Apr 4 2014
Soltoro Ltd. has initiated a ground magnetic geophysical program and is continuing with its trenching program at its 100%-owned El Rayo and Tecolote projects in the Guachinango District of Jalisco, Mexico.
Mining in the Guachinango District was initiated by the Spaniards in 1546 but more recent exploration has identified a broad northwest-trending belt of gold-silver mining districts that includes Soltoro's El Rayo and Tecolote Projects, Cayden Resources El Barqueño Project, Endeavour Silver's San Sebastian Project and Santana Minerals` Espiritu Santo Project. Gold mineralization in the Guachinango District is controlled by northeast and east-west-trending structures near intersections with the regional northwest trend. Soltoro's Tecolote Project lies along one of these northeast-trending structures.
A regional structural map of the Guachinango District, a trenching/magnetics map of the El Rayo gold trend and a magnetics map of the Tecolote gold trend may be viewed at: https://www.agnicoeagle.com/English/home/default.aspx
Gold potential at Soltoro's El Rayo Property
At El Rayo an initial gold resource of 22,600 Indicated ounces of gold contained in 380,000 tonnes averaging 1.85 g/t gold and 18,900 Inferred ounces gold contained in 365,000 tonnes averaging 1.61 g/t gold has been defined in proximity to the historic El Rayo gold mine. The historic El Rayo gold mine lies along the same northwest-trending structure that also controls silver-lead mineralization at the historic Catarina Mine.
Soltoro's newly discovered Talayote gold zone (Soltoro NR154, July 24, 2013) is sub-parallel to the El Rayo structure but lies within the dominant regional northwest trend that includes mineralization on the contiguous El Barqueño land package and beyond. Soltoro recently completed an exploration program intended to locate the northwestern extension of the El Rayo gold resource between El Rayo and Talayote. During that time two diamond drill holes and sixteen trenches tested soil and geophysical anomalies but did not locate the extension of the El Rayo mineralization. Of the sixteen trenches, only trench ERY-13 returned significant gold values consisting of 16.97 m averaging 3.45 g/t gold including 1.50 m averaging 20.6 g/t gold. Trench ERY-13 was previously sampled in 2009 as trench R2 and this trenching confirms the values obtained at that time. Trench R2 returned 19.5 m averaging 2.53 g/t gold including 7.5 m averaging 5.36 g/t gold and 1.5 m averaging 10.3 g/t gold.
A limited ground magnetics program has been carried out to locate the northwestern extension to the gold mineralization at the El Rayo deposit as it extends toward the El Barqueño property. Lines were run perpendicular to the existing north-south geophysical grid in order to identify fault offsets and further refine Soltoro's understanding of controls on mineralization. It now appears that gold mineralization at El Rayo is controlled by a flexure in the primary northwest-trending structure or by the intersection of this structure with a northeast-trending fault zone. A trenching program is underway to the north-northwest of trench ERY-13 to test the continuity of mineralization identified in this trench.
Gold potential at Soltoro's Tecolote Property
Soltoro's 100% owned Tecolote Project was part of Grupo Mexico's El Barqueño land package but was released by Grupo Mexico and acquired by Soltoro through staking. No significant cash payments or royalties encumber the property and Soltoro has yet to conduct any drilling at Tecolote. Tecolote is located less than 10 kilometres north of Soltoro's El Rayo primary silver project and 10 kilometres northeast of the El Barqueño property. The predominant control on Tecolote is a northeast-southwest corridor. To date, Soltoro has been exploring the eastern portion of the concession where Grupo Mexico identified numerous precious metal targets. The most significant gold and silver grades encountered to date were collected along the east-west-trending Carmelita vein, which yielded 3.0 m averaging 14.16 g/t gold and 308 g/t silver (Soltoro NR152, June 17, 2013). Carmelita has been traced on surface for 100 metres before disappearing under cover, although the structure hosting the Carmelita vein has been traced for over 500 metres along strike using ground magnetics.
The southwestern portion of the Tecolote concession closest to Cayden's El Barqueño project is largely unexplored. Ground magnetics completed to date by Soltoro cover roughly 45% of the northeast portion of the Tecolote Property and are being extended southwest towards El Barqueño where, upon completion, roughly ~75% of the surface area of the Tecolote property will have been surveyed. The intention of the geophysical program is to locate further mineralized structures within the north-east structural trend extending onto the Tecolote property from El Barqueño for follow-up exploration leading to the identification of drill targets. The geophysical program will be completed in the second quarter of 2014.
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. Assays reported for exploration results were completed by ALS Geochemistry through their office in Guadalajara, Mexico. 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).