Turmalina Metals Accelerates Drilling at San Francisco Project
Turmalina Metals Corp. (“Turmalina”, or the “Company”; TBX-TSXV, TBXXF-OTCQX) is pleased to announce that it has accelerated drilling at its San Francisco gold-silver-copper project (the “Project”) with the addition of a second drill rig to the ongoing program.
Highlights:
The first drill rig will remain at the San Francisco de Los Andes (‘SFdLA’) breccia.
The second rig will drill one hole at SFdLA before commencing exploration drilling of newly discovered gold-copper-silver mineralised breccia pipes.
Drilling has commenced with a strong cash position and balance sheet.
Over the past month the Turmalina operations team has established a camp, constructed access roads and built multiple drill pads. This process went smoothly and Turmalina commenced drilling three weeks ago at the SFdLA breccia pipe, which was drilled by the Company in 2019.
The second rig, which is now onsite, will drill one hole at SFdLA before being dedicated to testing high-priority exploration targets, with approximately 2000m of drilling planned across four gold-copper mineralized breccia pipes. These new exploration targets were identified during the summer field program, which mapped and sampled the entire 3400 ha project area, leading to the identification and sampling of over 60 breccias.
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. The four breccia pipes to be tested are all larger in mapped extent than the SDdLA breccia pipe.
The first drill rig currently at the SFdLA breccia will remain at the breccia pipe, with approximately 2500 meters of drilling planned at SFdLA to test for extensions to high-grade gold-copper-silver mineralization encountered in the first phase of drilling completed by the Company in 2019. The 2019 drill results included 36.95m @ 6.31 g/t Au, 122 g/t Ag & 0.88% Cu (8.7 g/t AuEq; SFDH-001), 85.30m @ 4.43 g/t Au, 109 g/t Ag & 0.79% Cu (6.6 g/t AuEq; SFDH-002) and 26.75m @ 5.47 g/t Au, 97 g/t Ag & 3.30% Cu (10.6 g/t AuEq, SFDH-004; see Turmalina news release dated December 2, 2019 for full details). The first holes of the current program test 60 to 80 meters below the deepest holes drilled by Turmalina to date. Further holes will then extend this to greater depths as well as test shallower lateral extensions.
Dr. Rohan Wolfe, Chief Executive Officer, states:
“We are pleased to accelerate the drilling program at San Francisco with two rigs now turning at the project. This second rig will test some exciting recently-discovered breccia pipes that are not only larger on surface than the SFdLA pipe but in some cases have returned higher gold, silver and copper rock chip assay results than found on the surface of the SFdLA breccia pipe.
Drilling at the SFdLA breccia is progressing well, with a series of holes that test for vertical and lateral extensions to this high-grade breccia pipe: a breccia that returned some of the highest gold grades ever reported for this style of mineralisation during our 2019 drill program.”
The Project is located in the Argentinian state of San Juan. San Juan authorities responded promptly to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and due to this response the state has only recorded 8 cases of COVID-19 as of the 22nd of June. To further minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission to our team and the community the Company has applied rigorous protocols throughout the program. These procedures 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.
The Company also has granted 2,070,000 incentive share purchase options to technical staff, advisors, management and directors of the company excercisable at a price of $1.30 for a period of 5 years.
On January 15, 2020, the Company has entered into 12 month investor relations agreements with Highland Contact (controlled by Adam Ross), based in Canada. Highland Contact will be paid CAD $7,000 per month and will coordinate all North American investor relations for the company including creation of materials, advertising as well as handling all incoming investor relations communications for a period of twelve months. Adam Ross was granted 150,000 incentive stock options on August 9, 2019 with a term of 5 years and an exercise price of $0.50, for providing corporate finance services to the Company. Highland Contact is a corporate communications firm that assists public and private companies with corporate communication and to develop a capital markets strategy.
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.