Virginia
-
Property Type
LSE Silver Project
Size
74,429 ha
Status
Option Agreement with Silver Sands Resources Corp.
Exploration Stage
Completed a NI 43-101 Resource Estimate report
5,935m Phase I and II programs completed under partnership with Silver Sands
Phase III drill program planned for Q3 2021
Location
- Located in the prolific epithermal province of Santa Cruz, Argentina
- Approx. 100 km south of Newmont’s Cerro Negro Mine
Mirasol discovered the Virginia silver deposit in 2009 following-up a high-priority reconnaissance target identified by its generative team. Mineralization at Virginia consists of high-grade vein/breccia structures most of which outcrop on surface. After drilling at Virginia from 2010 to 2012, Mirasol completed a NI 43-101 Resource Estimate report (amended and filed in 2016) defining seven outcropping bodies of high-grade silver mineralization, constrained[1] within conceptual pits, with an indicated mineral resource of 11.9 million ounces of silver at 310 g/t Ag and a further inferred 3.1 million ounces of silver at 207 g/t Ag.
Mirasol Resources later expanded its claims holdings at the project and in 2018 announced that high-grade silver assays were returned from three new reconnaissance target areas located to the south and southeast of the resource drilling, suggesting that further exploration may identify new veins and expand the size of the Virginia silver district.
Over the 2020/2021 field season, Mirasol completed Phase I and II drilling programs at Virginia, which encompassed 38 drill holes for a total of 5,935m. The drill programs confirmed the potential to identify new well-mineralized structures that were not previously included in the NI 43-101 resource and the potential for new mineralization to be defined in the system at the Ely Central, Ely North, Martina NW and Julia South targets.
Planning is underway for an aggressive Phase III drill program scheduled for late Q3 2021.
OPTION AGREEMENT
On May 21, 2020, Mirasol announced that it signed a definitive agreement with Silver Sands Resources Corp. (Silver Sands) for its Virginia Silver project. Silver Sands has completed two private placements raising almost C$5 million and providing it with ample capital to move the project forward.
Mirasol has granted Golden Opportunity the option to acquire 100% of the Project over 3 years by:
- Making share issuances totalling 19.9% of the shares outstanding of Golden Opportunity at the time of vesting
- Completing US$6 M in exploration expenditures, including a US$1 M firm commitment
Upon completion of the option, Golden Opportunity will have earned a 100% interest in the Project and Mirasol will retain a 3% NSR royalty, of which 1% can be bought back by Silver Sands for US$2 M.
[1] The Qualified Persons responsible for this amended Technical Report were commissioned by Mirasol Resources Ltd. to review all geologic, geochemical, geophysical, surface trenching, diamond drill core sampling and metallurgical recovery data pertaining to the Virginia project for the purpose of completing a Mineral Resource estimate in accordance with the guidelines of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIMM). For calculating conceptual pits, a silver price of US$20 per ounce was used. Sensitivity analyses by the Qualified Persons indicate that the Mineral Resources are not particularly sensitive to operating costs or silver price fluctuations. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
Mirasol first discovered the Virginia silver deposit in 2009, following-up a high-priority reconnaissance target identified by its generative team. Over the next few years, Mirasol defined high-grade, intermediate sulfidation epithermal style mineralization in a series of prominent outcrops of vein-breccia that are associated with a rhyolitic volcanic flow dome field. Rock chip and saw-cut channel sampling over these outcrops defined significant strike lengths of continuously mineralized vein-breccia, with many samples assaying over 1,000 g/t Ag.
From 2010 to 2012, Mirasol completed a series of drill programs at the project, drilling a total of 23,318 m of diamond core in 223 holes, testing the mineralized structures to a maximum depth of 266 m. This work was followed by the filing of an amended NI 43-101 Resource Estimate report in 2016 defining seven outcropping bodies of high-grade silver mineralization, constrained[1] within conceptual pits, with an indicated mineral resource of 11.9 million ounces of silver at 310 g/t Ag and a further inferred 3.1 million ounces of silver at 207 g/t Ag (amended NI 43 -101 technical report filed February 29, 2016).
Later that year, Mirasol reported that preliminary prospecting of new claims identified quartz vein and vein-breccia rock float, scattered along a 2 km trend. With a strong belief in the exploration potential of the Virginia district, Mirasol further expanded its property holdings in 2017 with an extra 27,017 ha of claims to the south of the limit of the previous drilling. In May 2018, high-grade silver assay results were reported from the additional prospecting of three new target areas, suggesting the potential for an unrecognized, shallow soil covered, high-grade mineralization that would expand the potential of the Virginia silver project.
2020/2021 Exploration Program
In late 2020, Mirasol completed the Phase I exploration program at Virginia, under the partnership with Silver Sands, that tested the potential for new high-grade silver zones to expand on the existing NI 43-101 resource. The program comprised a total of 2,831m in 18 diamond drill holes (“DDH”), which was 331m more than originally planned. The results confirmed the potential to identify new well-mineralized structures that do not outcrop on surface and the potential to identify new well-mineralized structures that were not previously included in hte current resource estimate. See news release January 21, 2021 and February 23, 2021 for more details on the drill program.
In May 2021, Mirasol reported on the results from the Phase II drilling program at Virginia, which encompassed 20 drill holes for a total of 3,104m. The program was designed both to follow-up on encouraging Phase I intersections and to test several new prospective zones. This program led to the discovery of a new high-grade zone at Ely Central, where drilling has intersected strong and continuous Ag grades in four drill holes over a 200m strike length. Mineralization remains open to expansion both laterally to the north, south and to depth. Significant intercepts have also been encountered at the Ely North, Martina NW and Julia South targets, confirming that the potential for new mineralization to be defined in this system. See news release May 17, 2021 for more details on the drill program.
Planning is underway for an aggressive Phase III drill program scheduled for late Q3 2021. Mirasol and Silver Sands are planning to drill extensively with the objective of expanding the mineralized footprint and potentially upgrading the resource.
Significant New Targets Defined from Phase I and II Drill Programs:
- Ely Central Target:
A newly emerging 200m open ended strike length of strong Ag mineralization has been discovered at Ely Central and lies within a 580m “gap” left untested from the original drilling at Virginia by Mirasol in 2012. This new zone is currently defined by Phase II holes EC-DDH-003, EC-DDH-004, EC-DDH-005 and hole EC-DDH-001 completed in Phase I.
Ely Central hole EC-DDH-003, collared 80m south of hole EC-DDH-001 (9.25m at 233.54 g/t Ag from 92.75m) intersected a 10m section grading 560 g/t Ag, including 2.87m at 1,578 g/t Ag at a depth of 50m vertically below surface. In addition, hole EC-DDH-004 intercepted a 9.6m interval grading 639 g/t Ag at similar depth and is located 50m to the south of the mineralization encountered in EC-DDH-003. A large, highly prospective, 280m-long untested “gap” in the structure exists to the south of EC-DDH-004. Hole EC-DDH-005 was collared 70m north of EC-DDH-001, and intersected a 10.80m interval grading 625 g/t Ag, including 5.70m at 1,110 g/t Ag. North from EC-DDH-005, a 120m, highly prospective, untested “gap” also remains open along the structure. This “gap” terminates at hole VG-183, drilled by Mirasol in 2012 which intersected 12.8m at 95 g/t Ag. A further 40m north of VG-183, hole VG-164 intersected 3.26m at 199 g/t Ag. These prospective gaps at Ely Central will be priority areas for infill, step-out and deeper drilling during the next campaign at the Virginia project.
It is also encouraging to note that these strongly Ag mineralized drill intersections at Ely Central are hosted in a more subdued gradient array induced polarization (“IP”) chargeability response, as opposed to the typical strong chargeability responses associated with the current resource areas. This weaker IP response may represent the upper levels of the mineralized structure, and potentially help vector to a stronger IP response and mineralization at a greater depth, and below the current 125-150m depth range of the current gradient array IP survey. Furthermore, with significant Ag mineralization now directly associated with these lower-level IP anomalies, additional areas with similar responses throughout the Virginia vein field will be reviewed as they may become higher ranked and valid drill targets to test in subsequent drill campaigns.
- Ely North Target:
Ely North, which currently represents the northern most known extension along the same structure from Ely Central, also returned encouraging intersections of Ag mineralization. Hole EN-DDH-001 was collared 70m north of the Ely North conceptual resource open pit and intersected highly anomalous Ag mineralization within a fault zone between 30-50m downhole. This fault zone hosts repetitive zones of silica hematite matrix breccia with matrix supported quartz clasts with a range of Ag values between 66 and 91 g/t Ag with an overall average of 75 g/t Ag. A narrow select sample, not included in the above average, was sourced from the lower contact of one of these hematite-rich hydrothermal breccias which contained well coliform/crustiform banded epithermal vein clasts and returned an elevated value of 156 g/t Ag over a narrow width of 0.33m. These anomalous Ag grades associated with the mineralized banded quartz clasts in the silica-hematite matrix breccias are regarded as particularly encouraging and are valuable as geochemical vectors to the higher grade zones along and within these structures.
Continuing north from EN-DDH-001 through an untested “gap” of 400m hole EN-DDH-003 encountered a low although anomalous value of 0.6m at 67 g/t Ag from a narrow structure, interpreted not to be part of main structure. Of higher significance, hole EN-DDH-002, located just 70m north of EN-DDH-003, returned 4.0m at 476 g/t Ag including 1.85m at 929 g/t Ag, from silica-hematite hydrothermal breccias, that appear to be from the same mineralized fault zone encountered in hole EN-DDH-001. It may be concluded that EC-DDH-003 did not hit the main structure, whereas EC-DDH-002 did and it is encouraging to see that the Ag values are increasing in the northern most extensions of the Ely North structure. It is also important to note that the structure remains open and untested from this point north.
The structure at Ely North, is characterized by fault zone hosted hydrothermal breccias with mineralized quartz vein fragments, very similar to those present at Ely Central. Both step-out and deeper drilling will be required in this area to test for the higher-grade epithermal vein structures.
- Martina NW Target:
At Martina NW, hole MNW-DDH-001 encountered an encouraging intersect of 5.90m with 190 g/t Ag including 1.52m at 300 g/t Ag and 1m at 212 g/t Ag. This hole indicates that a strong potential for significant Ag mineralization along the Martina trend exists further to the northwest along the same structure that hosts the Martina resource pit 300m to the southeast. Hole MNW-DDH-001 was collared in a 200m untested “gap” along the Martina structure. Previous holes VG-125 lies 55m southeast where drilling encountered 0.5m at 272 g/t Ag. It is encouraging to see the increase in width of the mineralized structure in MNW-DDH-001 as the structure extends to the northwest.
The hosting mineralized structure is the silica matrix hydrothermal breccia, hosting mineralized quartz/silica fragments, suggesting a potential source of the mineralized fragments at a deeper elevation in this structure.
- Julia South Target:
At Julia South, the recent holes from both Phase I and Phase II indicate that a strong potential for significant Ag mineralization along the Julia South structural trend exists further to the south of the current Julia South conceptual resource pit. Recent hole JS-DDH-003, which is located approximately 70m to the SE of the Julia South conceptual resource pit, intersected an encouraging zone of 5.5m at 192 g/t Ag. This could potentially represent a parallel structure to the east of the main Julia South structure, where previously reported Phase I hole JS-DDH-001 intersected 3.9m at 168 g/t Ag. Further drilling will be required to fully understand this structure. Hole JSE-DDH-002, located 310m directly south of the current Julia South conceptual resource pit resource returned an encouraging, although narrow, intersection of 0.7m at 259 g/t Ag hosted in a strongly silicified fault zone with hematitic micro-fractures and silica stockworks. Hole JSE-DDH-003, located 110m west and 60m south of JSE-DDH-002 also returned a narrow but higher grade intersection of 0.4m at 360 g/t Ag. These two intersections may represent separate parallel structures but indicate that the mineralization continues further south. Follow-up drilling will be important to determine the significance of these recent intersections.
[1] The Qualified Persons responsible for this amended Technical Report were commissioned by Mirasol Resources Ltd. to review all geologic, geochemical, geophysical, surface trenching, diamond drill core sampling and metallurgical recovery data pertaining to the Virginia project for the purpose of completing a Mineral Resource estimate in accordance with the guidelines of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIMM). For calculating conceptual pits, a silver price of US$20 per ounce was used. Sensitivity analyses by the Qualified Persons indicate that the Mineral Resources are not particularly sensitive to operating costs or silver price fluctuations. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.-
Virginia Exploration Program Phase I Assay Table
Hole ID From To Interval (m)1 Ag g/t2 Cut-off3 MSE-DDH-001 36 37 1 30.23 30 g/t 68 71 3 36.09 30 g/t 72.6 73 0.4 35.93 30 g/t 74.6 75.6 1 37.7 30 g/t 79.5 113 33.5 198.51 30 g/t Including 83.3 83.8 0.5 92.79 63 g/t and 85.8 103.5 17.7 316.86 63 g/t and 105 109 4 82.37 63 g/t and 111 113 2 65.34 63 g/t 115 130 15 40.91 30 g/t 133 134 1 30.94 30 g/t EC-DDH-001 21.2 21.7 0.5 35.61 30 g/t 92.75 102 9.25 233.54 30 g/t Including 94.55 99.05 4.5 441.71 63 g/t 103 105 2 32.77 30 g/t NE-DDH-001 14 42.75 28.75 51.45 30 g/t Including 15 15.5 0.5 70.2 63 g/t and 17.7 18.7 1 64.28 63 g/t and 27 28 1 63.95 63 g/t and 40 41.1 1.1 250.06 63 g/t and 41.9 42.45 0.55 65.47 63 g/t MG-DDH-001 152 158 6 53.51 30 g/t Including 156 157 1 70.08 63 g/t MR-DDH-001 43.7 44 0.3 32.52 30 g/t JS-DDH-001 71.1 79.6 8.5 123.43 30 g/t Including 71.1 79 7.9 130.41 63 g/t Including 75.1 79 3.9 168.34 150 g/t MSE-DDH-003 39 41 2 40.43 30 g/t 48.95 65 16.05 63.97 30 g/t Including 49.57 54.41 4.84 119.03 63 g/t Including 49.87 50.77 0.9 352.32 150 g/t 62.9 65 2.1 37.39 30 g/t 68.35 70.23 1.88 45.31 30 g/t Including 69.93 70.23 0.3 85.88 63 g/t 78.1 79.74 1.64 35.67 30 g/t 97.3 103 5.7 36.66 30 g/t 105.7 107.2 1.5 33.69 30 g/t JSE-DDH-001 67 68 1 98.82 63 g/t 71.35 75.55 4.2 140.27 63 g/t Including 72.35 72.65 0.3 212.53 150 g/t and 73.65 74.35 0.7 377.45 150 g/t MSE-DDH-002 103.8 104.4 0.6 64.69 30 g/t Including 103.8 104.1 0.3 79.74 63 g/t 118.35 121 2.65 60.1 30 g/t Including 119.15 120 0.85 82.65 63 g/t 128 130.45 2.45 65.73 30 g/t Including 128.5 129.35 0.85 111.03 63 g/t 134 138 4 48.62 30 g/t 141 142.4 1.4 36.39 30 g/t 144.5 145.5 1 30.44 30 g/t 146.45 147.4 0.95 37.78 30 g/t EC-DDH-002 74 77 3 50.14 30 g/t JS-DDH-002 60.05 61 0.95 64.44 30 g/t 90 92.2 2.2 50.12 30 g/t Including 91.2 91.5 0.3 68.59 63 g/t MSW-DDH-001 103.45 104.1 0.65 33.49 30 g/t 107 108.1 1.1 33.61 30 g/t RO-DDH-001 no interval above cut off 30 g/t JC-DDH-001 no interval above cut off 30 g/t JC-DDH-002 no interval above cut off 30 g/t MaJo-DDH-001 no interval above cut off 30 g/t MG-DDH-002 no interval above cut off 30 g/t NE-DDH-002 no interval above cut off 30 g/t Notes:
1 Reported interval length are down hole widths and not true widths.
2 Reported intervals are stated at a cut-off grade of 30 g/t and 63 g/t Ag, but may include up to a maximum of 1m individual section below cut-off grade.
3The higher-grade intervals were selected using the 63 g/t cut-off grade used in the NI 43-101 resource estimate.Virginia Exploration Program Phase II Assay Table
Hole ID From To Interval (m)1 Ag g/t2 Cut-off3 EC-DDH-003 62.32 72.3 9.98 560 63 g/t Including 62.32 63 0.68 273 150 g/t and 64.23 64.64 0.41 170 150 g/t and 65.13 68 2.87 1,578 150 g/t and 70.6 72.3 1.7 301 150 g/t 80.4 84.2 3.8 81 63 g/t EC-DDH-004 60 61 1 66 63 g/t 62.1 69 6.9 71 63 g/t 70.9 80.5 9.6 639 63 g/t Including 71.2 80.5 9.3 657 150 g/t EC-DDH-005 44.7 55.5 10.8 625 63 g/t Including 45 50.7 5.7 1,110 150 g/t and 53.5 54 0.5 171 150 g/t EN-DDH-001 19.23 26.7 7.47 91 63 g/t Including 19.85 20.18 0.33 156 150 g/t 28.3 29.2 0.9 67 63 g/t 31.15 31.7 0.55 66 63 g/t 33.1 37.5 4.4 74 63 g/t 40 44.3 4.3 76 63 g/t 46.5 51 4.5 78 63 g/t EN-DDH-002 52.9 53.45 0.55 82 63 g/t 85.3 89.3 4 476 63 g/t Including 87.15 89 1.85 929 150 g/t 112 113.5 1.5 74 63 g/t 124.6 125 0.4 164 150 g/t EN-DDH-003 92.5 93.1 0.6 67 63 g/t JS-DDH-003 72.7 76.6 3.9 99 63 g/t Including 74.8 75.5 0.7 210 150 g/t 78 83.5 5.5 192 63 g/t Including 79.9 80.2 0.3 229 150 g/t and 80.74 81.3 0.56 230 150 g/t and 81.6 83.2 1.6 372 150 g/t JS-DDH-004 158.9 160.75 1.85 108 63 g/t Including 158.9 159.5 0.6 186 150 g/t JSE-DDH-002 87.73 88.43 0.7 259 63 g/t JSE-DDH-003 73.2 73.8 0.6 76 63 g/t 94.2 94.6 0.4 360 150 g/t MNW-DDH-001 67.6 73.5 5.9 190 63 g/t Including 67.9 68.63 0.73 189 150 g/t and 69 70.52 1.52 300 150 g/t and 71.13 71.63 0.5 160 150 g/t and 72.5 73.5 1 212 150 g/t MNW-DDH-002 83 87 4 86 63 g/t Including 85.13 85.43 0.3 291 150 g/t MNW-DDH-004 92.8 93.4 0.6 77 63 g/t 122.9 123.5 0.6 82 63 g/t 125 126 1 99 63 g/t 129.6 132.7 3.1 73 63 g/t 133.9 134.8 0.9 70 63 g/t MSW-DDH-003 59.7 61.3 1.6 85 63 g/t MG-DDH-003 No interval above cut-off MNW-DDH-003 No interval above cut-off MR-DDH-002 No interval above cut-off MSE-DDH-004 No interval above cut-off MSW-DDH-002 No interval above cut-off NE-DDH-003 No interval above cut-off Notes:
1 Reported interval length are down hole widths and not true widths.
2 Reported intervals are at the stated a cut-off grade of 63 g/t Ag (minimum width of 0.5m) and 150 g/t Ag. Reported intervals may include up to a maximum of 1m individual section below cut-off grade and Ag grades are uncapped.
3 The intervals were selected using the 63 g/t cut-off grade used in the NI 43-101 resource estimate.- March 29, 2016
March 29, 2016
February 20, 2014
