Gold-Silver Geochemical Anomalies Defined by Soil Sampling Program at El Zanjon, Argentina

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rugby Mining Limited (“Rugby” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: RUG) is pleased to report on the results of a soil sampling program recently completed on the El Zanjon gold-silver project in Santa Cruz province, Argentina.

The program was initiated by Rugby as a follow-up to ground magnetic surveys which had outlined prospective structures for hosting epithermal gold silver mineralization characteristic of the Deseado Massif. The favourable host rocks underlie recent sediments up to 100 meters (“m”) thick.

Highlights

• The geochemical program comprised some 108 surface samples collected at 320 m spaced intervals over 35-line kilometres.
• Samples were assayed for 61 multi-elements using ultra-sensitive Ionic Leach by ALS (Vancouver). This methodology is used to identify metal zonation within and haloes surrounding mineralization.
• Gold values range from 0.02 to 0.96ppb and silver values range from 11 to 30.1ppb (Figures 2 & 3).
• Ten zones of anomalous gold-silver geochemistry were defined (Figure 4) ranging from 320 m to 2,800 m in length.
• A number of these anomalies have coincident lower pH readings (Figure 5) suggesting an acidic environment which can indicate oxidation from sulfides at depth, an association common to other epithermal projects in Patagonia.
• Additional in-fill geochemical sampling is recommended.

Project Location

El Zanjon covers approximately 600 square kilometres near world class mines at Cerro Negro (Newmont-Goldcorp), Cerro Vanguardia (AngloGold Ashanti) and Cerro Moro (Yamana) (Figure 1).

Chief Executive Officer, Bryce Roxburgh commented “We are very encouraged by these early results and plan more detailed follow-up sampling in the southern spring when the weather is more favourable. Searching for gold below recent sediments represents a challenge yet this approach is showing considerable promise. Our exploration team comprises members from the Extorre technical group responsible for the discovery of the high-grade Cerro Moro mine.

“Argentina, like most countries, is currently subject to lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus, but we hope that we will be in a position to work in several months”.

Sampling Methodology

• The soils were sampled following ALS laboratories sampling instructions.
• All site locations were recorded as WGS84, UTM Easting and Northing coordinates Zone 19 using a hand-held Garmin eTrex 20.
• Samples were collected from 10 cm to 20 cm below the surface.
• A 120-gram sample was collected and placed in a Ziplock plastic bag with the sample number permanently marked on the bag.
• The bag was folded over to remove most of the air and sealed, then placed in another plastic bag again removing as much air as possible prior to sealing.
• Jewelry was removed and only plastic and wooden implements were used.
• All 108 samples were placed in plastic boxes and dispatched to ALS (Vancouver) for Ionic Leach analysis by ME-MS23 method. ALS are certified ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and ISO 9001:2015
• Ten laboratory duplicate samples were included in the analysis

Data Analysis