お知らせ • Dec 20
Sonoro Gold Corp. to Evaluate Viability of A 20,000 tpd Heap Leach Operation
Sonoro Gold Corp. reported very favorable results from its current step-out and infill drilling programs. The current programs have demonstrated a material expansion of several mineralized zones, most notably at Japoneses, Buena Suerte, Veta de Oro, El Rincon and El Colorado. Based on these results, the Company is revising the parameters for a planned Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) to assess the viability of Heap Leach Mining Operation (HLMO) by increasing the target conceptual capacity from 8,000 tonnes per day (tpd) to 20,000 tpd. On November 18, 2020, Sonoro reported engaging McClelland Laboratories of Sparks, Nevada to conduct independent metallurgical testing of the mineralization at Cerro Caliche for its upcoming NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource update and PEA based on all drilling results to December 15, 2020. Sonoro expects that this independent metallurgical testing will confirm and expand on the results of its preliminary in-house column leach tests. As reported on December 8, 2020, and as a key component of fast-tracking the proposed Cerro Caliche mine development, Sonoro contracted D.E.N.M. Engineering Ltd. to prepare a NI 43-101 compliant PEA and Micon International Limited to prepare an NI 43-101 compliant updated resource estimate, based on all drill results up until December 15, 2020. The realization of the Company's goal of commencing gold production by December 2021 remains dependent on several material conditions, most notably the satisfactory completion of the current metallurgical testing, a favorable PEA report, securing required environmental permitting and securing project financing. The El Colorado zone is located along an extensively mineralized east-west trending ridge in the southwestern part of the Cerro Caliche property. Drilling to date has outlined a gold mineralized zone approximately 300 meters long from north to south and 200 meters wide, which remains open to the northwest and southeast. The cross-section image below of E Colorado demonstrates mineralizatio at relatively shallow depth due to the profile of the steep hillside in relation t the mineralization. Previously reported drill holes intercepted 12-meter averaging 11.22 g/t Au and 6-meter averaging 12.96 g/t Au. Core drilling has been suspended until the New Year and is expected to recommence on January 4, 2021. A total of 24 HQ-sized holes were completed and assays for 11 of these holes are pending. An additional 11 PQ-sized core holes were drilled in the early part of the core drilling program specifically to supply mineralized material for metallurgical testing, essential to advance the Company's plans to fast-track a proposed mine development program with a goal to achieve gold production by the end of 2021. At the Japoneses Zone, three core holes, SCD-001, SCD-002 and SCD-003, were completed to test for potential deeper extensions of the zone's shallow epithermal mineralization. The targeted areas were about 200 meters lower than the zone's drilled extent. The three 45-degree holes ranged from 370 to over 400 meters in length. SCD-001 intercepted 8 meters averaging 0.45 g/t Au beginning at 50.95 meters depth. SCD-OO2 encountered a wider interval of 21 meters averaging 0.41 g/t Au at 24.2 meters depth. These two reported intervals are in the upper part of the drill holes near the drill collars and they are part of the Chinos NW zone that extends the zone southeasterly by approximately 40 meters. SCD-003, which was collared at the northeastern-most extent of the Japoneses zone, was similar in trajectory and length to SCD-001 and SCD-002 and targeted conceptual deep high-grade gold vein systems which may have supplied the Japoneses shallow oxide gold mineralization. SCD-003 returned several narrow intervals of mineralization ranging from 0.212 to 0.978 g/t Au. Assays from five additional RC drill holes from the Japoneses zone have been received. These drill holes, SCR-137 through SCR-140 and SCR-144, are important infill drill holes demonstrating continuous mineralization in gaps between prior drill holes. The additional holes at the El Colorado zone have added to an already intensely mineralized zone, while drilling results in other known mineralized zones have allowed the Company to not only refine the epithermal model, but also importantly, where to search for future high-grade targets. These results have indicated that several of the initial targets, such as those previously reported at the Sultan zone near the eastern boundary of the property, were below the previously projected boiling zone in the epithermal system. Therefore, as the location of the ideal boiling zone has been shown to be at higher elevations, priority is now being given to already identified and potential high-grade targets, which are at higher elevations on Cerro Caliche. As these targets are much closer and, in some cases, adjacent to Cerro Caliche's shallow gold mineralization, the higher grade would form part of an expanded near-surface resource estimate.