Turmalina Metals Commences Drilling at the San Francisco Project
Turmalina Metals Corp. (“Turmalina”, or the “Company”; TBX-TSXV, TBXXF-OTCQX) is pleased to announce that it has commenced drilling at its San Francisco gold-silver-copper project (the “Project”).
Highlights:
Drilling has started at the San Francisco de Los Andes (‘SFdLA’) breccia.
The drilling campaign will be 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.
During the past two weeks, the Turmalina operations team has been busy onsite establishing the camp, constructing access roads to drill sites and building drill pads. This process has gone smoothly and Turmalina now is drilling at the SFdLA breccia pipe.
This phase two drill program will be a concurrent blend of drilling at the (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.
Figure 2: Geological map illustrating breccia pipe occurrences with rock chip gold results (ppb). Drilling will focus on extending mineralisation at the San Francisco de Los Andes breccia (SFdLA) as well as testing the Chorrillos, Colorada, Humilde and Solita breccia pipes. The best surface geochemical results returned to date are from the Humilde breccia (i.e. 79 g/t gold, 385 g/t silver and 7.7 % copper), with grades even higher than those found at the surface of the SFdLA breccia pipe.
Figure 1: Cross section through San Francisco de Los Andes breccia pipe, with the results of the Company’s initial 2019 drill program: these drill holes intersected high-grade gold-copper mineralisation in the top 100m of the breccia pipe. Holes A (underway) and B of the current drill program test for extensions to mineralisation ~60 to 80 meters below previous Turmalina drill holes. Later holes will then test for further lateral and vertical extensions.
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 vertical and lateral extensions to high-grade gold-copper-silver mineralization encountered in the first phase of drilling (Figure 1). The remaining 2,000 m will test gold-copper mineralized breccia pipes identified during the summer mapping program (Figure 2).
With drilling now underway Turmalina has also re-started infill rock chip sampling in newly identified gold-copper mineralised breccia pipes, starting at the Humilde breccia, and then continuing at the Solita and Colorada breccias.
Dr. Rohan Wolfe, Chief Executive Officer, states:
“It’s pleasing to be drilling again at our flagship San Francisco project. The next few months promise to be a very busy and exciting time for Turmalina as we test for extensions to high grade gold-copper mineralisation intersected in our initial drilling at the SFdLA breccia pipe, as well as drill testing some exciting newly-identified gold-copper mineralised breccia pipes on the property. Some of these new breccia pipes have returned surface gold and copper grades even higher than those found on the surface of the SFdLA breccia pipe. In conjunction with the drilling program we have restarted detailed sampling and mapping of several high-priority targets and we look forward to keeping the market updated as drilling and fieldwork progresses over the coming months.
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.
Initial Phase Two drilling at the SFdLA targets the projected vertical extension of the breccia approximately 60 to 80 meters below the deepest holes drilled by Turmalina to date (Figure 1). Further holes will then extend this to greater depths as well as test shallower along-strike extensions.
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 (Figure 2). 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.
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.
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 Programs
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: rohan@turmalinametals.com
Mobile: +976 9999 6994
Website: turmalinametals.com
Address: #488 – 1090 West Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6E 3V7.
For Investor Relations enquiries, please contact Bryan Slusarchuk at +1 833 923 3334 (toll free) or via info@turmalinametals.com.
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.