Brigadier Options Gold-Silver Picachos Property, Including Past Producing San Agustin High Grade Gold Mine, Sinaloa Mexico

July 07, 2020 12:05 AM EDT | Source: Brigadier Gold Limited

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 7, 2020) - Brigadier Gold Limited (TSXV: BRG) (the "Company" or "Brigadier") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding letter of intent ("LOI") for an option to acquire a 100% interest in the 3,954 hectare Picachos Gold-Silver Property ("Picachos"), centered over the historic "Viva Zapata" National Mineral Reserve, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Project Highlights:

  • Located in the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) Baluarte watershed, between the Panuco Project of Vizsla Resources and the Plomosas Project of GR Silver Mining.
  • San Agustin Mine underground channel sampling by prior operator returned average grade of 81.22 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) and 73.36 g/t silver (Ag) across 1.2 metres (Thunderbird Projects news release dated 18 June 1997). Values of 185 g/t Au were cut across the bottom of a production shaft (sample HBM-73175). The San Agustin vein has never been tested with diamond drilling.
  • More than 160 known historic underground mines, workings and prospects at Picachos are on gold-rich veins.
  • Recently identified, large copper porphyry prospect in northern area of Picachos.
  • Drill / exploration permits in place as well as recently renewed surface access agreement with local community.

Ranjeet Sundher, CEO, remarks "Picachos marks an important acquisition for Brigadier, positioning the Company in a prolific gold and silver region of Mexico. Picachos is road accessible and demonstrates exceptional potential for advancement. Over 160 underexplored historic mines and workings throughout Picachos provide excellent potential for discovery of new gold-silver mineralized zones. Picachos benefits from a comprehensive historical exploration data library, allowing for the immediate commencement of exploration and an inaugural drill program. We're looking forward to getting boots on the ground and drills turning."

Picachos, held by Minera Camargo S.A. de C.V. (Minera Camargo), is comprised of four mining concessions covering an area of 3,954 hectares and is situated in the municipality of El Rosario, in the southeastern region of Sinaloa state, Mexico. Prior to 2002, the mineral tenure was fractured by several small concessions. Minera Camargo acquired a contiguous land package between 2003 and 2012. Geographically, the Picachos overlaps part of the western foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO). Access to Picachos from Mazatlan is by state highway and paved road to the town of Cacalotan, and then by dirt road into the Property. Total driving distance is approximately 111 road kilometres (km) over a period of four hours. Mine workings are accessed by approximately 20 km of roads internal to the Property.

Picachos overlaps (i) two regional-scale precious metal rich vein systems and (ii) a large porphyry copper prospect. Historic metal production is from the veins. The largest vein system trends northeasterly for seven kilometers along a major fault zone, and host the past-producing San Agustin underground mine. It appears to be cross-cut and disrupted by several northwesterly trending veins including El Placer. The El Placer vein system has been mapped over a 4 km long strike length. The portion that belongs to Minera Camargo is about 1.5 km long in the southeastern part of Picachos.

Regional geochemical work by the SGM at the turn of the millennium highlighted the historic Viva Zapata Mineral Reserve as one of the largest contiguous, and highest amplitude anomalies for gold, silver and base metals in southern Sinaloa and northern Nayarit.

Specifically, all seventeen drainage basins that underlie Picachos contain anomalous copper values of 49 to 299 ppm, nine basins contain anomalous gold values of 0.1 to 2.6 ppm, 3 basins contain anomalous molybdenum values of 3.2 to 13.9 ppm, fifteen basins contain anomalous lead values ranging from 53 to 639 ppm lead and eight basins contain anomalous zinc values that range between 233 and 1716 ppm. Nine of the seventeen basins contain detectable silver ranging from 1 to 1.9 ppm.

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Map showing the location of the Picachos Property, San Agustin Gold Mine, La Cocolmeca and El Placer regional gold-bearing regional structures and the sericitic alteration boundary. Stream basins sampled by the Servicio Geologico Mexicano are coloured according to gold concentration.

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The historic San Agustin gold mine contains approximately 670 m of historic underground development.

In the mid-1990's, previous owner Minas de Picacho S.A. de C.V. built 225 m of cross-cuts large enough for rubber-tired diesel equipment and started mining and milling ore from the San Agustin Gold Mine. Their underground sampling implied an average grade of 81.2 g/t Au and 73 g/t Ag across 1.2 m (Thunderbird Projects News Release dated 18 June 1997). The historic assays cannot be verified as those sample locations are now mined out.

In June of 2014, Vane Minerals test mined three rounds from the south face. The average assay values of muck piles from each of these three rounds were 15.8 g/t Au and 63 g/t Ag across a mined width of 2.5 m.

The San Agustin Gold Mine exploits a gold-rich shear zone hosted in basaltic andesite that may be as old as Jurassic. Mineralization consists of sulfide in a quartz-calcite gangue. It is heavily oxidized even as deep as 100 m below surface. The shear zone trends northeasterly and dips steeply northwesterly. On surface, quartz veining occurs in a foliated zone that is poorly exposed over a 400 m strike length. Extraction adits intercept the vein at 695 m elevation, 670 m elevation and 646 m elevation. Within the lowermost adit, some slots are mined as deep as 45 meters (601 m elevation).

No diamond drilling has ever been done on the San Agustin Vein.

Geology and Mineralization

Picachos is underlain by Jurassic to Oligocene volcanic and sedimentary strata that are intruded by Early Cretaceous gabbro, Late Cretaceous quartz monzonite, a Paleocene granodiorite/granite intrusive complex and Oligocene rhyolitic domes. Porphyry-style stockwork mineralization is related the Paleocene intrusive complex. Chalcopyrite and molybdenite occur in quartz veinlets with biotitic selvedges and muscovitic vein envelopes. Sericitic alteration typical of the upper parts of porphyry systems has been identified by surface sampling over an area approximately 6 km in diameter as shown on the map. Gold mainly occurs with base metals in veins that outcrops at higher elevations both southeast and northeast of the porphyry system. The veins in the Colcomeca structure locally show evidence of ductile shear, and might best be classified as orogenic. Northwesterly trending veins such as El Placer contain stilpnomelane (iron-rich biotite) in vein selvedges that must have crystallized at temperatures well-above epithermal ranges.

Acquisition Terms

To acquire a 100% interest in 4 contiguous mineral claims comprising the Picachos Property, Brigadier will provide staged consideration to Minera Camargo over a 5-year period consisting of cash payments totalling US$275,000; share issuances totaling 4,000,000 common shares of Brigadier; and cumulative exploration expenditures of US$3,850,000. Brigadier will also make payments to Minera Camargo for Picachos development milestones as to: i) 1,000,000 common shares of Brigadier upon delineating a mineral resource estimate containing a minimum of 350,000 ounces of gold in the inferred category (based on the then current CIM definitions); ii) US$725,000 and 1,000,000 common shares of Brigadier upon completion of a feasibility study recommending the construction of a mine on the Property; and iii) US$2,000,000 upon commencement of commercial production. Brigadier may, at its option, issue common shares in lieu of one half of the cash payments to be made pursuant to each of ii) and iii). A 2% NSR will be retained by Minera Camargo.

Minera Camargo is at arm's length to Brigadier.

The acquisition is subject to a number of conditions precedent, including: completion of confirmatory due diligence by Brigadier, receipt of all applicable regulatory, shareholder and third-party approvals, including approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange")

Subject to approval of the Exchange, a finder's fee will be paid in connection with the transaction.

The Company has not undertaken any independent investigation of the historical information contained in this press release nor has it independently analyzed the results of the previous exploration work in order to verify the accuracy of the information. The Company believes that the historical results and other information contained in this press release are relevant to continuing exploration on the Property.

Qualified Person

Technical information in this New Release has been reviewed by Michelle Robinson, MASc., P.Eng., a Qualified Person as defined by NI-43-101.

Sample HBM-73175 was collected from a homogenous pile of mine muck taken from the bottom of JJV Slot in the San Agustin mine at the 601 m elevation by a geologist working for Hudbay Minerals in 2013. The geologist sent this sample with his other samples to Acme's preparation laboratory in Guadalajara, Jalisco. There, the samples were crushed and split. A one kg split of each sample was pulverized to -200 mesh (R200-1000) with an extra wash with glass between each sample (code XWSH). The prepared pulps were sent to the North Vancouver lab for analysis using ICP-MS methods (code 1DX), whole-rock analyses (code 4A-4B) and fire assay methods using a gravimetric finish (code Group 6Gr). It is the QP's opinion that the result of HBM-73175 is reliable.

Regional geochemical samples were collected from sediments deposited in active stream channels by personnel working for the Servicio Geologico Mexicano (SGM) using a plastic scoop then sieving the sediment to -80 mesh into a numbered sample envelope. Sample locations were recorded with a hand-held GPS. The samples were sent to Government laboratories in either Chihuahua or Oaxaca where a 1-gram portion of the pulp was dissolved in aqua regia and analyzed for 32 elements using ICP methods. Gold was analyzed using fire-assay methods with an AA finish. Detection limits (DL) for gold are 1 ppb. Silver DL is 0.8 ppm, molybdenum DL is 0.9 ppm, lead, zinc, and copper DL is 2 ppm. It is the author's opinion that the analytical data of the SGM is of good quality, but that gold concentrations can be under-estimated due to sampling surficial stream sediments with a plastic scoop when more representative results can be better obtained by digging into natural sediment traps using heavy tools. Further, use of the -80-mesh fraction might result in a larger nugget effect than using a finer fraction (say -200 mesh).

Samples by Vane Minerals in 2014 were taken for determining if the grade of muckpiles was adequate for milling. They collected about 2 kilograms of sample from several handfuls of muck from different areas of each pile. Their samples were assayed at their fire-assay laboratory in Acaponeta. It is the QP's opinion that these assays are reliable.

About Brigadier Gold

Brigadier Gold Limited was formed to leverage what we believe will be the next major bull market in the natural resource sector, particularly precious metals. Our mandate is to acquire undervalued and overlooked projects with demonstrable potential for advancement.

Led by a management team with decades of experience in mineral exploration and capital markets development, we are focused on advanced exploration opportunities in politically stable jurisdictions.

For further information, please contact:

Brigadier Gold Limited
www.brigadiergold.ca
Ranjeet Sundher, Chief Executive Officer
(604) 377-0403
corporate@brigadiergold.ca

Reader Advisory

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