VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 25, 2021 /CNW/ - MANTARO SILVER CORP.
(TSXV: MSLV) (FSE: 9TZ) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that
it has entered into a property option agreement (the "Option
Agreement") with Minera Golden Hill
S.R.L. ("MGH") and Luis Fernando
Kinn Cortez (the "Optionor") to acquire up to an 80%
interest in the advanced Golden Hill Property ("Golden Hill"),
located in the underexplored, orogenic Bolivian Shied, Bolivia. The Golden Hill Property comprises of
one concession totaling 4,468 hectares and offers direct access
through the historic mining town of San Ramon.
Highlights of Golden Hill:
- Underexplored, orogenic gold deposit with over four
kilometers of gold-bearing quartz veins associated with a regional
structure. An additional six kilometers of structure to be
explored.
- Permitted for mining and drilling throughout the concession
with excellent access from nearby town of San Ramon.
- Three high-priority drill ready gold targets at the La
Escarcha, Gaby and Brownfields and additional targets that warrant
further exploration (see Figure 1).
- MGH recently mined gold across 1 to 5 meter wide veins from
the La Escarcha and Gaby Deposits.
- Underground Veins at the La Escarcha are up to 5 meters wide
and contain significant visible gold (see Figure 4).
- MGH have reported that gold grades increase downwards from
surface to the -60 m level which is
currently under limited development.
- Limited drilling across the four kilometers of known
veins. Drilling consisted of only 8 holes totaling 1,620
meters to a maximum depth of 154 meters.
Dr. Chris Wilson, Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of Mantaro states, "Golden Hill is an
advanced stage gold-focused project with significant exploration
upside. A drill ready orogenic gold project in Bolivia is an excellent complement to our
existing high-grade silver assets in Peru. Greenstone hosted gold systems, such as
Golden Hill, are very attractive exploration targets. Not only is
it common for major deposits to occur in clusters, but individual
deposits are defined by multiple high-grade shoots over a strike
length of 1 to >2 kilometers and depths of >1
kilometer."
Golden Hill: Permitted to Drill
The Golden Hill Property is owned by a private Bolivian Company
and is fully permitted for mining and drilling. Prior to the option
agreement with Mantaro, one of the main quartz veins at La Escarcha
was being mined at a rate of up to 25 tonnes per day to a depth of
60 meters. The mined material was processed at site and gold
recovered using a combination of simple gravity circuits. The mine
permit at Golden Hill allows for production to be increased subject
to the Company completing its own economic studies on the project
and to sufficiently fund any upgrades.
Dr. Wilson further comments, "the style of mineralization at
Golden Hill, and its regional structural setting, makes for an
extremely robust exploration target. The fact that Golden Hill is
permitted for mining and mine expansion, and immediate drilling,
underpins the value of Golden Hill as an advanced exploration
property."
Mantaro's acquisition strategy, which was utilized in
Peru, is to pursue high-grade
deposits that have potential at depth. Golden Hill is a
high-grade gold mineralized system of a style that hosts some of
the world's major gold mines. It has been exploited in a
small scale manner to 60 vertical meters with increasing gold grade
at depth over widths of 1 to 5 meters. The underground dataset
significantly de-risks the near surface exploration potential and
drill targeting.
Property Geology
The Golden Hill concession is centered on a broadly north-south
trending regional structure (see Figure 1) that hosts the La
Escarcha underground mine and Gabby, the Garrapatillia and
Brownfields workings and gold-bearing vein occurrences in its
western hanging wall. The same structure hosts numerous saprolite
gold and hard rock gold deposits to the north and south of the
Golden Hill concession over a strike length of at least 25
kilometers — underpinning the significant control the structure
exerts on gold mineralization.
A northwest-trending splay of this structure hosts areas of
alluvial and saprolitic/hard rock workings within the Golden Hill
concession and immediately to the north. At least six strike
kilometers of these structures are known within the concession — in
addition to the four kilometers between La Escarcha and Brownfield
which have been mapped in detail. Known mineralization and surface
anomalism is open along strike on all structures.
Mineralization between La Escarcha and Brownfields is
characterized by a series of broadly parallel, north-south
trending, very steeply dipping quartz veins that are between 1 to 5
meters wide. Mineralization is hosted in mafic metavolcanics, at
the contact of metavolcanics and metasediments, and within
metasediments (see Figure 2).
Veins are well exposed in underground workings at La Escarcha
where they comprise multiphase white quartz and slivers of wall
rock (see Figure 3) which are fracture oxidized. Veins are up to 5
meters wide and contain significant visible gold (see Figure
4).
Mine staff have reported that gold grades increase downwards
from surface to the -60 m level which
is currently under limited development. Most gold appears to be
free hosted in fractures within quartz and pyrite.
Regional Geology
The Bolivian shield is larger than the Abitibi greenstone belt
in Canada, yet the Bolivian shield
has produced <10 Moz Au compared to 170+ Moz Au in the Abitibi from over 100 mines since
1901. Similarly, the gold endowment of the West African shield, the
greenstone belts of NE South
America (Venezuela,
Guyana, Suriname and Brazil) and the Yilgarn province of
Western Australia is much greater
than equivalent areas of the Bolivian shield as the Bolivian shield
remains largely under-explored.
As with other greenstone belts and mineralized provinces
worldwide, mineralization in the Bolivian shield is hosted along
major crustal structures which juxtapose different lithologies
against each other (resulting in competency contracts across the
structure). Regional-scale structures serves to focus mineralizing
fluids, whilst rocks of different competency, provide a regime for
both ductile and brittle deformation and thus creation of space for
deposition of quartz, pyrite and gold. Mafic volcanics are
especially favorable hosts due to the high iron content which
reacts with sulphur in mineralizing fluids to form pyrite — causing
gold to precipitate from the mineralizing fluids. Golden Hill is
located on a crustal scale structure which hosts at least six other
significant gold occurrences and deposits (see Figure 5), at the
juxtaposition of several different lithologies, including
meta-volcanics with abundant iron-rich ferromagnesian minerals.
From a regional perspective and comparison with other greenstone
belts worldwide, Golden Hill is an attractive project.
Planned Work Program
La Escarcha, Gaby and Brownfield are drill ready targets.
Ahead of drilling, Mantaro is planning to channel sample all
underground levels at la Escarcha, in addition to the 200 kilogram
bulk sample that has already been taken for bench-scale
metallurgical testing at SGS Lakefield. This initial program
will assist Mantaro in fine tuning drill targeting. Mantaro
also has the option of continuing development and exploration from
the existing underground workings.
A concession-wide mapping and rock-chip grab sampling program is
planned for early September in order to focus regional soil and
trench sampling programs. Alluvial and saprolite workings are much
more extensive than known hard-rock targets and underground
workings, which suggests that gold mineralization along regional
structures is more extensive than currently known. Defining the
source of this alluvial and saprolitic gold will be an important
focus of Mantaro's field work.
Terms of the Transaction
Under the terms of the Option Agreement, the Company may acquire
up to an 80% interest in the Golden Hill Property by making the
following cash payments, share issuances and incurring the
following exploration expenditures.
- The Company will earn an initial 51% interest in the Golden
Hill Property by:
(a) Paying US $500,000 to the
Optionor as follows: (i) US $25,000
on the effective date, (ii) US $75,000 six weeks after the effective date,
(iii) US $200,000 six months
after the effective date, (iv) US $200,000 twelve months after the effective
date.
(b) Issuing a total of 2,000,000 units of the Company (a "Unit") to
the Optionor as follows: (i) 500,000 Units three months after the
effective date, (ii) 500,000 Units six months after the effective
date and (iii) 1,000,000 Units twelve months after the effective
date. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company
and one-half of one share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"), with each
Warrant exercisable at the Market Price (as defined by the rules of
the TSX Venture Exchange) on the date of issue for a period of two
years from the date of issue;
(c) Incurring US $250,000 in
exploration expenditures on or before the first anniversary of the
effective date.
(the "First Option")
- The Company will earn an additional 19% interest (for a total
of 70% interest) in the Golden Hill Property by:
(a) Paying US $500,000 to the
Optionor on or before the second anniversary of the effective
date;
(b) Issuing 1,500,000 Units to the Optionor on or before the
second anniversary of the effective date; and
(c) Incurring US $250,000 in exploration expenditures on or
before the second anniversary of the effective date.
(the "Second Option")
- The Company will earn an additional 10% interest (for a total
of 80% interest) in the Golden Hill Property by:
(d) Paying US $500,000 to the Optionor on or before the third
anniversary of the effective date;
(e) Issuing 500,000 units to the Optionor on or before the
third anniversary of the effective date; and
(f) Incurring US $1,000,000 in exploration expenditures
on or before the third anniversary of the effective date.
(the "Third Option")
In the event that the Company exercises the First Option or
Second Option but fails to exercise the Third Option, the Company's
interest will be reverted to a 2% Net Smelter Return Royalty, which
may be repurchased at a price of US $1,000,000.
If the Company acquires an 80% interest in the Golden Hill
Property, the Company will grant a 2% Net Smelter Return Royalty to
the Optionor, which may be repurchased at a price of US
$1,000,000.
The Optionor will also be entitled to a discovery of bonus as
follows: (i) US $2 for every ounce of
gold or gold equivalent set out in an indicated or measured
resource estimate up to a maximum of 250,000 ounces (US
$500,000), (ii) an additional US
$4 for every ounce of gold or gold
equivalent set out in an indicated or measured resource estimate
above 250,000 ounces to up 500,000 ounces (an additional payment of
up to US $1,000,000), and (iii) an
additional US $5 for every ounce of
gold or gold equivalent set out in an indicated or measured
resource estimate above 500,000 ounces and up to 1,000,000 ounces
(an additional payment of up to US $2,500,000).
The Option Agreement is subject to acceptance of the TSX Venture
Exchange.
Qualified Person
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed,
verified and approved by Dr. Chris Wilson, B.Sc
(Hons), PhD, FAusIMM (CP), FSEG. Chief Executive Officer and
Director of Mantaro, a qualified person as defined by NI
43-101.
About Mantaro Silver Corp.
Mantaro Silver Corp. is a British
Columbia company that holds a 100% interest in its flagship
Santas Gloria Silver Property as well as a 100% interest in the San
Jose, La Purisima, Cerro Luque and
Huaranay Properties.
Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains
forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the
date of this news release. These statements reflect management's
current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are
not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all
forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual
performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many
of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include,
among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Company's
limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental
and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future
events, conditions and results may differ materially from the
estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or
implied in the forward looking information. Except as required
under applicable securities legislation, the Resulting Issuer
undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise
forward-looking information.
The forward-looking statements contained in this news release
are made as of the date of this news release. Except as
required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no
obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.
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SOURCE Mantaro Silver Corp.
