Jan 13 2015
Soltoro Ltd. has identified a new gold zone on its 100%-owned El Rayo project located in Jalisco, Mexico. The newly identified Tierra Blanca gold target is located along the western concession boundary of Soltoro's El Rayo Project and extends onto Agnico Eagle's El Barqueño property.
Anomalous gold mineralization occurs in a series of west-northwest-trending zones of argillic alteration containing varying amounts of subparallel quartz veining or silicification. Alteration zones are up to five metres in width containing individual zones of veining up to one metre in width. To date, eight chip samples have been collected from exposures in the area yielding values ranging from 9 ppb gold to 161 ppb gold (0.161 g/t gold) with seven of the eight containing greater than 10 ppb gold and two containing greater than 100 ppb gold. Anomalous gold is associated with sporadic, low-level anomalies in arsenic, silver, bismuth and molybdenum.
Andrew Thomson, President and C.E.O. of Soltoro Ltd., stated: "The newly identified Tierra Blanca gold zone further evidences the widespread nature of precious metals mineralization in the Guachinango district. A follow up sampling program is being designed to further assess this target."
The Tierra Blanca area is believed to represent the eastern extension of the Poncho and San Diego mineralized trends on Agnico Eagle's adjacent El Barqueño property. Gold values of 120 g/t Au and 8.34 g/t Au have been reported from the Poncho East target, located approximately 1,500 m to the west of Tierra Blanca (Cayden Resources presentation dated 8 September 2014). Mineralization at Poncho East is hosted by the same rhyodacitic sequence as the mineralization at Tierra Blanca while much of the mineralization occurs in the underlying andesitic epiclastic rocks.
Mineralization at Tierra Blanca is hosted by rhyodacitic epiclastic rocks. Geologic mapping indicates that this unit overlies andesitic epiclastic rocks, which are known to be favorable host rocks on both the El Rayo and El Barqueño properties. On both properties, mineralization may extend upward into the base of the rhyodacitic unit. Based on preliminary field investigations, andesitic (and basaltic andesite) epiclastic rocks are present 40 m to 60 m below the rhyodacitic rocks exposed at Tierra Blanca suggesting that a drill target may be present in the more favorable andesitic rocks at a shallow depth.
In addition to anomalous gold values in rock, Soltoro identified a separate weak antimony soil anomaly with weakly anomalous gold samples at either end of the anomaly. The anomaly is located approximately 400 m north of the Tierra Blanca area, trends east-west and measures approximately 500 m in length. The anomaly is open to the east on the El Rayo property and to the west. There is little outcrop in the area but one sample collected from near an anomalous soil sample did not yield detectable gold. Further work, including trenching will be required to test the areas around the anomalous gold samples.
Maps showing regional structures, intrusive centers and alteration zones may be viewed at:
http://www.soltoro.com/projects/pdf/NR175maps.pdf
QUALIFIED PERSONS
Mr. Steven T. Priesmeyer, C.P.G., is Vice President Exploration for Soltoro Ltd. He is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101 and he has reviewed the geological contents of this press release. Analytical work is performed by ALS-Chemex. Samples are submitted to the ALS sample preparation facility in Guadalajara and pulps are shipped by ALS to their laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. for analysis. Analytical procedures include a 33 element ICP-AES analysis (ME-ICP61m) and a 50 g FA AA finish for gold (AA-24). Silver assays exceeding 100 g/t are re-assayed by HCL leach with an ICP-AES or AAS finish (OG62).
ASSAY QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL
Soltoro's standard QA/QC program consists of the systematic insertion three different standards representing high, medium and low grades, a field duplicate, fine and coarse duplicates, and fine and coarse blanks into the sample stream. Standards and fine blanks are purchased from CDN Resources Laboratories LTD in Vancouver, BC. Fine and coarse duplicates are selected by the field geologist and inserted into the sample stream by ALS-Chemex. The coarse blank is unmineralized volcanic rock obtained locally. Control samples are inserted on the basis of 50 sample batches.
Certified reference materials are plotted against the mean and standard deviation based on the sample analyses from the primary laboratory. A standard is considered to have failed if it exceeds the mean plus three standard deviations or if two consecutive standards from the same batch exceed the mean plus two standard deviations. A failure of a control standard triggers an investigation into the cause. A blank failure is defined by a reported value above three times detection limit of the method.