Flagship Gold Exploration - Sonora, Mexico
COMMODITY |
Gold and Silver |
DEPOSIT TYPE |
Low Sulphidation Epithermal Au-Ag Rhyolite Flow Dome Complex |
LOCATION |
Sonora, Mexico – 40 km SW of Agua Prieta |
SIZE |
7,739.4 hectares |
STATUS |
Drilling Commenced - February 2021 |
HIGHLIGHTS |
133.7 g/t Au and 335 g/t Ag top rock chip and grab samples |
Overview:
The Cecilia Project is a district scale gold and silver low sulfidation epithermal system centered on multiple mineralized rhyolitic flow-dome complexes. Gold mineralization is concentrated along NW and NE regional structural lineaments with high grades assayed at the intersection of these structures. The project is made up of 3 concessions: Cerro Magallanes, Cecilia 1 and Cecilia 2. One of the workings at the Cerro Magallanes dome returned high grades up to 133.7 g/t Au and 335 g/t Ag. As many as 30 abandoned exploration adits, small underground galleries and surface prospect pits are distributed over the upper slopes of Cerro Magallanes, which are believed to date back to the early decades of the 20th Century. In addition to the rhyolite domes the underlying sedimentary Cabullona group and Paleozoic limestone provide an environment for replacement style mineralization at depth. Carlyle has entered into a 3-year option to acquire 100% of the project from Riverside Resources (TSXV: RRI). Riverside’s current analogues for Cecelia are SSR Mining’s Pitarrilla deposit and Fresnillo’s San Julian deposit, which contain 526 million oz Ag (Measured + Indicated) and over 230 million oz Ag respectively.
The Cecilia Project is located 40 km southwest of the Mexico-U.S.A. border town of Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico. The project is directly accessible by well-maintained dirt road from highway 17.
The Cecilia Project is a district scale gold and silver low sulfidation epithermal system centered on multiple mineralized rhyolitic flow-dome complexes. Gold mineralization is concentrated along NW and NE regional structural lineaments with high grades assayed at the intersection of these structures. The project is made up of 3 concessions: Cerro Magallanes, Cecilia 1 and Cecilia 2. One of the workings at the Cerro Magallanes dome returned high grades up to 133.7 g/t Au and 335 g/t Ag. As many as 30 abandoned exploration adits, small underground galleries and surface prospect pits are distributed over the upper slopes of Cerro Magallanes, which are believed to date back to the early decades of the 20th Century. In addition to the rhyolite domes the underlying sedimentary Cabullona group and Paleozoic limestone provide an environment for replacement style mineralization at depth. Carlyle has entered into a 3-year option to acquire 100% of the project from Riverside Resources (TSXV: RRI). Riverside’s current analogues for Cecelia are SSR Mining’s Pitarrilla deposit and Fresnillo’s San Julian deposit, which contain 526 million oz Ag (Measured + Indicated) and over 230 million oz Ag respectively.
The Cecilia Project is located 40 km southwest of the Mexico-U.S.A. border town of Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico. The project is directly accessible by well-maintained dirt road from highway 17.
Exploration Targets:
Exploration Next Steps:
February 2021; Carlyle has targeting to complete a 1,500-meter drill program to test three gold targets at the Cerro Magallanes Dome that have been defined from a combination of sampling old mine workings, recent prospecting, IP and channel sampling.
- Cerro Magallanes Dome Concession: San Jose, North Breccia, Central Target and East Target
- Cecilia 1 Concession: Casa de Piedra, La Mesa, Medias Rojas, Cruz 1, Cruz 2 and Magallanecito
- Cecilia 2: Further ground exploration needed
Exploration Next Steps:
February 2021; Carlyle has targeting to complete a 1,500-meter drill program to test three gold targets at the Cerro Magallanes Dome that have been defined from a combination of sampling old mine workings, recent prospecting, IP and channel sampling.
Cerro Magallanes Dome Targets:
Cerro Magallanes Dome encompasses four sub-targets: San Jose, North Breccia, Central Target and East Target (Figure 4). Riverside’s extensive work program since 2017 have shown a vertical variation with significant concentration of Ag at the base of the dome along the eastern slope to gold-only enriched at the top of Cerro Magallanes. Three specific elevation: 1,700m, 1,900m and 2,100m comprise most of the high-grade, which suggest multiple mineralizing events within specific structural settings, along dome margin and stratigraphy. This style of mineralization is very similar to the Pitarilla mine in Durango, where large volumes of mineralized rock can be found in addition to high-grade structural bounding margins. This hypothetic target at Cerro Magallanes would be at 300 to 500 meters depth from the top of the dome, evident by the presence the Cabullona sediments outcropping at 1,650 m elevation on the eastern slope.
Cerro Magallanes Dome encompasses four sub-targets: San Jose, North Breccia, Central Target and East Target (Figure 4). Riverside’s extensive work program since 2017 have shown a vertical variation with significant concentration of Ag at the base of the dome along the eastern slope to gold-only enriched at the top of Cerro Magallanes. Three specific elevation: 1,700m, 1,900m and 2,100m comprise most of the high-grade, which suggest multiple mineralizing events within specific structural settings, along dome margin and stratigraphy. This style of mineralization is very similar to the Pitarilla mine in Durango, where large volumes of mineralized rock can be found in addition to high-grade structural bounding margins. This hypothetic target at Cerro Magallanes would be at 300 to 500 meters depth from the top of the dome, evident by the presence the Cabullona sediments outcropping at 1,650 m elevation on the eastern slope.
Figure 4. Cerro Magallanes Dome
- The San Jose target is located at the top of the dome along the primary structural zone bisecting the peak of Cerro Magallanes. There are over half a dozen of old workings here, some of them accessing multiple parallel fault zones carrying gold mineralization of 47 m @ 1.12 g/t Au, 8 m @ 0.91 g/t Au (Cambior, 1995). At surface, Riverside’s assays returned 3.0 and 7.9 g/t Au for a 1.5 m long channel and up to 9 g/t Au rock chip sample. These veins show classic epithermal multigenerational opening and filling textures typical of feeder zones like those at the San Julian Mine in Chihuahua also of the same mid-Tertiary age.
- North Breccia target has an outline of 250 m by 100 m and is marked by multiple zones of hydrothermal brecciation in porphyritic, flow banded and flow breccia rhyolitic rocks with strong hematite-stained silica alteration. Locally, crystallization of quartz and fluorite in open-space as well as veinlets is visible, however the area shows primarily extensive fractures along NW-SE trend with strong hematite and clay-rich gouge material. Since 2017, Riverside Resources collected over 75 rock-chip samples in this area. Twenty-six of these samples returned gold assays ranging from 0.41 to 7.46 g/t Au. CRM and Cambior both drill-tested this area and intersected a 30 m interval of 1.41 g/t starting 4.0 meters downhole (138-95-08). The same portion of mineralization was intersected in hole 139-95-19 and produced an 8-m-long interval that averaged 0.65 g/t Au.
- Central target is located along the same northwestern trend as the North Breccia and returned one sample of 133 g/t Au and 335 g/t Ag in mine dump. There are numerous small underground workings reportedly dating back to the 1940s that extend as a linear feature from the peak of Cerro Magallanes down the slope. Riverside Resources collected 30 samples across the target, which returned between 0.5 and 133.7 g/t Au with values worth noting such as 58 g/t Au and 19 g/t Au with reported respective silver values of 288 g/t Ag and 335 g/t Ag. The Central target was tested by 5 drill holes in 1995. Hole 139-95-17 intersected 42.0 m averaging 0.49 g/t Au with a maximum assay of 3.26 g/t Au. Hole 138-95-9 & -10 intersected 36 m at 0.2 g/t Au and 60 m at 0.2 g/t gold.
Cecilia 1 Targets:
Cecilia 1 concession encompasses a wide range of rocks, from Precambrian granite, to Paleozoic limestone and Cretaceous Cabullona sedimentary group. This succession was strongly affected by major NE and NW structural corridors that created a horst and graben terrain and northwest trending rhyolitic dikes. The six targets, Casa de Piedra, La Mesa, Medias Rojas, Cruz 1, Cruz 2 and Magallanecito are located along the NE and NW regional structures. Soil sampling geochemistry suggests near-boiling zone targets with anomalous gold exceeding 1 g/t (Precipitate Minerals, 2016, unpublished).
Cecilia 1 concession encompasses a wide range of rocks, from Precambrian granite, to Paleozoic limestone and Cretaceous Cabullona sedimentary group. This succession was strongly affected by major NE and NW structural corridors that created a horst and graben terrain and northwest trending rhyolitic dikes. The six targets, Casa de Piedra, La Mesa, Medias Rojas, Cruz 1, Cruz 2 and Magallanecito are located along the NE and NW regional structures. Soil sampling geochemistry suggests near-boiling zone targets with anomalous gold exceeding 1 g/t (Precipitate Minerals, 2016, unpublished).
- The Casa de Piedra and La Mesa targets, both show the same style of mineralization primarily along NE trending faults extending for at least 2 km across the project area. Alteration and veining are visible within the Cabullona group rocks and increases in the limestone unit noted as jasperoid along structures and near rhyolitic dikes (see Figure 5 below). Some of the best results are located at La Mesa target with 2.81 g/t Au along a 2 m channel sample; and 0.907 g/t Au and 0.497 g/t Au at Casa de Piedra1. This area is believed to host a deeper target closer to the boundary of the limestone and the quartzite.
Figure 5. Cecilia 1 - Casa de Piedra
- Medias Rojas is located along a NE trending structural corridor along which a more or less continuous vein/breccia/stockwork zone can be traced for at least 250 m. The corridor is about 20 m wide and comprises 3 to 5 parallel quartz veins with hematization of rare pyrite, sphalerite and galena. Riverside’s best samples returned 12.5 g/t Au in sandstone and 8.5 g/t Au in rhyolitic dike material. Nineteen of the rock chip samples returned over 0.3 g/t Au. The extent of the mineralization along strike has not been established, but recent work suggests that the vein system extends to the northwest onto the Cecilia 2 concession.
- Cruz I and II are located to the north of the Cecilia 1 concession along and near a major northwest trending corridor that extends for at least 4 km. Geochemistry from soil sampling shows anomalous Te, Au, Pb, Zn and Cu, suggesting that Cruz I and II could be located within the base-metal horizon of an epithermal system. In the field, mineralization is associated with veins and stockwork and alteration zones up to 100 m wide with pervasive, widespread sericitic and silica alteration; sulphides are rare but noted in this area. At Cruz I, ten samples were collected with four samples returning 0.1 to 0.5 g/t Au.
- Magallanecito is an additional rhyolitic dome similar to Cerro Magallanes. Results from sampling highlights a high correlation between gold and silver making this target a priority for additional groundwork.
Phase 1 Sampling Program:
The Phase 1 exploration program completed in November 2020 has delivered additional data, which includes:
The Phase 1 exploration program completed in November 2020 has delivered additional data, which includes:
- First results from the initial batch of 21 rock channel samples collected from Cerro Magallanes that returned: 43.2 g/t Au, 5.6 g/t Au and 2.5 g/t Au (see Table 1 below);
- Channel sampling results collected at San Jose Target yielding 48.3 g/t Au over 0.75 m (see Table 2 below);
- Results from soil sampling at the Casa de Piedra target within the sedimentary Cabullona group;
- Results from Aster processing highlighting altered corridors across the district scale property;
- Topographic DEM produced from drone survey
Table 1: Top Four (4) of 21 Gold Assay Results from Current Channel Sampling Program with Riverside
Sample # |
Au (ppm) |
Target |
RRI-6038 |
43.2 |
San Jose |
RRI-6034 |
5.6 |
San Jose |
RRI-6046 |
2.5 |
North Breccia |
RRI-6047 |
1.08 |
North Breccia |
Exploration at Cerro Magallanes Target:
Phase 1 exploration has defined and confirmed extensive high-grade mineralization on surface at the San Jose and North Breccia targets as highlighted in Figure 7 below. Recent sampling returned 43.2 g/t Au and 5.6 g/t Au from part of a more extensive structural corridor for which historical work has defined over 300 m in strike length and 20 m in width. Sampling in 2017 by Riverside from a mine dump area returned samples of 133.7 g/t Au and 58 g/t Au. Current interpretation suggests a potential intersection at depth of the San Jose and North Breccia structures identifying possible bonanza style mineralization
Phase 1 exploration has defined and confirmed extensive high-grade mineralization on surface at the San Jose and North Breccia targets as highlighted in Figure 7 below. Recent sampling returned 43.2 g/t Au and 5.6 g/t Au from part of a more extensive structural corridor for which historical work has defined over 300 m in strike length and 20 m in width. Sampling in 2017 by Riverside from a mine dump area returned samples of 133.7 g/t Au and 58 g/t Au. Current interpretation suggests a potential intersection at depth of the San Jose and North Breccia structures identifying possible bonanza style mineralization
Table 2: Sample results from the November 10th channel sample batch at San Jose target
Sample # |
Au (ppm) |
Target |
Channel Thickness |
Rock Type |
RRI-32975 |
48.3 |
San Jose |
0.75-m channel |
Underground silicified fluidial rhyolite |
RRI-32997 |
0.86 |
San Jose |
1.70-m channel |
Silicified breccia |
RRI-32976 |
0.78 |
San Jose |
0.85-m channel |
Underground silicified breccia |
RRI-32978 |
0.66 |
San Jose |
1.60-m channel |
Silicified breccia |
RRI-32974 |
0.66 |
San Jose |
0.80-m channel |
Underground silicified breccia |
RRI-32998 |
0.56 |
San Jose |
1.25-m channel |
Silicified fluidal rhyolite |
The latest channel samples yielded up to 48.3 g/t Au over 0.75 m at the San Jose Target (see Table 1 above). The 36-sample batch with over 43% of the gold assays higher than 0.2 g/t Au. All samples were collected using a hand saw to ensure continuity and thickness of reported grade-intervals. This most recent batch of samples is from brecciated and silicified rhyolite from underground workings as well as at surface, which collectively form part of the La Cueva structural corridor parallel to the main San Jose fault.
By incorporating surface data and geophysics survey (Magnetic and Induce Polarization), Riverside’s geologists were able to provide a better understanding of the structure for targeting of the mineralization. Hosts and feeder zones of the mineralization throughout the rhyolitic dome is controlled by both northwest and northeast structural corridors. Mapping and sampling have delineated a 600-m long high-grade zone open along trend, called the Agua Prieta structural zone (see Figure 6B below). The trend is notable by its reddish-oxide stained rocks outcropping prominently along the eastern slope of the dome. Intersections between feeders and dome margins, as indicated by the magnetic survey correlate with the Central and North Breccia targets.
By incorporating surface data and geophysics survey (Magnetic and Induce Polarization), Riverside’s geologists were able to provide a better understanding of the structure for targeting of the mineralization. Hosts and feeder zones of the mineralization throughout the rhyolitic dome is controlled by both northwest and northeast structural corridors. Mapping and sampling have delineated a 600-m long high-grade zone open along trend, called the Agua Prieta structural zone (see Figure 6B below). The trend is notable by its reddish-oxide stained rocks outcropping prominently along the eastern slope of the dome. Intersections between feeders and dome margins, as indicated by the magnetic survey correlate with the Central and North Breccia targets.
Figure 6: Maps of the Cerro Magallanes dome including interpretation of the dome margin and simplified structures. Proposed drill holes are subject to adjustments. Figure 1A - 1DV magnetic survey results with the drill plan and Riverside’s rock and channel sampling; Figure 1B - Target interpretation and mineralized feeder system.
Figure 7: Simplified Geological Map Including Recent RRI Channel Sampling
Mineralization at the San Jose target consists of grey quartz, opalescent silica, fluorite and silicification within structural breccia and upper dome shears. The primary structure is oriented northwest along which conjugated structures form sets of northeast and easterly oriented faults. It is interpreted that the primary fluid path for mineralizing fluids follows a northwestern lineament, which allows ore shoot deposition of gold and silver mineralization at fault intersections as well as along dome margins.
The North Breccia, Central and East targets are associated with increases in precious and base metals, showing boiling textures and dissolution of clasts. These indicators make us believe that historical drill holes and recent surface work could define a shallow horizon (upper levels) within an epithermal system.
Exploration at district scale:
New data from soil sampling and Aster processing show a corridor of alteration following northwest and northeastern oriented structures as shown in the figure below. In addition, widespread gold-bearing quartz veins with gold values up to 12.5 g/t Au confirm the presence of fluid migration throughout the property and especially along northeastern structures. The divergence in orientation of the northwestern Cerro Magallanes primary fluid migration path and the northeastern trend outside of the dome could be explained by difference in rheology for which the rhyolite dikes act as an aquiclude in the sedimentary units. This interpretation has helped guide target definition (see Figure 8 below).
The North Breccia, Central and East targets are associated with increases in precious and base metals, showing boiling textures and dissolution of clasts. These indicators make us believe that historical drill holes and recent surface work could define a shallow horizon (upper levels) within an epithermal system.
Exploration at district scale:
New data from soil sampling and Aster processing show a corridor of alteration following northwest and northeastern oriented structures as shown in the figure below. In addition, widespread gold-bearing quartz veins with gold values up to 12.5 g/t Au confirm the presence of fluid migration throughout the property and especially along northeastern structures. The divergence in orientation of the northwestern Cerro Magallanes primary fluid migration path and the northeastern trend outside of the dome could be explained by difference in rheology for which the rhyolite dikes act as an aquiclude in the sedimentary units. This interpretation has helped guide target definition (see Figure 8 below).
Figure 8: District Scale Targeting Refined Using Aster Processing, Soil Sampling and Historical Rock Sampling
Drill Program
Ongoing and upcoming results include:
Ongoing and upcoming results include:
- Drilling preparation, which includes hand-built drill pads for person-portable drilling at the San Jose target, widening and improvement of drill trails/roads, and preparation of the drill camp for the upcoming drill program;
- Drone Aeromagnetic survey underway now with results in the coming weeks;
- Detailed structural mapping at the main dome targets of Cerro Magallanes and mapping of gold veins and silicification zones;
- Conduct an Induced Polarisation survey, which can help to define the depth of potential conductors interpreted to be sulfide zones in the dome system and also tighten targeting of possible ore shoots;
- Results from the next batch of channel samples along the primary targets including at San Jose which will refine the mineralization along strike.
Image: Progressing towards drilling. Drill pad preparation at the Cecilia Project
Property Option Terms:
In July 2020, Carlyle signed an option to purchase agreement with Riverside Resources Inc. (TSXV: RRI) to acquire 100% interest in the Cecilia project by making the following cash payments and share issuances, whereby Carlyle has executed all initial closing deliverables of cash and securities, as well the Company has advanced its year one commitment of $750,000, which is expected to be spent by the end of Q1 2021.
In July 2020, Carlyle signed an option to purchase agreement with Riverside Resources Inc. (TSXV: RRI) to acquire 100% interest in the Cecilia project by making the following cash payments and share issuances, whereby Carlyle has executed all initial closing deliverables of cash and securities, as well the Company has advanced its year one commitment of $750,000, which is expected to be spent by the end of Q1 2021.
Vesting Date |
No. of Special Warrants Vested/Converted |
12 months from Closing |
500,000 |
18 months from Closing |
500,000 |
24 months from Closing |
500,000 |
30 months from Closing |
500,000 |
36 months from Closing |
1,000,000 |
Total: |
3,000,000 |