Pedernal Gold-Silver Project
- Introduction:
- Commodity:Gold
- Location:Durango, Mexico
- Size: 237 km²
- Option:Optioned to Mexigold Corp.
- Status:Drilling has been completed
The Pedernal property lies immediately to the west of Riverside’s Penoles District. The Property lies within the highly productive Mesa Central Region of Mexico, 60 km north of the town of Rodeo and between various active mines. Recent exploration has identified four principle north-west trending mineralized zones with up to 3.5 km continuous veining and total vein strike lengths of up to 12 km. Individual veins at surface have a true thickness of up to 6 meters with contiguous zones showing up to 30 metres in thickness in vein clusters.
The drill program on Pedernal, which included seven diamond drill holes totaling 1,549.40 metres, has been completed. The drilling has demonstrated favorable indications for both vein and potentially larger bulk tonnage mineralization styles. This was the first known drill program on Pedernal, and covered less than 10% of the 23,716 hectare mineral concession. Follow-up exploration can now take place to test additional target zones on the property, including expanding the Milpa target zone which has given the best gold-silver results so far.
Drill Results:
An initial seven holes were drilled, totaling 1549 metres, to test three of the eight vein zones identified thus far through geologic prospecting, detailed mapping, soil sampling, ground geophysics and trenching on the property. The drilling has demonstrated favorable indications for both vein and potentially larger bulk tonnage mineralization styles. The Pedernal drill holes were targeted to test favorable surface rock-chip and trench gold assays on three outcropping mineralized quartz vein zones where assays had indicated gold anomalies. Three zones, the Tablones, Ranchito and Milpa vein systems, were shallowly drilled, with results indicating favorable vein morphology, alteration and geochemistry that demonstrate the potential for improved mineralization down-dip and along strike. The best assay results are from the Ranchito and Milpa zones, including up to 0.38 g/t Au, which for the upper part of a newly discovered epithermal system is a positive exploration step.
A table of highlighted results is shown below:
Hole
Zone
From (m)
To (m)
Core Length (m)
Au (g/t)
PD-12-02
Tablones
32.0
34.9
2.9
0.12
48.2
49.9
1.7
0.14
PD-12-05
Milpa
34.2
36.0
1.8
0.13
38.3
44.4
6.1
0.19
58.9
62.4
3.5
0.12
85.9
87.8
1.9
0.14
107.5
109.4
1.9
0.13
PD-12-06
Ranchito
12.0
14.5
2.5
0.18
20.2
46.0
25.8
0.13
including
21.2
23.3
2.1
0.21
including
30.5
31.5
1.0
0.34
PD-12-07
Ranchito
53.4
54.6
1.2
0.26
87.5
96.1
8.6
0.16
including
87.5
88.9
1.4
0.35
Note: core lengths are apparent width; true width is approximately 95% of apparent width.
It is clear from the geometry, textures, fluid-inclusion temperatures, and geochemistry of the veins sampled at Pedernal that the drill holes intersected the upper levels of a low-sulfidation epithermal system. Drilling demonstrated down-dip continuity of up to 300 m from surface in the Tablones zone (holes PD-12-01, 3, 4), to a depth of 100 m in the Ranchito zone (PD-12-05), and to a depth of 250 m in the Milpa zone (holes PD-12-06, 7).
The project area covers the favorable geologic lithologic unit contact. This is the regional contact between the Mezcalera Formation sediments of Cretaceous age to the east which is a key host unit to mineralization in the region and the Tertiary volcanic series to the west which also hosts many upper parts of productive vein systems. Along this unconformable contact of volcanic and sediments, the introduction of high level epithermal silica with anomalous gold values are seen in a series of sub-parallel vein/structure systems forming silica ledges. These silica ledges are associated with major metal-rich districts
Four principle north-west trending structural zones have been mapped to date. The silica vein clusters vary in thickness up to 30m in width, and are hosted principally within the Cretaceous sediments. The Tablones-Pedernal structure lies on or close to the unconformable volcanic/sediment contact. Reconnaissance grab and chip samples have been collected along the exposed portions of the 4 principle structures (133 samples). The zones with the highest anomalous geochemistry values range from < 5 ppb to 265 ppb Au with supporting trace element silver, arsenic, antimony and mercury in the Milpa and Ranchito Zones along the Papalote structure and the Puerta, Tablones and Pedernal zones along the Tablones and Becerros. These zones are typified by multi-veined quartz, duplex and extensional vein sets.
Recent fluid inclusion results indicate highly favorable upper boiling zones which match with some of the vein textures displayed in the discovery veins which have similar visual characteristics to the Fresnillo and San Sebastian Districts. The veins, show similar upper quartz replacing calcite, banded, zonation, and layered quartz veins as well as fluid inclusions which have similar characteristics with liquid vapor, low salinity, as is found at other Mesa Central mining camps including Guanacevi, Fresnillo and the Penoles district.
Back to topMexigold can acquire a 75 % interest in the Durango properties (including Pedernal, Catrina and Escondida Projects) by issuing Riverside an aggregate 2.6 million Mexigold shares, making total cash payments of $500,000 to Riverside, and incurring an aggregate $4-million in exploration expenditures on the Durango properties within 36 months of the agreement. Included in the exploration expenditure requirements is a commitment to drill a minimum of 3,000 metres on the Durango properties within 12 months from the date of the agreement.
