Aztec – Kootenay JV Continues to Intersect Broad, High-Grade Gold Mineralization in Phase 2 RC Drill Program at the Cervantes Project in Sonora, Mexico; Including 1.0 gpt Au over 167.2 metres
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Vancouver, BC V7Y 1G5
Aztec – Kootenay JV Continues to Intersect Broad, High-Grade Gold
Mineralization in Phase 2 RC Drill Program at the Cervantes Project in
Sonora, Mexico; Including 1.0 gpt Au over 167.2 metres
Vancouver, Canada – February 23, 2022 - Aztec Minerals Corp. (AZT: TSX-V, OTCQB: AZZTF) announces
that it continues to intersect broad, high grade, gold mineraliz ation in the 2022 RC drill program at the
California target on the Cervantes property located in Sonora, Mexico. Results for hole CAL22 -004
returned 167.2 metres grading 1.002 gpt Au including 24.4 metres grading 4.247 gpt Au.
The primary focus of the Phase 2 RC drill program at Cervantes is to expand the previously drilled California
zone by completing two drill hole fences parallel to and on either side of the 2017-18 Phase 1 drill hole
fence. To-date, every hole drilled at California has intersected near surface, oxidized gold mineralization
with minor copper oxides.
California Zone Drill Highlights
• 1.002 gpt Au over 167.2 m in mineralized quartz feldspar porphyry, including 24.4 metres of 4.247
gpt Au in CAL22-004, located in the central part of the mineralized zone
• 0.374 gpt Au over 99.1 m in mineralized porphyries and hydrothermal breccias in CAL22 -002
located at the west end of the mineralized zone
• 0.451 gpt Au over 45.7 m in mineralized porphyries in CAL22-003, including 13.7 metres of 0.868
gpt Au located at the south end of the mineralized zone
View drill section here:
Link to section view hole CAL22-002
Link to section view hole CAL22-003
Link to section view hole CAL22-004
Reported lengths are apparent widths, not true widths, and the observed gold mineralization appears to
be widely distributed in disseminations, fractures and veinlets within quartz -feldspar porphyry, feldspar
porphyry stocks and related hydrothermal breccias.
Aztec CEO, Simon Dyakowsk i commented, “The 2022 RC drill program at the California zone, where we
are targeting potential open pit heap leachable gold mineralization, continues to return strong gold grades
over broad widths and has further expanded the gold mineralized zone to the west and south, still open
in all directions including at depth.”
California 2022 RC Drill Program Plan Map
Holes CAL22-002 and 003 intersected extensive gold mineralization, see table below, extending the known
mineralized zone at depth and to the north, west, and CAL22-004 to the south. The RC Phase 2 drilling
program has been completed. It covers an area now measuring approximately 900 metres long by 250 to
500 metres wide, with demonstrated, continuous mineralization up to 265 metres depth vertically. The
porphyry gold-copper mineralization is still open in all directions.
Drill Hole From m To m Interval m* Au gpt Comments
CAL22-001 16.77 77.74 60.97 1.451 230 Az, -60
Including 30.49 45.73 15.24 3.962
86.89 112.8 25.91 0.348
CAL22-002 4.6 103.7 99.1 0.374 225 Az, -60
CAL22-003 45.7 91.5 45.7 0.451 235 Az, -60
Including 60.9 74.7 13.7 0.868
CAL22-004 0 167.2 167.2 1.002 235 AZ, -60
Including 131.1 155.5 24.4 4.247
The Aztec-Kootenay JV has now completed its Phase 2 Reverse circulation (RC) program of 26 holes,
totaling 4,649 metres at the Cervantes Property. Drilling commenced in December 2021. The first four
RC drill holes were completed to test the previously undrilled Purisima East target, where high grade
gold mineralization was sampled in a glory hole along the southern margin of a small felsic intrusion
with coincident geochemical and geophysical anomalies. Preliminary gold assays in these four holes
exhibit anomalous but sub-economic gold grades. The single drill holes at Jasper and California North
found mineralized quartz feldspar porphyry with results pending.
The planned drill testing of the four main targets of the Cervantes phase 2 drilling program is complete.
The primary objectives of the 2021 – 2022 phase 2 exploration program was to better define the open pit,
heap leach gold potential of the porphyry oxide cap at California, evaluate the potential for deeper
copper-gold porphyry sulfide mineralization underlying the oxide cap, test for north and west extensions
of the California mineralization at California North and Jasper, and assess the breccia potential of
Purisima East.
Drill samples cuttings are collected every 5 feet (1.52m) from all drill holes. The samples are analyzed by
Bureau Veritas for gold with a 30-gram sample size using the method FA4 30 followed by MA300. Over
limits, when present, are analyzed by AR404 or FA550. All holes contain certified blanks, standards, and
duplicates as part of the quality control program. The QA/QC has delivered excellent results to date good
data integrity. The samples are shipped to and received by Bureau Veritas Minerals laboratory for the gold
and multielement geochemical analysis and additional gold results will be received and reported in the
next several weeks. Final multielement ICP results are expected to follow the release of the preliminary
gold assays and are expected to be received during the second quarter 2022.
Aztec will now carry out channel sampling and geologic mapping of the new drill roads at California,
California Norte and Jasper, as well as to expand surface sampling and mapping on the property in general
to continue the 2021 phase 1 surface program.
Cervantes Property Highlights
Cervantes is a highly prospective porphyry gold -copper property located in southeastern Sonora state,
Mexico. The project lies 160 km east of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico within the prolific Laramide porphyry
copper belt approximately 265 km southeast of the Cananea porphyry copper-molybdenum mine (Grupo
Mexico). Cervantes also lies along an east-west trending gold belt 60 km west of the Mulatos epithermal
gold mine (Alamos Gold), 35 km northeast of the Osisko Development San Antonio gold mine, 45 km west
of the La India mine (Agnico Eagle), and 40 km northwest of Santana gold deposit (Minera Alamos). View:
Cervantes Project Location Map
• Large well-located property (3,649 hectares) with good infrastructure, road access, local town,
all private land, water wells on property, grid power nearby
• Seven prospective mineralized zones related to high level porphyries and breccias along an
7.0km east-northeast corridor with multiple intersecting northwest structures
• Distinct geophysical anomalies, California target marked by high magnetic and low resi stivity
anomalies, high radiometric and chargeability anomalies responding to pervasive alteration
• Extensive gold mineralization at California zone, 118 soil samples average 0.44 gpt gold over 900
m by 600 m area, trench rock-channel samples up to 0.47 gpt gold over 222m
• Already drilled the first discovery hole at the California zone, intersected gold oxide cap to a
classic gold-copper porphyry deposit, drill results up to 0.77 gpt gold over 160 m
• Excellent gold recoveries from preliminary metallurgical tests on drill core from California zone;
oxide gold recoveries in bottle roll tests range from 75% to 87%
• California geophysical anomaly wide open laterally and at depth, IP chargeability strengthens
and broadens to >500m depth over an area 1100 m by 1200 m
• Three-Dimensional IP Survey conducted in 2019 extends strong chargeability anomalies to the
southwest covering Estrella, Purisima East, and Purisima West, coinciding well with alteration and
Au-Cu-Mo soil geochemical anomalies, all undrilled.
Allen David Heyl , B.Sc., CPG., VP Exploration of Aztec, is the Qualified Person supervised the Cervantes
exploration program. Aztec is conducting reverse circulation drilling at Cervantes and collecting 5 feet
(1.52m) samples for all drill holes. All drill hole sample batches contain certified blanks, standards, and
duplicates as part of the quality control program. Mr. Heyl reviewed and approved the technical
disclosures in this news release.
“Simon Dyakowski”
Simon Dyakowski, Chief Executive Officer
Aztec Minerals Corp.
About Aztec Minerals – Aztec is a mineral exploration company focused on the discovery of large
polymetallic mineral deposits in the Americas. Our core asset is the prospective Cervantes porphyry gold-
copper property in Sonora, Mexico. Aztec also has control of the historic, dis trict-scale Tombstone
properties host both bulk tonnage epithermal gold-silver as well as CRD silver-lead-zinc mineralization in
Cochise County, Arizona. Aztec’s shares trade on the TSX -V stock exchange (symbol AZT) and on the
OTCQB (symbol AZZTF).
Contact Information - For more information, please contact:
Simon Dyakowski, CEO or Bradford Cooke, Chairman
Tel: (604) 619-7469
Fax: (604) 685-9744
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.aztecminerals.com
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for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved
or disapproved the information contained herein.
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