Tocvan Discovers Source to Placer Gold - Seite 2
Discussion of Results
Placer Source Discovery
Over the past three years placer mining by local workers have ramped up activities in the Pilar area, most notably just north of Pilar where workings now extend 3.5 kilometers up a dry creek bed. Placer miners have focused on loose unconsolidated material that can easily be extracted and screened with an excavator. Most operations consist of one excavator operator and three 20 tonne haulage trucks used to transport material to a nearby sluice box for quick gravity recovery of the gold. The placer activity has provided an obvious vectoring tool towards areas potentially shedding gold from larger source rocks. Through geological mapping and sampling above these placer activities, the Company has quickly been able to pinpoint the primary source for the placer gold. An area 800 meters by 700 meters has been identified as the source zone with the highest-grade samples collected so far adjacent to new road development and placer activities. Mineralization is described as hosted in quartz veins, silicified hydrothermal breccias and faults associated with altered andesite host rocks similar to those mapped at the Main Zone. Sample highlights include 5.5 g/t Au with 80 g/t Ag on trend with artisanal mine workings and shafts. The Company looks to further evaluate mineralization along these trends with the areas to the north and east remaining open to further gold-silver potential.
Expansion of Mineralized Footprint East of Main Zone
Further south of the newly outlined Placer Source Area mineralization continues with significant gold and silver values ranging up to 7.3 g/t Au and 389 g/t Ag. The total area evaluated in the first pass of mapping and sampling covered 800 meters by 800 meters and remains open to the east for another 1,600 meters. Mineralization is primarily associated with quartz veining and related alteration (sericite, silica and iron oxides).
Extension of Main Zone
Past surface sampling of the northern extension of the Main Zone onto the newly acquired expansion area have shown gold values above 10 g/t Au (historically no overlimit was tested) and silver values up to 645 g/t Ag (Sample 617771, collected by Tocvan in 2021). These samples indicate multiple mineralized trends extend onto the expansion area for at least another 200 to 300 meters before plunging below overburden. These trends have full road access and will be evaluated in exploration drilling planned for later in 2024.