お知らせ • May 15
Meridian Mining Plc Announces Discovery Of Gold Mineralisation At Álamo And Reports High-Grade Results From Santa Helena Central
Meridian Mining plc announced the discovery of gold and base metal mineralisation at Álamo, located at the southeastern end of the Cabaçal Au-Cu-Ag VMS belt and only 1km from Santa Helena's infrastructure area. The exploration discovery hole, CD-852, intersected 3.5m @ 2.4g/t Au, 0.5% Cu, 9.5g/t Ag & 0.7% Zn from 108.9m. It represents a newly defined mineralised position, open along strike, up-dip and down-dip, along a 1.6km Induced Polarisation anomaly. The Company also reports results from Santa Helena Central's resource infill programme. The high-grade zones of gold-copper-silver and lead-zinc include CD-854's high-grade core of 10.7m @ 2.5g/t Au, 2.4% Cu, 76.7g/t Ag & 11.7% Zn from 73.0m. These results will be included in a future resource upgrade. The Álamo trend represents a 1.6km eastern trend that connects to the west with the larger Santa Helena system. Hydrothermal processes are reflected by geophysical response with a positive chargeability anomaly (consistent with bedrock sulphides), and peak soil responses from past historical sampling of 820 ppm Cu, 1300 ppm Zn, 3040 ppm Pb, and up to 90 gold counts (gold specks in panned 5 litre soil sample). CD-852's discovery represents a return to the evaluation of the opportunities that the Álamo trend presents, with recent drilling purposefully directed into the Santa Helena system's footwall position. In this underlying position below and to the east of the Santa Helena Central resource, historical drilling (JUCHD018, JUCHD014, JUCHD021) intercepted mineralisation, that although at low levels, signalled that a fertile hydrothermal system was present in the poorly tested lower position. CD-852 was collared 240m from the limit of the Santa Helena Central resource model extent, and ~230m east of the mineralised position of the historical JUCHD021, that assayed trace level gold grades in the Santa Helena footwall position. CD-852 passed through an interlayered sequence of mafic and felsic meta-volcanics, and encountered multiple horizons with anomalous gold, base metal and/or pathfinder signatures. Gold-only zones were first encountered at 48.0 - 48.3m and 62.3 - 63.1m. A zinc-lead interval from 88.1 - 93.6m with higher Ba/Zr ratios and adjacent elevated Mo-Cd may mark an exhalative position. Importantly, the interval from 108.9 - 112.4m returned strong gold-silver mineralisation, with an intersection of 3.5m @ 2.4g/t Au, 0.5% Cu, 9.5g/t Ag & 0.7% Zn from 108.9m. The peak gold grade reported was 8.8g/t Au over 0.4m from 110.8m. This is the highest gold grade encountered to date in the limited drill-testing of the Santa Helena footwall position. The interval has elevated base metals, but is overall a low-sulphur zone, with gold grades higher than those characteristic of the VMS-only event. The interval occurs in a zone of Na-depletion characteristic of hydrothermal leaching and is accompanied by an elevated pathfinder signal (Bi-Mo-Se-Cd). The mineralised interval is interpreted to dip moderately to the southwest and remains open. Previously CD-431, drilled north of CD-852, returned 5.4m @ 0.4g/t Au, 27.8 g/t Ag, 0.4% Zn from 38.4m, in a shallow northerly dipping package. BHEM surveys of CD-431 and CD-432 (NSA) identified a modelled conductor extending over 40m+ along strike, that is the strongest BHEM response detected to date at Santa Helena, with a high conductivity of ~4200 Siemens. This will be tested as part of Álamo's ongoing 2026 exploration programme. The CD-852 results provide another example of an elevated bismuth pathfinder signal seen in association with the high-grade gold event in mineralisation of the Cabaçal Belt. This geochemistry is seen in camps such as La Ronde - Penna, which like the Cabaçal Belt, has a subvolcanic tonalite intrusive body contributing to the metal associations. In the La Ronde - Penna camp, the mineralisation can be stacked at different intervals. The Company has previously noted that, with the Cabaçal Belt being characterised by gentle dips, there is a significant footprint of unexplored stratigraphy between this sub-volcanic intrusive tonalite system and the known VMS horizon to date. With the CD-852 result, we are now increasingly confident in the opportunity for drilling to encounter blind positions, and look forward to testing for extensions or repeats of the mineralisation. Additional holes drilled in the broader region include CD-762, CD-767 and CD-825. CD-762 was the first hole into the Santa Helena Far North chargeability response. The hole intersected a weathered mafic - metasediment interval in the weathering zone which was anomalous in gold, bismuth and other pathfinders (47 ppb Au; 5 ppm Bi, 356 ppm As). Assays indicated a second meta-volcanic /meta-sediment contact at 77.7m depth was associated with a sodium depletion zone in which the hole terminated at 85.1m. Results indicate the chargeability response is associated with dynamic hydrothermal processes with further work required to build exploration vectors. CD-762 was a first hole into an area which had returned anomalous gold in rock chip float. The hole returned grades of up to 0.4% Cu and the area is under further evaluation. Hole CD-825 was drilled to the south and returned low levels of Cu-Au anomalism.
