Sep 9 2015
Medgold Resources Corp. is pleased to provide an exploration update from the Boticas gold project. Recent reconnaissance rock-chip sampling, exploring areas outside of the main Limarinho Zone, has yielded results of 71.9 g/t Au, 45.0 g/t Au and 22.4 g/t Au from the newly identified Casas Novas and Leiranco zones, from a total of 28 samples.
Medgold has also recently been granted the Chaves exploration licence which completely envelops the Boticas licence, creating a total combined ground holding of over 600 sq km over this emerging gold district.
Dan James, President of Medgold, said, "We are very encouraged with progress at Boticas. The newly discovered Casas Novas zone, which was identified by remote sensing and soil sampling, is potentially significant and returned high-grade mineralization with assays from trace up to 71.9 g/t Au. This area is now a high-priority target. Rock chip samples from another area called Leiranco, which was identified from academic literature, yielded results of up to 22.4 g/t Au. Past explorers focused mainly on the highly prospective Limarinho Zone, but Medgold is working to place Limarinho into its proper regional context, and we are expanding our licence holding and working-up new targets throughout the district. With the recent granting of the Chaves licence, we are well positioned to continue exploration within our 100% owned project."
The Boticas Licence
The Boticas licence is located in northern Portugal, close to the towns of Boticas and Chaves, and is 100% owned by Medgold. The geological target is for granite-associated orogenic gold systems. These are structurally-controlled systems with gold mineralization occurring within quartz veins and as disseminations commonly associated with sericite-silica-sulphide alteration.
The principle prospect of the Boticas licence is the Limarinho zone. This area has received over 3,000m of diamond drilling, completed by COGEMA and Kernow Resources, in the 1980s and 2000s, respectively. This work identified both broad zones of low-grade mineralization (approx. 1 g/t Au), and also multiple mineralized corridors of much higher grade (2-3 g/t Au) that are continuous over hundreds of metres. These corridors trend east-northeast, while the veins therein trend northeast. The mineralization is structurally-controlled and developed within a large deformational lense.
Recent work (see press release dated July 21, 2015) included the completion of reconnaissance soil sampling and ground magnetics around the Limarinho zone, with the aim of expanding the known area of mineralization. The soil sampling results identified an area of 3 km by 2 km which is far larger than the existing Limarinho zone. Recent results from rock chip sampling, collected from zones within the soil anomaly yielded 15 new results from 0.01 g/t Au to 45.00 g/t Au, 13.90 g/t Au and 11.75 g/t Au, which are in addition to previously reported highs of 75.10 g/t Au, 6.91 g/t Au and 4.53 g/t Au.
The newly discovered Casas Novas zone is located approximately 3 km southeast of the Limarinho zone. The prospect was discovered by Medgold through remote sensing and grid-soil sampling. Previously reported results from soil sampling identified a coincident gold- and arsenic-in-soil anomaly of approximately 3 km by 2 km. Recent rock sampling has yielded 4 new results from 0.02 g/t Au to highs of 71.90 g/t Au and 5.20 g/t Au in float samples. Previous sampling yielded highs of 5.53 g/t Au and 1.63 g/t Au in outcrop samples. This area is now a high-priority target and will be the focus of detailed grid-soil sampling programs.
The Leiranco zone, which was previously known only to academics from the Universities of Porto and Oviedo, was recently studied by Medgold geologists. It is located approximately 5 km to the west of Limarinho and is an outcropping vein swarm covering an area of approximately 300 metres by 300 metres. Reconnaissance rock chip samples yielded 9 new results from 0.06 g/t Au to highs of 22.40 g/t Au, 4.80 g/t Au and 3.75 g/t Au. This area will be the focus of detailed channel-chip sampling in the coming months.
Please see http://www.medgoldresources.com/s/boticas.asp for location maps for each of the prospects with rock and soil results, as well as photos of mineralization from historical drill core.
The Chaves Licence
The Chaves licence was granted by the Portuguese government on 17th August 2015. It is approximately 500 sq km and completely envelopes the Boticas. Medgold applied for the licence to increase our landholding in the region, and covers several major crustal structures, which are considered to be associated with gold mineralization. The area also covers multiple stream sediment (BLEG) anomalies identified from historical work completed in early 2000s. Medgold has conducted a lineament analysis over the area, which was combined with a broad hyperspectral analysis for alteration (iron, silica and clay). The work has identified several coincident structural and alteration anomalies that will be the focus of the on-going exploration programme.
Located approximately 20 km due east of the Limarinho anomaly, and located within the Chaves licence, is the Carvela zone. The area is a contact zone between the Hercynian granites and Ordovician metasediments, and was the focus of a phase of exploration completed by COGEMA in the 1980s. A total of 37 diamond drill holes were completed for a reported total of 3,000m. From a review of the historical drill logs, mineralization appears to be controlled by a major shear structure, and COGEMA's drilling campaign successfully hit gold mineralization in 62% of their drill holes, and best intercepts were: 1.0m @ 14.0 g/t Au on CAR03 and 1.8m @ 10.5 g/t Au in CAR13*. Work in the near future will focus on studying the historical drill logs and reviewing surface mineralization with an aim to define suitable high-grade drill targets.