Troymet Discovers High-Grade Gold-Telluride

NANAIMO, BC - Troymet Exploration Corp. reported the discovery of silver-rich, high-grade gold-telluride mineralization on its Wildcat gold-silver project located in the Detroit Mining District, an historic gold producing region in the northern Drum Mountains of central Utah. The mineralization is developed in a jasperoid boulder train on High Grade hill. Troymet also reported the discovery of a very rare tellurium mineral (carlsfriesite) associated with the high-grade gold. High Grade hill represents one drill target in the Core target area of the Wildcat project.

The jasperoid is developed in carbonates with thin-bedded silty, sandy, calcareous units amenable to decalcification and mineralization (Big Horse Limestone Member of the Orr Formation). Six rock chip samples of boulders taken over a 30-meter-distance range from 10 to 301 ppm Au, averaging 129 ppm Au, and one quantitative tellurium analysis yielded 0.38% Te. The jasperoid does not outcrop, but occurs as locally derived boulders adjacent to a hillside with limited rock exposures over a 100-metre-diameter area. The hillside contains locally sourced boulders and rocks of variably textured, hydrothermally altered siliciclastic rocks, breccia, calcite/marble, and jasperoid, and the soils are strongly anomalous.

Detailed soil sampling has been completed in an attempt to better define the target.

Tellurium occurs as iron tellurites/tellurates and as a rare calcium tellurium oxide mineral, carlfriesite. Polished thin section studies are underway to determine the relationship between tellurium and gold. The carlfriesite occurs in radial sprays up to 5 mm in diameter and in aggregates of crystals covering fracture surfaces up to 20 cm2 in area. Positive mineral identification was made with the assistance of x-ray diffraction (XRD) and portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses (academic publication planned). Carlfriesite (CaTe3O8) is a rare mineral, not previously known to occur in the United States, having previously been documented from only one area in the world, the Moctezuma gold region of Sonora, Mexico. At that locality the carlfriesite has a bright yellow color, while at Wildcat the carlfriesite is white. The Moctezuma region is a producer of gold-telluride ores, and other well-known tellurium-rich gold districts or regions include Goldfield, Nevada; Cripple Creek and Boulder County, Colorado; and Kalgoorlie, Australia. Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is used in solar panels and as a semiconductor material.

Kieran Downes, President and CEO of Troymet, comments: "The discovery of silver-rich, high-grade gold-telluride mineralization is a significant milestone in the development of the Wildcat project."

The Wildcat project is situated astride the faulted contact between the Tertiary-aged Thomas caldera and Cambrian carbonates, in an area of complex faulting. Troymet's exploration focus is gold and silver mineralization in veins, stockworks, breccias and bulk-tonnage deposits along the Joy Fault, and in structural/stratigraphic hosts in Cambrian carbonate rocks. The mineralization has some Carlin-like features, with high-grade gold in jasperoids hosted by Cambrian sediments similar to Long Canyon in Nevada. However, the chemistry points to a strong intrusive source, and mineralization within caldera-related faults suggests intrusion-related structural targets similar to Cove-McCoy, Fortitude and other distal disseminated gold deposits of central Nevada.