REG - SolGold PLC - Blanca-Nieves Project Update

SolGoldAnnouncement

05/12/2023 07:15

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RNS Number : 6997V  SolGold PLC  05 December 2023

05 December 2023

SolGold plc

("SolGold" or the "Company")

Blanca-Nieves Project Update:

New Au-Ag Discovery at La Florida

 

SolGold (LSE & TSX: SOLG) is pleased to provide an update on the
exploration of two targets within the Blanca-Nieves Project ("Project") held
by the Company's Ecuadorian subsidiary, Carnegie Ridge Resources S.A.

Recent exploration at the La Florida target, located approximately 3km
northeast of the Cielito target, has led to the discovery of high-grade
epithermal quartz vein floats. These veins exhibit visible gold within quartz
intermingled with bladed calcite, indicating an exposed "boiling zone." Assay
results from rock samples have delivered remarkable values of up to 276 g/t Au
and 141 g/t Ag, signalling the potential for another Au-Ag bonanza zone.
Furthermore, subsequent work has led to the discovery of a 15m wide zone
hosting epithermal quartz veins and a breccia outcrop in the intersection of
NE and NW trending geologic structures (Figure 1, 2). Grab samples from quartz
veins within the outcrop have yielded encouraging assay results of up to 4.15
g/t Au and 3.35 g/t Ag. The close proximity of the La Florida target to the
Cielito target highlights a potential interconnection between these two
significant areas.

Previous project work at the Cielito target concentrated on drill-testing
zones with a history of artisanal mining. The vein systems at Cielito and
Quiroz areas yielded substantial quantities of free gold from epithermal
quartz veins. During the latter half of 2023, an impressive collection of 48
check rock-channel samples obtained at Cielito returned gold grades of over
50g/t Au, and of those, 28 surpassed gold grades of 100g/t Au, and 11 returned
gold grades over 200g/t Au, with the highest recording a grade of 545g/t Au.

Structural interpretation suggests a possible connection between the recently
discovered La Florida epithermal vein-breccia and the Cielito vein system.
Currently, our exploration efforts are focused on collecting rock-saw channel
samples from the outcrop and the initiation of trenching to locate and sample
the vein extensions at La Florida.

The Blanca-Nieves Project is strategically positioned approximately 8km north
of the Company's Cascabel Project in northern Ecuador, which features the
large Alpala and the Tandayama-America porphyry copper-gold deposits. These
Projects are situated on the Northern Andean Copper-Gold Belt.

Significant high-grade gold and silver mineralization has been discovered at
multiple locations within the Project area, including the presence of quartz
epithermal veins exhibiting visible gold at Cielito and the recent discovery
at La Florida (Figure 3). SolGold's ongoing exploration efforts at the
Blanca-Nieves epithermal gold-silver vein field continue to demonstrate its
considerable potential.

SolGold is making steady progress toward preparing the new target areas at La
Florida for drilling, in alignment with a strategy centred around potential
epithermal vein targets. This development aligns with plans to drill for
extensions of the veins at Cielito and Quiroz, extending beyond the range of
previous historic artisanal mining. Furthermore, SolGold aims to expand the
size of the discovery at La Florida, underscoring the Company's commitment to
fully realizing the Blanca-Nieves Project's potential.

SolGold Founder and Non-Executive Director, Mr. Nick Mather commented on the
Blanca-Nieves Project, stating:

"I am enthusiastic about the new discovery at La Florida and the potential
connection to Cielito. In the coming months, our exploration team will work
diligently to define the extensions of the gold-silver quartz structure.
Recent outcrop rock chip sampling has unveiled widespread surface gold and
soil geochemical gold and silver, further confirming the Project's extensive
epithermal gold and silver precious metal field, covering an area exceeding 80
square kilometres.

 

The Northern Ecuador Cordillera Occidental trend has already yielded
world-class discoveries at SolGold's Cascabel Project and Codelco/Enami's
Llurimagua Project.  The Company holds prospective ground along select
segments of this 90km-long trend."

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

The Blanca Nieves Project is characterized by the presence of NE-SW and NW-SE
trending Au-Ag epithermal quartz veins and comprises six main target areas
across a 14km x 6km region (Figure 2).

The scout drilling completed to date has substantiated the conceptual model
that the mineralised Au-Ag vein systems at the Blanca-Nieves Project consist
of multiple stacked gold lodes with sub-vertical bonanza-style feeder zones.
 The Cielito vein system remains open beyond the initial drill testing range
towards the NE and the SW.

Additionally, the presence of Au-Ag quartz veins at Chorreras, Cielito,
Quiroz, Florida, Escobar, and San Patricio (Figure 2) is a testament to the
significant extent of the Blanca-Nieves epithermal gold-silver system.

Figure 1: New discovered outcrop of epithermal quartz veins and breccia in La
Florida target.

 

 

Figure 2: Blanca-Nieves Project target areas at Chorreras, Cielito, Quiroz,
Florida, Escobar, and San Patricio, showing locations and dominant structural
trends of outcropping epithermal quartz veining at surface across the
Blanca-Nieves Project area.

 

 

 

  Figure 3: Example of outcropping quartz vein sample from Cielito area,
upon a centimetre scale background grid, showing occurrences of visible coarse
gold (red circles; TOP LEFT). Epithermal quartz veining float from the Florida
area (TOP CENTER), containing quartz with lattice-bladed texture, showing
visible gold and wire-gold (within the view of a 40x binocular; TOP RIGHT).
High-grade quartz-gold-silver epithermal veins inside Cielito prospect
underground small scale near surface workings returned check assay results
comprising 'Bonanza' gold grades (BOTTOM).

 

Qualified Person:

 

Above information relating to the exploration results is based on data reviewed by Mr Santiago Vaca (M.Sc. P.Geo.), Mr. Vaca joined SolGold in 2014 as Chief Geologist for the Cascabel project and is an Ecuadorian geologist with over 18 years of experience in mineral Exploration and research. Mr Vaca holds a Professional Geoscientist Certification (P.Geo) granted by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) in Canada and is a Qualified Person for the purposes of the relevant LSE and TSX Rules. Mr Vaca consents to the inclusion of the information in the form and context in which it appears.

 

 

This announcement was approved for release by Scott Caldwell.

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed
inside information.

 

CONTACTS

 Scott Caldwell              Tel: +44 (0) 20 3807 6996

 Chief Executive Officer

 Tavistock (Media)           Tel: +44 (0) 20 7920 3150

 Jos Simson/Gareth Tredway

 

ABOUT SOLGOLD

SolGold is a leading resources company focused on the discovery, definition
and development of world-class copper and gold deposits and continues to
strive to deliver objectives efficiently and in the interests of shareholders.

The Company operates with transparency and in accordance with international
best practices. SolGold is committed to delivering value to its shareholders
while simultaneously providing economic and social benefits to impacted
communities, fostering a healthy and safe workplace, and minimizing the
environmental impact.

SolGold is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange
(LSE/TSX: SOLG).

See www.solgold.com.au (http://www.solgold.com.au) for more information.

 

CAUTIONARY NOTICE

News releases, presentations and public commentary made by SolGold plc (the
"Company") and its Officers may contain certain statements and expressions of
belief, expectation or opinion which are forward looking statements, and which
relate, inter alia, to interpretations of exploration results to date and the
Company's proposed strategy, plans and objectives or to the expectations or
intentions of the Company's Directors, including the plan for further
exploring and developing the Project currently being studied, the anticipated
results of such exploration efforts as well as the expectations of the Company
as to the forward price of copper. Such forward-looking and interpretative
statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important
factors beyond the control of the Company that could cause the actual
performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from
such interpretations and forward-looking statements.

Accordingly, the reader should not rely on any interpretations or
forward-looking statements; and save as required by the exchange rules of the
TSX and LSE or by applicable laws, the Company does not accept any obligation
to disseminate any updates or revisions to such interpretations or
forward-looking statements. The Company may reinterpret results to date as the
status of its assets and projects changes with time expenditure, metals prices
and other affecting circumstances.

This release may contain "forward‑looking information". Forward‑looking
information includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding the
Company's plans for developing its properties. Generally, forward‑looking
information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such
as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget",
"scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not
anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state
that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or
"will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved".

Forward‑looking information is subject to known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of
activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially
different from those expressed or implied by such forward‑looking
information, including but not limited to: exploration risks; general
business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future
prices of mineral prices; accidents, labour disputes and shortages and other
risks of the mining industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify
important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors
that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.  There
can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual
results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in
such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, risks
relating to the ability of exploration activities (including assay results) to
accurately predict mineralization; errors in management's geological
modelling; capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates;
the preliminary nature of visual assessments; delays in obtaining or failures
to obtain required governmental, environmental or other required approvals;
uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in
the future; changes in equity markets; inflation; the global economic climate;
fluctuations in commodity prices; the ability of the Company to complete
further exploration activities, including drilling; delays in the development
of projects; environmental risks; community and non-governmental actions;
other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry; the
ability of the Company to retain its key management employees and skilled and
experienced personnel; and those risks set out in the Company's public
documents filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca (http://www.sedar.com) .
Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward‑looking
information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking
information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The Company and its officers do not endorse, or reject or otherwise comment on
the conclusions, interpretations or views expressed in press articles or
third-party analysis.

 

Quality Assurance / Quality Control on Sample Collection, Security and
Assaying

 

SolGold operates according to its rigorous Quality Assurance and Quality
Control (QA/QC) protocol, which is consistent with industry best practices.

Primary sample collection involves secure transport from SolGold's concessions
in Ecuador, to the ALS certified sample preparation facility in Quito,
Ecuador. Samples are then air freighted from Quito to the ALS certified
laboratory in Lima, Peru where the assaying of drill core, channel samples,
rock chips and soil samples is undertaken. SolGold utilises ALS certified
laboratories in Canada and Australia for the analysis of metallurgical
samples.

Samples are prepared and analysed using 100g 4-Acid digest ICP with MS finish
for 48 elements on a 0.25g aliquot (ME-MS61). For gold and silver, samples are
analysed by fire assay and gravimetric finishing, 30g nominal weight
(AU-GRA21, and Ag-GRA21). The ALS laboratory performance is routinely
monitored using the umpire BUREAU VERITAS certified laboratory, using check
batch rejects for inter-laboratory comparisons.

In order to monitor the ongoing quality of its analytical database, SolGold's
QA/QC protocol encompasses standard sampling methodologies, including the
insertion of certified powder blanks, coarse chip blanks, standards, pulp
duplicates and field duplicates. The blanks and standards are Certified
Reference Materials supplied by Ore Research and Exploration, Australia.

SolGold's QA/QC protocol also monitors the ongoing quality of its analytical
database. The Company's protocol involves Independent data validation of the
digital analytical database including search for sample overlaps, duplicate or
absent samples as well as anomalous assay and survey results. These are
routinely performed ahead of Mineral Resource Estimates and Feasibility
Studies. No material QA/QC issues have been identified with respect to sample
collection, security and assaying.

Reviews of the sample preparation, chain of custody, data security procedures
and assaying methods used by SolGold confirm that they are consistent with
industry best practices and all results stated in this announcement have
passed SolGold's QA/QC protocol.

See www.solgold.com.au (http://www.solgold.com.au) for more information.
Follow us on X @SolGold_plc

 

 

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