VANCOUVER, May 20, 2020 /CNW/ - Turmalina Metals Corp. ("Turmalina", or the "Company"; TBX-TSXV, TBXXF-OTCQX) is pleased to announce that, during the past 48 hours, it has received approval from the regulatory authorities in San Juan, Argentina of its recently submitted biosecurity protocols and as such can immediately mobilize to the San Francisco gold-silver-copper project (the "Project") to commence drilling.
Highlights:
- Mobilization to site starting immediately.
- Upcoming drill program a concurrent blend of drilling at SFDLA breccia pipe and exploration drilling of newly discovered gold-copper-silver mineralised breccia pipes.
- Commencing drilling with a strong cash position and balance sheet.
- Robust COVID-19 protocols in place for drilling program.
- Rapid response of government and community to COVID-19 pandemic has led to only 3 cases of COVID-19 in San Juan state to date.
This phase two drill program will be a concurrent blend of drilling at the San Francisco de Los Andes (SFdLA) breccia, to follow up on a very successful initial drill program while also commencing exploration on multiple newly identified and sampled breccias that present high priority exploration targets.
Two diamond drill rigs will be utilized to drill a total of 4500 meters during this drill campaign. Approximately 2500 m will be drilled at the SFDLA breccia pipe, testing for extensions to high-grade gold-copper-silver mineralization encountered in the first phase of drilling. The remaining 2,000 m will test mineralized breccia pipes identified during the recently completed mapping program. Please refer to our press release dated March 6, 2020 for further details of the planned drill program.
SFDLA Drilling
Initial drilling at the SFdLA breccia (see Turmalina News Release dated December 2, 2019 for full details of results including information on true widths) returned significant gold-rich intercepts including:
- 36.95m @ 6.31 g/t Au, 122 g/t Ag & 0.88% Cu (8.7 g/t AuEq) from 34.5m (SFDH-001)
- 85.30m @ 4.43 g/t Au, 109 g/t Ag & 0.79% Cu (6.6 g/t AuEq) from 27.7m (SFDH-002)
- Including 22.70m @ 6.66 g/t Au, 86 g/t Ag & 1.46% Cu (9.46 g/t AuEq) from 28.3m
- Including 25.00m @ 5.29 g/t Au, 117 g/t Ag & 0.62% Cu (7.4 g/t AuEq) from 61m
- 50.75m @ 3.62 g/t Au, 82 g/t Ag & 1.90% Cu (6.7 g/t AuEq) from 44.25m (SFDH-003)
- Including 26.75m @ 5.47 g/t Au, 97 g/t Ag & 3.30% Cu (10.6 g/t AuEq) from 44.25m
- 85.00m @ 2.65 g/t Au, 88 g/t Ag & 0.57% Cu (4.32 g/t AuEq) from 33m (SFDH-005)
- Including 21.00m @ 5.05 g/t Au, 173 g/t Ag & 0.80% Cu (8.0 g/t AuEq) from 35m
- 27.52m @ 3.00 g/t Au, 124 g/t Ag & 0.37% Cu (4.8 g/t AuEq) from 56.48m (SFDH-007)
- Including 8.52m @ 4.91 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag & 0.24% Cu (7.1 g/t AuEq) from 56.48m
- And 16m @ 0.8 g/t Au, 281 g/t Ag & 1.59% Cu (6.1 g/t AuEq) from 150m.
Exploration Drilling on New Targets
Over summer Turmalina completed a project-wide 3400 ha mapping and sampling program. This program included collection of over 4,494 soil samples, 1,240 rock chip samples and mapping of over 60 breccias.
The upcoming drilling program will drill test four of these newly discovered breccia pipes. These new breccia pipes are all located in close proximity to SFDLA. Rock chip samples from one of these new targets included 79 g/t gold, 385 g/t silver and 7.7 % copper: assay grades higher than those obtained from rock chips over the SFdLA breccia pipe drilled by the Company in 2019.
Energold Drilling has been contracted to conduct the upcoming drilling program at the project. To minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission to our team and the community the Company will apply rigorous protocols throughout the program. These procedures will include social distancing, improved hygiene, health screening of all staff and contractors, longer rosters at our remote field camp and an onsite medical professional to monitor health and ensure procedures are followed.
Dr. Rohan Wolfe, Chief Executive Officer, states:
"We are excited to commence Phase 2 drilling at San Francisco. Thanks to the rapid response of the government and community the state of San Juan has been largely unaffected by the COVID 19 pandemic, with only a handful of cases to date. We welcome the return to exploration and will enforce a rigorous set of procedures to protect our team and the community. Our Phase 2 drilling program at the SFdLA breccia pipe will test below and along-strike from the high-grade intersections returned in our 2019 Phase 1 drill program, which only tested the top 150m of the breccias pipe. In addition, we will drill test four other breccias pipes identified during our summer field program that returned significant rock chip assay results. With our raising of $9.7M earlier in the year we now have a strong balance sheet to support the exploration and development of our projects."
About the San Francisco Project, San Juan, Argentina
The 3404 ha San Francisco project is located in San Juan, Argentina. The project area contains more than 60 tourmaline breccia occurrences, several of which have supported small-scale mining. The Company is focused on mapping and sampling the breccias, and drill testing prioritized targets.
Work Program
The summer field program at San Francisco extended geological mapping, portable XRF analysis and geochemical sampling (rock chips and soils) over the entire Project area. High-priority breccia targets defined by this first-pass sampling were subject to detailed mapping and channel sampling leading to the selection of drill targets for the pending drill program. The company is also consolidating our regional holdings as San Francisco is located within an 80 km long gold-copper mineralised belt.
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical data contained in this news release pertaining to the San Francisco and Turmalina projects has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Rohan Wolfe, Chief Executive Officer, MAIG, who serves as the Qualified Person (QP) under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.
On Behalf of the Company,
Dr. Rohan Wolfe, Chief Executive Officer and Director.
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +976 9999 6994
Website: turmalinametals.com
Address: #488 - 1090 West Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6E 3V7.
Statements
About Turmalina Metals and the San Francisco Project: Turmalina Metals is a TSXV-listed exploration company focused on developing our portfolio of high grade gold-copper-silver projects in South America. Our focus is on tourmaline breccias, a deposit style overlooked by many explorers. Turmalina Metals is led by a team responsible for multiple gold-copper-silver discoveries who are highly experienced in this deposit style. Our projects are characterised by open high-grade mineralisation on established mining licenses that present compelling drill targets. The principle project held by Turmalina is the San Francisco project in San Juan, Argentina. For further information on the San Francisco Project, refer to the technical report entitled "NI43-101 Technical Report San Francisco Copper Gold Project, San Juan Province, Argentina" dated November 17, 2019 under the Corporation's profile at www.sedar.com.
Forward Looking Statement: This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of such statements under applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "anticipates", "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed", "positioned" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks (including those risk factors identified in the Corporation's prospectus dated November 21, 2019) and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Corporation is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.
There is no assurance when the government-imposed measures related to COVID-19 in Argentina will be lifted. There is uncertainty over the form and duration of government measures and multiple policy changes may occur with regards to these measures over time. The Company may not provide updates on various government measures and changes to these measures as they occur.
SOURCE Turmalina Metals Corp.
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