style of mineralization found at Las Conchitas are similar to the San Albino Gold Deposit.

The conceptual model for the Las Conchitas mineralization consists of multiple parallel quartz veins that dip gently to the northwest, associated with extensive shear and fault systems which represent feeders for mineralized fluids and a favorable environment for precious metal deposition. These characteristics are consistent with the model for orogenic gold-bearing veins which often extend to depths in excess of several kilometers.  Drilling at San Albino Gold Deposit has already established down-dip continuity of gold mineralization for over 900 meters and it still remains open. Gold mineralization is not restricted solely to quartz veins, but also occurs in the host rock (phyllite/schist) containing quartz veinlets.

The initial target in the drilling program at Las Conchitas was the San Pablo Zone – the first of six zones which the Company drilled in 2018. Six vertical drill holes and an angle hole were completed in the San Pablo Zone.  The program was designed to confirm the continuity along a strike length of 250 meters and to test the down dip extent of the San Pablo mineralized structure. All drill holes intersected the mineralized zone at approximately 30 metres vertical depth.  The zone lies within a highly altered shear zone and it appears to be brecciated, containing quartz stringers and quartz fragments.  Hole SP18-03 gave the best drill result of 6.0 meters averaging 4.13 g/t gold and 3.8 g/t silver. This hole intersected an interval of gold mineralization within shattered quartz veins, quartz breccia phyllite/schist containing quartz veinlets. 

Six trenches completed in 2011 outlined a mineralized zone 250 meters in strike length in the San Pablo area.  The zone strikes northeast and dips from 20 to 50 degrees to the northwest.   In 2018, the Company re-opened and re-sampled two of those trenches, EXP18-EXP11-TR02 and EXP18-EXP11-TR04 where the best results returned 1.2 meters (vertical) of 9.90 g/t gold and 4.7 g/t silver and 2.6 meters (vertical) of 2.68 g/t gold and 3.9 g/t silver respectively.  In trench EXP18-EXP11-TR04 the entrance of a collapsed tunnel was exposed, where sampling of the quartz vein produced a true thickness of 1.1 meters grading 7.22 g/t gold and 8.6 g/t silver.

Another trench was excavated to test an anomalous soil geochemical target situated approximately 100 meters west of the San Pablo Zone.  Trench SAM18-TR-31 exposed a vein parallel to the strike of the San Pablo mineralization and where the sampling returned 4.0 meters of 22.70 g/t gold and 30.6 g/t silver (along dip) and 1.0 meter of 33.94 g/t gold and 98.1 g/t silver (vertical).  This newly discovered zone was named the Tirado Zone after the name of a collapsed tunnel situated approximately 130 meters, along strike northeast of the trench.  This new zone clearly demonstrates the potential of discovering additional vein structures within the Las Conchitas area, very similar in nature to the one outlined at San Albino.

Drilling at the Intermediate Zone confirmed the continuity of broad zones of surficial gold and silver mineralization, encountered in both quartz veining and country rock.  The 2018 drilling program confirmed the extension and continuity of the Intermediate Zone mineralization for an additional 150 metres along strike where the best results returned 1.2 metres averaging 16.65 g/t gold and 12.1 g/t silver in hole INT18-19.  This drill hole intersected the zone at a vertical depth of approximately 50 metres and confirmed the down dip extension of the mineralization to 85 meters. Originally recognized  by trenching in 2011 (INT11-TR-03; 12.8 meters of 16.05 g/t gold and 9.9 g/t silver (along dip), including 3.0 meters of 40.97 g/t gold and 23.7 g/t silver and tested by drilling in 2013 (vertical drill hole INT11-03 – returned 21.3 meters of 7.20 g/t gold and 14.2 g/t silver, including 5.0 meters averaging 28.45 g/t gold and 53.7 g/t silver, the Intermediate Zone has the potential to become a significant body of mineralization.

The best drill result at the Mina Francisco Zone was 2.0 meters @ 2.56 g/t gold and 7.2 g/t silver in drill hole MF18-11. Mina Francisco drilling in 2018 did not duplicate results from previous drilling and trenching. This zone needs to be re-examined and additional drilling is required to fully assess the zone and to determine if mineralization can be expanded and traced northwest from the historical underground working.

The 2018 drilling campaign applied widely spaced drill holes covering approximately 600 meters strike length at the Las Dolores Zone. Drilling was designed to locate sub-surface mineralization using the structural model derived elsewhere at Las Conchitas. The best results were returned in vertical drill hole LD18-43 which intersected a compact vein, separated by narrow slivers of altered wall rock, grading 6.1 meters of 16.48 g/t gold and 27.7 g/t silver. This hole  targeted the mineralization previously exposed in trench SAM12-TR-04 where 12.6 meters of  mineralization was exposed, grading 6.56 g/t gold and 12.5 g/t silver (along dip), including 4.6 metres of 16.02 g/t gold and 29.6 g/t silver as well as in two exploration pits SAM17-CATA-109 and SAM17-CATA-111, where vertical samples returned values of 1.3 meters of 13.80 g/t gold and 12.7 g/t silver; and 1.0 meter of 138.20 g/t gold and 156.0 g/t silver, respectively.  In 2018 the Company excavated two additional pits in the area to help determine structural attitudes of mineralization. The best result in exploration pit EXP18-LD-01 returned vertical samples of 1.6 meters of 16.90 g/t gold and 37.0 g/t silver and in EXP18-LD-02, vertical samples of 2.4 meters averaging 24.56 g/t gold and 30.2 g/t silver.

Drilling along the southwest extension of the Las Dolores Zone intersected a totally different style of mineralization. These drill holes contain intervals with extremely high silver values, anomalous tungsten (over 100 ppm) and elevated values of copper.  The mineralization appears to occur in quartz stringers and their schist host rock. Drill hole LD18-46 returned an interval of 1.5 metres averaging 577.0 g/t silver and drill holes RS18-47 and RS18-48 intersected intervals of 4.6 meters of 37.8 g/t silver (including 1.2 meters of 83.3 g/t silver) and 7.5 meters of 45.3 g/t silver (including 1.5 meters of 138.0 g/t silver), respectively.