The Palos Verdes Property

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Location

The Palos Verdes Property is located in the Panuco Copala district, approximately 65 kilometers NE of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, in the Municipality of Concordia and comprises the Palos Verdes concession that covers 22.7707 hectares. Prismo metals acquired an option to earn a 75% interest in the concession from ProDeMin in 2019 and the remaining 25% interest from a Mexican owner in 2021.

The figures below show the location of the Palos Verdes Property in relation to geographic points in the state of Sinaloa.

Palos Verdes Location Map

The Palos Verdes Property location in Sinaloa State, northwestern Mexico.
The Palos Verdes Property is located in west central Sinaloa, about 50 km northeast of Mazatlán.

Oblique aerial view from Google Earth showing the region surrounding the Palos Verdes Property, shown in red. The Palos Verdes Property is located at the slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental near the transition to the coastal plain. Some other mineral deposits in the Rosario district are shown in the upper right corner of the image. Mazatlán is located on the coast in the left foreground of the image.

The Palos Verdes Property consists of the Palos Verdes concession, shown in blue, near the village of Santa Lucia. The concession is surrounded by other concessions controlled by third parties. The new and old highways between Mazatlán and Durango cross the Palos Verdes Property.

Panorama of the Palos Verdes Property.
View of the Palos Verdes Property, looking southwest from the old highway in the northwestern portion of the concession.

Geological Setting and Mineralization

The Palos Verdes vein strikes northeasterly across the concession and is hosted by andesitic volcanic rocks; these rocks are overlain by felsic tuffs to the northeast.

Two main veins have been mapped on the property: the northeasterly trending Palos verdes vein and a northwesterly trending vein and shear zone interpreted from clay alteration and an apparent offset of the Palos Verdes vein.

Alteration and Mineralization

Propylitic alteration with chlorite, epidote and pyrite, is the most widespread alteration on the Palos Verdes Property, affecting the andesite in a regional sense. Argillic alteration is observed in fault zones with the presence of kaolinite and gouge. Strong silicification and bleaching of the rock is restricted to zones near quartz veins, hydrothermal breccia and quartz stockworks. Mineralized structures occur as veins, stockworks, and hydrothermal breccias filling fractures or faults with preferred orientations striking northeasterly and northwesterly. The northeast system is the main mineralized trend and is the orientation of the Palos Verdes vein. The width of the vein is generally 0.20 to 5.0 meters, but sometimes up to 10.0 meters. The mineralized structure outcrops along 650 to 750 meters on the Palos Verdes Property.

The Palos Verdes Vein consists of banded quartz vein material and hydrothermal breccia and is multistage with milky quartz, light gray quartz and sulfide rich material. Breccia fragments consist mostly of angular fragments of strongly silicified andesite. The structure has N60°E strike and dips to the southeast at 78 to 82°, although vein flexures and a possible sigmoid structure are observed. Economic minerals consist of argentiferous galena, possible electrum, gold, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and pyrite. The vein is well exposed in the Palos Verdes adit, an approximately 75 meter long working with a shallow winze about halfway along the tunnel. Sampling carried out at the surface and old workings yield as much as 2 g/ton Au and 116 g/ton Ag in surface exposures and 6.7 g/ton Au and 544 g/ton Ag in old workings. The wall rocks to the main structure commonly host veinlets and stockworks. Sulfide rich bands or discrete veins locally cut the main quartz vein and are locally included as fragments in more massive quartz. Local bladed textures presumably of quartz after tabular calcite are observed.

Geologic map of the area of the Palos Verdes Property from ProDeMin study. The concession that makes up the Palos Verdes Property is indicated by the red outline.

Photo of andesitic rocks.
View of andesitic rocks hosting sulfide-rich vein near the portal of the Palos Verdes adit.
The andesite is dark farther from the structure but becomes bleached adjacent to it.

Photo of the Palos Verdes Vein. Photo of sample the Palos Verdes vein exposed in the road cut of the old highway.

Geologic map of the Palos Verdes adit.
Geologic map of the Palos Verdes adit, from Velo and Torres (2018).

Samples of the Palos Verdes vein showing multistage textures:

Exploration

A total of 3,100 meters of HQ drilling in 18 holes has been completed on the property. Of xx holes that have tested the Palos Verdes vein, all cut well formed vein material. Table xx below shows the highlights for the drill intercepts. To date only about 35% of the 750 meter strike length of the Palos Verdes vein has been tested.

Sample Data for ProDeMin Exploration Program, Palos Verdes Property:

Geologic Maps:

Assay Values for ProDeMin Samples from Palos Verdes.

Drill hole data for ProDeMin drill program, Palos Verdes Property

Drill hole data for ProDeMin drill program, Palos Verdes Property.

The multistage nature of the Palos Verdes vein is evident in the drill results. Sulfide-rich vein intervals are generally higher in grade than intervals with less sulfide content and more quartz (Figs. 36, 37). Wider intercepts of lower grade mineralization generally surround the higher grade intervals.

Assay values for ProDeMin drill hole intercepts from Palos Verdes Property

Assay values for ProDeMin drill hole intercepts from Palos Verdes Property.

A longitudinal projection of the drill hole intercepts shows the portion of the vein where future exploration will be directed to explore for a possible ore shoot.  The sections with drill holes PV-1 and PV-2, section A, and PV-3 and PV-4, section B, are closer together than originally planned due to problems with moving the drill rig during the drill program. Nevertheless, the intercepts indicate that there is potential for developing a mineralized shoot along the vein system with more drilling. The northeaster portion of the vein has not been accessible for drilling under the Companies prior environmental permit, and an updated permit is expected in March, 2023.

Longitudinal projection of the Palos Verdes vein with ProDeMin drill holes projected to a vertical section, showing intercepts and area of possible ore shoot.

Longitudinal projection of the Palos Verdes vein with ProDeMin drill holes projected to a vertical section, showing intercepts and area of possible ore shoot.

Core box 23 from hole PV-02, showing interval from Box 23 46.65 -49.00 meters, containing most of sample 13587, assaying 8.42 g/t Au, 2335.98 g/t Ag, 0.27% Cu, 1.72% Pb and 2.46% Zn over 1.15 m. Photo by ProDeMin staff.

Core box 23 from hole PV-02, showing interval from Box 23 46.65 -49.00 meters, containing most of sample 13587, assaying 8.42 g/t Au, 2335.98 g/t Ag, 0.27% Cu, 1.72% Pb and 2.46% Zn over 1.15 m. Photo by ProDeMin staff.

Core box 19 from hole PV-03, showing interval from 39.25-41.35 meters, containing sample 13410, assaying 12.15 g/t Au, 50 g/t Ag, 0.26% Cu, 0.53% Pb, and 5.01% Zn over 1.1 meters. Photo by ProDeMin staff.

Core box 19 from hole PV-03, showing interval from 39.25-41.35 meters, containing sample 13410, assaying 12.15 g/t Au, 50 g/t Ag, 0.26% Cu, 0.53% Pb, and 5.01% Zn over 1.1 meters. Photo by ProDeMin staff.

Photos from the 2020 Palos Verdes drill program. Drill holes PV-O6 to PV-09 presented:

Photos of vein intercepts from the second hole from the 2022 drilling campaign at Palos Verdes.

Vizsla Strategic Invesment

The company completed a deal with its neighbor in the Panuco district, Vizsla Silver (Vizsla), for Vizsla to make a Strategic Investment in Prismo. Under this agreement, Vizsla made a $2M private placement in the Company consisting of $500,000 in cash and $1.5M in Vizsla stock.

Prismo and Vizsla have formalized the establishment of a joint technical committee which will allow for the pursuit of district-scale exploration of Panuco silver-gold district. The joint technical committee will be comprised of Dr. Craig Gibson, President and CEO of Prismo, Jesus Velador, Vice President Exploration of Vizsla, and Dr. Peter Megaw, C.P.G.

 

Planned Exploration

Prismo anticipate starting the expanded drilling program at Palos Verdes shortly, which will consist of approximately 3,600 meters across ten holes, to be completed in two phases. The new holes will be drilled from Vizsla Silver Corp. (TSXV: VZLA) concessions adjacent to the Palos Verdes concession, targeting the Palos Verdes vein at depth.