GOLDEN, CO – /BUSINESS WIRE/ – March 3, 2022 – Golden Minerals Company (“Golden Minerals”, “Golden” or the “Company”) (NYSE-A: AUMN and TSX: AUMN) is pleased to report results from the final seven holes of its recently completed 21-hole drill program at the Yoquivo gold-silver project in northwest Chihuahua state, Mexico. Highlights from the drilling include:
- 2.6m @ 7.14 g/t Au and 2,058 g/t Ag
- 2.1m @ 1.26 g/t Au and 169 g/t Ag
- 1.4m @ 0.26 g/t Au and 149 g/t Ag
The drill program was comprised of 21 holes totaling 3,949m and explored the Pertenencia, Esperanza and Dolar vein systems. Drill holes were designed to follow up on the high-grade zones intersected by the Company’s 2020 drill program and to explore additional veins to identify new high-grade zones. The Company reported previous results from this drilling program on January 27, 2022 [link] and February 16, 2022 [link]. These results cover the final seven holes drilled during the 2021 exploration season.
Significant results and drill-hole locations are summarized in the tables below, with complete results available on the Company website. [link]
Coordinates are in WGS84 datum, zone 12N
Drill hole YQ_021_016 was drilled to explore the southern continuation of the high-grade mineralization intersected by hole YQ_021_006 (6.2m grading 17.19 g/t Au and 2,403.5 g/t Ag (link)), and the drill hole intercepted a banded quartz-sulphide vein containing significant argentite, galena and pyrite, surrounded by a wide zone of altered and silicified andesites and stockwork veining.
Two drill holes explored the newly identified “Huga” vein which is located between the Pertenencia and San Francisco vein systems. Surface mapping and sampling previously identified a quartz vein along a 500m strike length along what is now the Huga vein that returned good gold and silver values in a 2020 surface exploration program. The drill holes intersected a number of quartz breccia veins that contained anomalous silver and gold values, with the best intercept returning 1.4m @ 0.26 g/t Au and 149 g/t Ag.
The Company has also recovered drill core from a 2007 program completed by West Timmins Mining in which West Timmins Mining drilled 2,470.75m in 8 holes. Golden Minerals’ geologists are currently relogging and resampling the drill core and will incorporate this data into the Golden Minerals database.
The Company has recently submitted an application to the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) for a 50-hole, 10,000m drill program to allow the Company to continue to drill at Yoquivo, with the aim of fully exploring the four major vein systems on the property and discovering additional high-grade, gold-silver zones.
“Yoquivo continues to produce excellent results, with these final holes demonstrating that the Pertenencia vein has the potential to contain significant high-grade, gold-silver mineralization. Our drilling has now extended the Pertenencia vein system by approximately 700 meters to the north and more than 100 meters to the south, and with the discovery of a new mineralized structure, the Huga vein, demonstrates that there is unrealized potential at Yoquivo,” said Warren Rehn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Golden Minerals. “We anticipate restarting exploration at Yoquivo in the coming months.”
About Yoquivo
Golden holds an option to purchase seven concessions that comprise the Yoquivo property, totaling 1,974.8 hectares located in western Chihuahua State in northern Mexico, for payments totaling $0.75 million over four years and subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty on production capped at $2 million. The claims cover an underexplored epithermal precious metals district that shows similar mineralization to the adjacent Ocampo mining district, and the Company, through systematic exploration, hopes to identify significant high-grade mineralization.
Review by Qualified Person and Quality Control
The technical contents of this press release have been reviewed by Matthew Booth, a Qualified Person for the purposes of NI 43-101. Mr. Booth has over 18 years of mineral exploration experience and is a Qualified Person member of the American Institute of Professional Geologists (CPG 12044).
To ensure reliable sample results, Golden Minerals uses a quality assurance/quality control program that monitors the chain of custody of samples and includes the insertion of blanks, duplicates, and reference standards in each batch of samples.
Quality Assurance / Quality Control
Diamond drilling was conducted by Eco Drilling México S. de R.L. de C.V with a Cortech CSD 1300G rig. Drill holes were drilled to depths ranging from 102m to 351m and were drilled at azimuths of 140° or 310o and a dip ranging from -45o to -75°. No water was encountered during drilling. Holes were positioned with a hand-held GPS (accuracy +/- 5 meters) and later surveyed with a Differential GPS once the drilling campaign was completed.
Samples of the core were obtained using a diamond saw to cut the core in half, retaining one half for a permanent core record, and the other sent for analysis.
Drill-core samples were shipped to ALS Chemex sample preparation facility in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico for sample preparation and for analysis at the ALS laboratory in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The ALS Chihuahua and North Vancouver facilities are ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 17025 certified. ALS Global in North Vancouver is a facility certified as ISO 9001:2008 and accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 from the Standards Council of Canada.
Samples were crushed to 70% passing 2mm (PREP-31) with a split of up to 250 grams pulverized to 85% passing 75 micrometers (-200 mesh). The sample pulps and crushed splits were transferred internally to ALS Global’s North Vancouver analytical facility for gold and multi-element analysis. Pulps (30 gram split) are submitted for Au analysis by fire assay with atomic absorption finish (Au-AA23) and silver samples were analyzed by atomic absorption (Ag-AA45).
Over-limit Au (>10.0 g/t Au) and Ag (>1500 g/t Ag) samples are analyzed by fire assay with gravimetric finish (Au-GRA22 and Ag-GRA21). Over-limit base metal samples (>10,000 ppm or 1%) are re-analyzed inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry using protocols for higher grade results (ICP-AES) for Cu, Pb and Zn (Cu-OG62, Pb-OG62, Zn-OG62).
In-house quality control samples (blanks, standards, duplicates, preparation duplicates) were inserted into the sample set by Golden Minerals. ALS Global conducts its own internal QA/QC program of blanks, standards and duplicates, and the results were provided with the Company sample certificates. The results of the ALS control samples were reviewed by Golden Minerals and the Company’s QP and evaluated for acceptable tolerances.
All sample and pulp rejects are stored at the Company’s secure warehouse in Velardeña, Durango pending full review of the analytical data, and future selection of pulps for independent third-party check analyses, if required.
About Golden Minerals
Golden Minerals is a growing gold and silver producer based in Golden, Colorado. The Company is primarily focused on producing gold and silver from its Rodeo Mine and advancing its Velardeña Properties in Mexico and, through partner funded exploration, its El Quevar silver property in Argentina, as well as acquiring and advancing selected mining properties in Mexico, Nevada and Argentina.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and applicable Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the potential for the Yoquivo property to host economic grades and the Company’s plans to update the Golden Minerals data base with results from the relogging and resampling of the drill core from the 2007 West Timmins program . These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including changes in interpretations of geological, geostatistical, metallurgical, mining or processing information, and interpretations of the information resulting from exploration, analysis or mining and processing experience. Golden Minerals assumes no obligation to update this information. Additional risks relating to Golden Minerals may be found in the periodic and current reports filed with the SEC by Golden Minerals, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020.
For additional information please visit http://www.goldenminerals.com/ or contact:
Golden Minerals Company
Karen Winkler, Director of Investor Relations
(303) 839-5060
SOURCE: Golden Minerals Company
Original Article: https://www.goldenminerals.com/news/golden-minerals-drills-26m-grading-714-gt-au-and-2058-gt-ag-at-yoquivo
