Sep 8 2016
Golden Arrow Resources Corporation is pleased to announce the results of assaying of the first twenty-four drill holes in the Phase VI drilling program at the Chinchillas Silver Project in Jujuy Province, Argentina.
The drilling program is part of the Chinchillas Project pre-development activities, funded by Silver Standard, which are being undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of creating a combined mining business with Silver Standard's Pirquitas mine, as announced October 1st, 2015.
The objective of the drill program is exploration for resource potential as well as condemnation of certain areas for future mine infrastructure. Drill targets included the Chinchillas South area where seven previous drill holes had returned significant zinc and silver intervals up to 1.5 kilometres away from the main Chinchillas deposit.
"Phase VI drilling has confirmed that the area planned for surface infrastructure is devoid of significant near-surface mineralization. However the area is underlain by narrow high grade structures found over a 440 metre by 120 metre area that are similar in style to those found at Pirquitas. This mineralization, along with Breccia Dome target to the north provides future resource potential," commented Brian McEwen, Golden Arrow's VP Exploration and Development.
Selected highlights from these drill holes include:
- 159 g/t silver and 1.3% lead over 6 metres in CGA-301RC
- 164 g/t silver and 2.7% lead over 1 metre in CGA-307, plus
- 367 g/t silver over 1 metre in CGA-307, plus
- 138 g/t silver and 1.8 % Pb and 0.6% Zn over 10 metres in CGA-307, plus
- 285 g/t silver and 4.5 % Pb and 1.4 % Zn over 1 metre in CGA-307
- 23 g/t silver and 0.6 % Pb and 1.0 % Zn over 104 metres in CGA-308, including
- 365 g/t silver and 16.7 % Pb and 13.2 % Zn over 0.5 metres
- 23 g/t silver and 0.4 % Pb and 0.8 % Zn over 151 metres in CGA-311, including
- 176 g/t silver and 0.8 % Pb and 0.9 % Zn over 3 metres
- 48 g/t silver and 1.0 % Pb and 1.3 % Zn over 83 metres in CGA-318, including
- 110 g/t silver, 2.3% lead and 2.1% zinc over 7 metres, and
- 376 g/t silver, 7.5 % Pb and 3.2 % Zn over 2 metres
- 255 g/t silver and 0.5 % Zn over 2 metres in CGA-320
The drilling of Phase VI holes is now complete, with a total of 7,188 metres over 34 holes including seven short reverse circulation holes and one hole redrilled for a water well.
Table 1 below includes the assay results from 21 drill holes totaling 5,236 metres in length. A map of the drill hole locations is available on the Chinchillas map page on the Golden Arrow website at: Drill Hole Location Map .
Chinchillas Geology
The Chinchillas deposit is a volcanic vent system in which explosive volcanic activity produced diatreme breccias and tuffs in the upper part of the vent and brecciated the underlying Ordovician basement meta-sediments. Silver-lead-zinc mineralization in the tuff and tuff breccia units is disseminated within thick mantos (layers), and in the basement is mainly within the fractures and void space of the breccias. The Chinchillas South target area is located immediately south of the Chinchillas deposit, in an area approximately 1.2 kilometres wide by 1.2 kilometres long. The area is defined by a structural system with a series of hydrothermal breccias, veinlets and stockworking in a wide altered zone. Mineralization was previously intercepted in seven holes in the Phase III program and three additional holes in the Phase V program. The Chinchillas deposit and zones are described in detail in the most recent NI 43-101 Technical Report, filed under Golden Arrow's SEDAR profile dated May 27th, 2016.
Drill Hole Details
The Phase VI drilling ended on August 14, 2016. As was announced on May 25, 2016 the focus of the program was on exploration and condemnation drill holes. The exploration holes were concentrated in three zones which had little information from past drilling but which had enough significant mineralization to provoke follow-up drill testing. Results from two of the three zones have been received in their entirety and are described and reported below. Results from the third target will be released when all assays have been received.
- Chinchillas South: This zone has been of significant interest to the company since the first drill holes here in the Phase III program all returned significant intercepts (see news release dated May 29th, 2014). Subsequent drill holes in the Phase V drill program continued to indicate the area holds potential for additional resources, particularly at the south end of the target area where drilll holes CGA-272W, CGA-289, CGA-291 defined high grade structures with "Pirquitas-style" mineralization (see news release dated March 3rd, 2016 and March 30th, 2016). Mineralization was described as five to ten centimetre veinlets with banded black silver sulphides and sulphosalts ±sphalerite±pyrite with additional fine stockworking of sphalerite and pyrite forming a zinc halo. Additional mapping of the area and drilling during this Phase VI program confirmed the presence of a north-south corridor along the axis of an anticline with mesothermal paleozoic quartz veins. It is interpreted that this zone of open spaces created by the fracturing along, and perpendicular to, the axis of the fold, allowed the mineralized fluids to form sulphides veins and stockworking. So far, this corridor has been traced over 440 metres in length and between 40 and 120 metres in width, and is similar in setting to the Veta Crucero structure at Pirquitas. Drill holes from Phase VI included in this target are: CGA-307, CGA-308, CGA-318, CGA-320, and CGA-321.
- Breccia Dome: Based on surface mapping and sampling a hydrothermal breccia similar to the Socavon del Diablo zone of the resource area was defined east of the dacite dome and above hole CGA-110. The breccia is hosted in the argillic altered tuffs and has subrounded clasts of dacite, basement sediments and volcanic rocks. Open spaces are filled with galena and silver sulphides. The breccia has a NW-SE strike and was traced with trenches along 60 metres with a best channel sample of two metres averaging 183 g/t silver and 1.5 % lead. Five reverse circulation short holes (48 metres deep) tested the zone (CGA-298RC to CGA-302RC) with a best intercept of six metres averaging 159 g/t silver and 1.3% lead from 12 to 18 metres deep. The target is a breccia structure and it is open in all directions.
As part of the condemnation drill program, eleven holes were drilled in the northern part of the Chinchillas South target to define an area of 1,000 by 650 metres for a possible location of future mine infrastructure. These holes are CGA-305, 306, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316 and 317. As shown in Table 1, only holes CGA-311, 312 and 313, located in the northwest part of the Chinchilla South target, encountered wide zones of low grade mineralization, such as 151 metres with 23 g/t silver 0.8% zinc in hole CGA-311. The mineralization is hosted in Paleozoic sedimentary rocks as sulphide-sulphosalt stockworking and sheeted veinlets.
Table 1. Drill Intercepts >20g/t for Ag or >0.5% for Pb or Zn
Notes to Table 1:
1.The reported intervals are downhole lengths and are believed to approximate true width; this will be confirmed with geologic modeling.
2.All grades are uncut.
Table 2. Drill hole location and orientation data
*Hole 212W was redrilled as a water well at same collar location as Phase V drill hole 212 (reported 1/11/2016) and was therefore not assayed.
Methodology and QA/QC
Sample preparation of all drilling samples was done at Alex Stewart-NOA Sample Room in Palpalá, province of Jujuy. Analyses of the samples were performed by Alex Stewart Assayers, in Mendoza, Argentina, an internationally recognized assay service provider. All samples were analyzed by method ICP-MA-39 that consists of a four acid digestion followed by ICP-OES detection. Silver results >200 Ag g/t were re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish on 50-gram samples. Lead and zinc results >10,000 ppm were re-analyzed by a three acid digestion and ICP-OES detection. The Company follows industry standard procedures for the work carried out on the Chinchillas Project, with a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program. Blank, duplicate and standard samples were inserted into the drill core sample sequence sent to the laboratory for analysis. Golden Arrow detected no significant QA/QC issues during review of the data.
Qualified Persons
The results of the Company's drilling program have been reviewed, verified (including sampling, analytical and test data) and compiled by the Company's geological staff under the supervision of Brian McEwen, P.Geol., VP Exploration and Development to the Company. Mr. McEwen is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the contents of the news release.