Sep 14 2015
Rosita Mining Corporation ("Rosita" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the commencement of drilling on the Rosita-D Concession in Nicaragua (the "Property"), and to present the technical and strategic objectives for this program in fulfillment of the remaining option expenditure requirement by November 3, 2014.
Highlights:
- A 2,500 metre reverse circulation drill program has commenced, and comprises:
- 1,050 metres of infill drilling with a goal to increase stockpile resources and produce an Indicated Mineral Resource
- 1,430 metres of exploration drilling to test the surface enrichment on the adjacent R-13/R-13 West, El Rastro and Tipispan copper-gold-silver zones.
- Cost of drill program forecast to fulfill four year, $4.0 million option expenditure requirement to achieve a 65% interest in the Rosita project.
- Option agreement extended for 30-days.
Craig Pearman, President and CEO of Rosita Mining stated: "We are excited by the important multiple technical and corporate objectives of this drill campaign. Most significantly this drill program will advance our understanding of the economic potential of the Rosita project. The resource drilling will entail infill drilling of the stockpiles and will position the Company to consider an upgrade of the existing inferred resource to an indicated resource in preparation for further evaluation studies. The exploration drilling will examine accretive supergene resource potential in close proximity to the stockpiles. Rosita is also particularly excited to be entering into the final straights of the term of the option agreement. For four years the Company has been focused on the acquisition of a 65% interest in the Rosita-D concession and recent corporate activity has created the opportunity to achieve that objective. The Company will be making every effort during the current drill campaign to safely complete the last phase of the required option expenditure to anchor a 65% interest in the project."
The Rosita project is centrally situated in the Región Autónoma Costa Caribe Norte (RACCN) autonomous region, Nicaragua, and is located 275 air kilometres northeast of the capital city of Managua and 120 kilometres west of the port town of Puerto Cabezas.
A reverse circulation drill contract for a minimum of 2,500 metres has been signed with Aquatec De Nicaragua S.A. (for Continental Drilling S.A.). An MPD-1000 reverse circulation drill rig was imported into Nicaragua and after clearing customs was mobilized to the project to commence the drill program.
To date Rosita has incurred approximately $3.7 million of the $4.0 million earn-in option obligation, and has until early November 2015 to incur the remaining project expenditures. On August 31, 2015 Calibre granted Rosita a 30-day extension to complete the option expenditures.
The Company is forecasting the completion of the fourth and last phase ($1,500,000) of the expenditure requirement to be incurred in a drill campaign which commenced this week. The drill program is budgeted to cost a maximum of $275,000 and this expenditure, when combined with additional project expenses, is intended to fulfill the expenditure requirement of the option agreement. This, in combination with a final issue of 36,200 Rosita shares to Calibre, is expected to entitle the Company to exercise its exclusive option for an undivided 65% interest in the Property.
Santa Rita resource drilling:
In May 2012 Coffey Mining completed a maiden Inferred Mineral Resource for the stockpiles around the Santa Rita Open Pit Mine. This estimate comprises 7.95 million tonnes of Inferred Mineral Resources at an average grade of 0.62% copper, 0.46 g/t gold and 9.2 g/t silver with an overall copper-equivalent grade of 1.01% (see Alder Resources´ press release June 22, 2012). This resource comprises broken mineralized material at surface containing 108 million pounds of copper, 118,500 ounces gold and 2.35 million ounces of silver.
In this drill campaign 65 vertical infill resource drill holes, for 1,057 metres, have been planned in aggregate for the North, South, East, North East and South West stockpiles. These holes will be drilled through the base of the stockpile material so are expected to range from 15 to 25 metres in depth. They are designed to tighten the stockpile drill density to 50 metre grid spacing in order to provide the Company with a future opportunity to upgrade the inferred resource to an indicated category, and to increase the tonnage of the resource. Drilling at the North East stockpile drilling will also test for in-situ supergene enrichment below the stockpile on the western edge of the adjacent R-13 West Zone. Figure 1 details the location of the planned drill holes at the Santa Rita stockpiles.
R-13 and R-13 West exploration drilling:
The Company plans to test the R-13 and R-13 West Zones which are situated immediately adjacent to the Santa Rita stockpiles with the goal of defining supergene mineralization contiguous to the Company´s Inferred Mineral Resource.
Historic drill data indicates the presence of two parallel, near surface, northwest-oriented, mineralized zones, which are interpreted to be 130 x 450 metres and 90 x 300 metres in area, respectively. These zones appear to be open along strike and locally to depth. The R13 deposit was also subject to a small open pit in an area where drilling returned unvalidated intercepts of 2.08% copper over 47.5 metres, and 0.98% copper over 79.9 metres in historic drill holes R-33 and R-40 respectively.
In this campaign approximately 33 exploration drill holes for a total of 1,050 metres have been planned as 25-35 metre deep vertical holes and sited on a broad 50 x 50 metre grid basis at R-13 (595 metres) and R-13 West (455 metres). These holes are designed to validate the historic intercepts and to expand the known mineralization with additional drill data. Figure 1 shows the location of both the historic drill holes and planned holes to be drilled at R-13 and R-13 West in this campaign.
El Rastro exploration drilling:
The El Rastro prospect is located one kilometre north of R-13 and R-13 West and is an active centre for artisanal mining where obvious supergene mineralization was observed in an area approximately 300 metres by 100 metres in size. To date this zone has not received any drilling despite being one of the best target areas to provide potential accretive resources to any future production model centered on the Santa Rita resource.
A recent grab sample from an underground artisanal working at El Rastro returned 1.18% copper, 2.9 g/t gold and 5.2 g/t silver. Two previous grab samples from the artisanal underground workings provided significant assays of 0.56% copper, 114.12 g/t gold and 4.2 g/t silver, and, 0.61% copper, 3.24 g/t gold and 0.6 g/t silver respectively. This demonstrates that the copper-gold association that was historically mined at the Santa Rita mine (and which is also observable in the Company's stockpile inferred resource) is also present at the El Rastro prospect. Grab samples are selective in nature and grades are not necessarily representative of mineralization hosted on the property.
In this campaign four to six, 35 metre deep holes have been planned for a total of 140 to 210 metres. Additional holes may be added during the drilling in the event that planned holes in other areas need to be postponed or cancelled. Figure 1 shows the location of the planned holes to be drilled at El Rastro in this campaign.
To view Figure 1: Planned drilling at the Santa Rita, R-13, R-13 West and El Rastro Zones, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/RST-Figure1-Sept10.jpg.
Tipispan exploration drilling:
The Company obtained a significant trench intercept up to 5.21% copper, 4.60 g/t gold and 144 g/t silver over 12.0 metres in the Tipispan area (see press release May 7, 2013). In 2010, Calibre drilled two holes one of which intersected 0.42% copper and 7 g/t silver over 50.0 metres (BB10-001), and the other intersected 0.13% copper, 0.16 g/t gold and 2.11 g/t silver over 61.9 metres (BB10-002). It is interpreted that these holes intersected porphyry style copper-gold mineralization below a supergene cap that appears, from historic shafts, to be at least 5 metres thick.
To test this supergene cap, eight holes for a total of 240 metres have been planned at the Tipispan prospect as two drill fences. This area has strong potential for supergene resources interpreted to be controlled by at least six northwest-trending high grade structures. Figure 2 shows the planned holes for Tipispan, the location of trenches and holes drilled as well as the mineralized zones.
To view Figure 2: Planned drilling at the Tipispan Zone, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/RST-Figure2-Sept10.jpg.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control ("QA/QC")
Alder has implemented an industry standard Quality Assurance/Quality Control program that includes the insertion of certified standards and blanks into the sample stream. Samples were collected into heavy gauge plastic bags, sealed on-site, then stored at Alder's Rosita field office until transported by company or laboratory personnel to Inspectorate Exploration and Mining Services' sample preparation facility in Managua. In Managua, pulps were prepared for shipping to Inspectorate's Analytical laboratory in Reno, Nevada, or Vancouver, Canada, where each sample was analyzed for total copper using aqua regia digestion and a 30-element ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma-atomic emission spectrometry) for copper, silver and 28 other elements including silver, and gold by fire assay with atomic absorption (AA) finish. Soluble copper is determined using dilute sulfuric acid digestion with an AA finish.
Appointment of director
Pursuant to the Company's recent Annual and Special Meeting of its shareholders and the closing of the Alder Resources Ltd. transaction, the board of directors (the "BoD") of Rosita have appointed Mr. Keith Stein to fill the current BoD vacancy.
Mr. Stein is a lawyer at the Toronto office of Dentons Canada LLP, which he joined in 2014. Prior to joining Dentons Canada LLP, Mr. Stein served as Counsel at Heenan Blaikie LLP from 2008 to 2014 and before that was a senior executive with Magna International Inc.