Catrina Gold Project
The Catrina Gold Project, located in the well endowed gold-silver belt of the Mesa-Central Region in Durango, Mexico, was acquired through exploration initiatives during the Riverside-Kinross alliance. Recent exploration work programs were executed by Riverside and it's former partner on the project, Mexigold Corp. and have produced six promising targets on the project. These targets have gold, silver, indicator metal and mineral associations typical for epithermal breccia pipes and hydrothermal systems.
Drilling
The first ever drill program at Catrina consisted of six diamond drill holes for a total of 1,615 metres and tested two of Catrina's 6 major targets. Riverside plans to further refine remaining drill targets and work with a new partner to test additional target areas that display favourable settings.
The geophysical anomalies contain high resistivity zones which can indicate silica alteration consistent with gold mineralization as found at nearby Central Mexican deposits. The resistivity signature remains open to the east, northeast, and north showing potential for expansion. The Catrina Project chargeability plan map (seen below) highlights the similar scale of the target in comparison with the outline of gold mineralization from Camino Rojo.
Sampling
Riverside and former partner Mexigold Corp. completed an extensive soil sampling program consisting of 856 samples within an area of 4 km by 4 km. Sampling has confirmed the presence of four previously identified exploration targets (Catrina, La Dura, Patos and El Bordo), and revealed two new target areas (El Palmito and El Jaspe). These targets have gold, silver, indicator metal and mineral associations typical for epithermal breccia pipes and hydrothermal systems. Mine areas with similar associations in the region include Penasquito (Goldcorp), San Sebastian (Silver Standard) and Guanacevi (Endeavor Silver).
Trenching
An excavator was mobilized to the property and surface trenching, detailed rock chip sampling and mapping was initiated. Nine trenches were made at Catrina for 2,280 m of total trenching. Seven of the nine trenches were made at the Catrina target and two at La Dura. A total of 904 trench assay samples were collected.
Induced Polarization Survey
A high-power Time-Domain Induced Polarization survey was carried out over eight survey lines on the Catrina project. There are eight individual IP anomaly responses that appear to form a pair of arc-shaped trends close to or within the high resistivity zone in the east and northeast portions of the grid. The most significant chargeability responses are located on lines 3N and 4N, where they appear to originate from fairly shallow (0-50m deep) metallic mineralization over a substantial width (about 200 meters wide).
Qualified Person: The scientific and technical data contained on this page were prepared under the supervision of David Smith, MS, MBA, CPG, a non-independent qualified person to Riverside Resources, who is responsible for ensuring that the geologic information provided in this page is accurate and acts as a "qualified person" under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
- Catrina: The Catrina area returned very strong sample results, with a large As-Au soil geochemical anomaly 700 m x 350 m in extent trending NNE-SSW and coinciding with a zone of quartz-alunite-clay alteration in sedimentary host rocks outlined by previous work.
- La Dura: Sampling has identified an extensive NE trending Au-As-Sb-Zn soil geochemical anomaly coincident with alteration identified through surface mapping, sampling and structural interpretations. Individual anomalous Au values along a trend southwest of La Dura suggest that this anomaly may extend toward the Catrina area approximately 200m south
- Patos: Soil sampling in the Patos area defined a 500 x 250 m soil geochemical anomaly in Au, Ag, As, Sb, Pb, Zn, Hg and Mn coincident with previously mapped alteration and within a sharply defined NW-trending magnetic low that stretches southeast toward the El Bordo and northwest toward the El Palmito area.
- El Bordo: Samples elevated in As, Sb and Pb overlie this previously identified target and trend NW along the magnetic low that stretches between El Bordo to the southeast and El Palmito to the northwest. Some of these samples have identified zones of previously unknown mineralization.
- El Palmito: This newly-discovered target area displays a polymetallic Pb-Cu-Zn-Mo-Au-Sb soil anomaly overlying a magnetic high and at the termination of a magnetic linear low from the southeast. The presence of K-feldspar veinlets, copper-oxide mineralization and intrusive rocks containing pyrite indicate potential as a porphyry-copper target.
- Jaspe: This new target area is situated west of La Dura on a northeast trending magnetic low and consists of an Au-As-Pb-Zn-Sb soil anomaly coincident with a zone of jasperoid alteration, in a layer of muddy limestone within sandstone host rocks. This zone indicates potential for a carbonate replacement precious metal target.
Drill Results:- The drill program at Catrina focused on testing two of the existing six target areas on the property. Of particular interest was the connected Catrina-La Dura target area that covers a 1,400-metre long by 500-metre wide zone. The drill results within this zone failed to intersect significant gold or silver values, but indicator elements arsenic and mercury indicate that drilling did encounter the upper levels of an epithermal system. In four of the five holes drilled (CA-11-02 through CA-11-06), drilling encountered zones with elevated to strongly anomalous As and Hg over drilled lengths between 20 and 96 metres. The levels of arsenic and mercury in the drill holes were substantially higher than those encountered in surface trenching, indicating that mineralization appears to be strengthening with depth at the Catrina-La Dura target.
The untested Patos, Bordo, Palmitos, and Jaspe targets on the project show strong geochemical gold, silver, mercury, arsenic soil anomalies and ground-magnetic high anomalies. Induced polarization geophysics conductors and resistive bodies on those targets that have so far been covered will help to focus potential drilling on these targets. Riverside plans to develop further drill targets to test these favorable settings. The property is 14,814-hectares and less than 10% of the area has so far been tested at the Catrina concession.
November Trenching Proposed Drilling
- Diagrams:
- Gallery:
- Catrina: The Catrina area returned very strong sample results, with a large As-Au soil geochemical anomaly 700 m x 350 m in extent trending NNE-SSW and coinciding with a zone of quartz-alunite-clay alteration in sedimentary host rocks outlined by previous work.
