Positive Results At First Infill Program Targeting The El Limon Deep Zone

TORONTO - Torex Gold Resources Inc. reported results from the first 32 holes of its infill drill program targeting the El Limon Deep (ELD) zone, in preparation for a maiden underground resource estimate.  The ELD zone is the downdip extension of mineralization below the El Limon Open Pit, at the Morelos Property in Southwest Mexico.  Highlights from this program include 25.0 g/t Au over 8.5m in borehole LDUG-026, 24.9g/t Au over 7.5m in borehole LDUG-013, 16.8g/t Au over 15.2m in borehole LDUG-021, and 12.5g/t Au over 45.9m in borehole LDUG-002. The deposit remains open down dip and along strike.

Fred Stanford, President and CEO said, “These initial results illustrate the potential of the Morelos Property to continue to offer incremental ore sources to complement the production from the open pits, and potentially from Media Luna after the pits are mined out.  ELD is ‘above the sill’, whereas Sub-Sill is ‘below the sill’.  Both are accessed from the same underground infrastructure.  ELD is where testing of the Muckahi Mining System will take place, starting this quarter.  Testing in 2019 will include both tunnel excavation and long hole open stope production mining.  Access to start the testing is in place.  The first piece of Muckahi equipment is in transit to site.  Training will start this month, with the first Muckahi blast anticipated before the end of the quarter.  Step-out drilling at ELD, to test for down dip mineralization, will continue during the Muckahi testing.  Media Luna infill drilling will also continue throughout the year, as we upgrade this resource in preparation for further technical studies.  Exciting times at Torex, as we plan to produce more than 400,000 ounces of Au/year, seek to grow the resources at Morelos, upgrade the confidence class of underground resources, and develop innovative ways to reduce the cost and environmental impact of mining, with methods that could be applicable across the industry.”

This infill exploration drill program consists of a total of 32 holes (4,818 metres) and is designed to increase the confidence in the grade and continuity of mineralization in the central part of the currently known zone.  With these new intersections, Torex expects to create a mineral resource below the deepest part of the El Limon Pit, which will be tested in an underground mine planning exercise for conversion to mineral reserves.  Drilling commenced in July 2018 and has confirmed the prevalence of high-grade mineralization intersected in earlier, widely spaced holes proving the potential of this zone. 

The ELD zone occurs in the northwest portion of El Limon deposit, which is part of the large gold bearing skarn system of El Limon-Guajes, located in the central part of the Guerrero Gold Belt in Southwest Mexico. The El Limon-Guajes deposit is hosted in the Mesozoic carbonate-rich Morelos Platform, which has been intruded by Paleocene granodiorite stocks, sills, and dikes. Skarn-hosted gold mineralization is developed along the contacts of the intrusive rocks and the enclosing carbonate-rich sedimentary rocks of the Cuautla and Morelos formations. El Limon Deep represents the down-dip extension of the skarn that hosts the gold mineralization at El Limon open pit, where the skarn is developed immediately above a large granodiorite sill intruded along the contact of the Cuautla and the Mezcala formations. El Limon Deep is located directly below the deepest part of the El Limon final pit and is above the El Limon “Sill”.  It lies approximately 300m north and at a higher elevation than Sub-Sill but has the same general orientation in strike and plunge.

The southeast portion of El Limon Deep is characterized by a single and very continuous skarn package that strikes approximately 35° to the northeast and dips between 30° and 35° to the northwest. To the northwest, along its downdip extension, El Limon Deep is characterized by multiple more steeply dipping (45° to 60°), skarn zones. They are developed along the contact between the Cuautla and the Mezcala formations, and along the contacts between marbles of the Morelos formation and multiple granodiorite sills and resemble the Sub-Sill skarn morphology.

The currently known, best-developed skarn zone at El Limon Deep is in the central part of the drilled area where the single flat lying skarn package turns into steeply dipping, multiple skarn zones. The change in the geometry of the skarn package is interpreted to be related to northeast striking and southeast dipping pre, syn-, and post mineral faults, locally represented by post-mineral dykes (sections 1-3). The initial infill exploration program has been concentrated in this area and has confirmed the continuity of the mineralization intersected in earlier, widely spaced holes, and it proves the continuity of the high-grade gold mineralization for at least 150 metres along strike and 150 metres down dip; apparent widths vary from 3.5 metres to 46 metres.  

Mineralization remains open along strike especially to the southwest and downdip to the northwest. Additional mineral potential is envisaged in the multiple skarn zones identified at depth. A program of 11,000 metres of Infill and step-out drilling will be carried out starting in February 2019. 

The style of mineralization at El Limon Deep is similar to the mineralization in the other mineralized zones within the El Limon Guajes deposit. It is characterized by an abundance of gold, which is strongly associated with bismuth and variable amounts of silver and copper. Gold occurs in variably sulfidized, pyrrhotite-rich skarn, while silver and copper mineralization is primarily determined by the degree of sulfidation of the host skarn. Mineralization is associated with retrograde alteration characterized by amphibole, calcite and quartz, with lessor amounts of chlorite ± epidote. This alteration affects the pyroxene-garnet exoskarn and granodiorite-related endoskarn. Locally, mineralization occurs in narrow lenses of massive sulfide.