TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stroud Resources Ltd. (TSXV-SDR) (“Stroud” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that its drilling permit application is in the final approval stage with the Mexican mining authority for its Santo Domingo Silver Property (the “Property”), located in Hostotipaquillo region of Jalisco, Mexico.
Stroud submitted its drilling permit application in respect of its Santo Domingo Property in mid July when the Mexican government office in Guadalajara re-opened from a COVID-19 shutdown. We have been tracking the progress of the application and are pleased to note it has reached the final post-review stage. We anticipate receiving the drilling permit by the end of this year.
The drilling permit covers 13 drill sites encompassing 50 drill holes across the Property, which incorporates both drilling programs that the Company has planned for early 2021. The first drilling program will use at least three of the sites and is designed to confirm the geological and mineral resource modelling of the Property which Stroud has developed. Our modelling of the Santo Domingo Property had identified additional mineralized zones running parallel to the previously announced mineral resource estimate.
The current planned drilling program will also reach deeper into the ground to sample the silver-rich vein mineralization beyond where Spanish miners were active. It is our expectation that the grades of silver and gold in these zones would be higher as they have never been accessed. The second phase of the drilling program will use the remaining 10 drill sites to expand and in-fill drill the resources in order to produce a new National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) Technical Report and a Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”).
The Company has been readying the camp at Santo Domingo in anticipation of the granting of the drilling permit for the drilling program. We expect to be mobilized within 10 days of receiving the permits.
On November 20, 2017, the Company issued an updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate and Technical Report on the Santo Domingo Property. This report is available online at SEDAR and on the Company’s website.
Highlights from the technical report include:
- Measured and indicated mineral resources increased to 25.74M silver equivalent ounces from 15.05M.
- Inferred mineral resources increased to 13.39M silver equivalent ounces from 10.68M.
- La Rayas vein indicates a mineralized zone that is 35 metres wide by 300 metres deep and over 700 metres along strike.
- Guadalupe vein is typically 15 to 30 metres wide.
- Five additional veins have been identified for future exploration, deeper into the hillside.
The Report confirms Measured and Indicated, and Inferred Mineral Resources as set out in the table below:
A table accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cc723e18-7442-4be2-a4ac-4ec556d24374
Cut-off grade was 45 grams per tonne silver equivalent over a three metre true width and a gold-silver ratio of 72:1 Continuity of mineralization was established by drilling on 50 metre centres, and using a specific gravity of 2.65
The Santo Domingo Property is located in the Hostotipaquillo region of Jalisco, which is steeped in a rich mining history. The Property falls directly along structure at the Santo Domingo Vein system and is representative of a host of old mining operations that are spread throughout the region.
Original workings of the Spanish miners dot the landscape throughout the Hostotipaquillo region, with numerous old workings, tunnels and adits found on the Santo Domingo property. These reach to a depth of 80 - 100 metres as the 16th century Spanish miners were limited by their technology. Investigation of these mine workings confirms how the adits were simply followed to only take the central high-grade ore. Historical reporting from around the region details the nature of the vein exposures. The early reporting suggests that mine cut off grades were in the order of 750 g/t silver and lower grades were simply left behind as the chase for the core materials continued.
Stroud’s exploration of the two main mineralized zones has drilled through many of the workings. These zones; La Rayas and Guadalupe, are a series of banded to breccia style epithermal quartz carbonate vein systems represented with miargyrite, galena, sphalerite, argentite and native silver and gold. La Rayas is 30-35 metres wide and Guadalupe is 15-30 metres wide. Both are parallel structures with greater than a 700-metre strike length and about 300 metre depth.
Stroud has drilled 44 holes on these two mineralized zones, with every hole encountering mineralization. The NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate and Technical Report issued for the Property presented a resource of almost 26 million ounces of silver equivalent in the measured and indicated categories, and over 13 million silver ounces equivalent in the Inferred category. This is a significant silver-gold deposit. The La Rayas and Guadalupe zones are within 150 meters of surface, and every indication suggests open pit capability for mining the ore.
The Property has not been explored very much below 100 metres from surface. A hole of 200 metres drilled by Stroud passed through the La Rayas and Guadalupe zones to encounter a third parallel zone. Further investigation of the old Spanish workings on the property have pointed toward the presence of five additional mineralized zones running parallel to La Rayas and Guadalupe, deeper into the hillside. The Qualifying Technical report summarizes the drilling over the La Rayas and the Guadalupe zones, which are close to surface and were heavily mined by the Spanish miners. The potential of this resource beyond those workings is considerable well beyond the 39 million silver equivalent ounces reported to date.
Stroud management is excited by the new drilling program designed to explore beyond what the Spanish miners were able to reach. The program is designed to confirm the presence of the additional veins and verify the higher grades we anticipate are there.
Dr. Derek McBride, P. Eng. is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information of this release.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
About Stroud Resources Ltd.
Stroud Resources is a TSXV listed company focused on the exploration and development of its Santo Domingo epithermal silver-gold project in central Mexico.
For more information please visit www.stroudsilver.com or contact Mirsad Jakubovic, Chief Financial Officer, Stroud Resources Ltd., Tel: (416) 888-8731, mirsad@cpamba.ca