Aztec - Kootenay Joint Venture Approves 22 hole, 5000 meter RC Drill Program at Cervantes Gold-Copper Project, Sonora, Mexico
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Aztec - Kootenay Joint Venture Approves 22 hole, 5000 meter RC Drill
Program at Cervantes Gold-Copper Project, Sonora, Mexico
Vancouver, Canada November 4, 2021 - Aztec Minerals Corp. (AZT: TSX-V, OTCQB: AZZTF) and Kootenay
Silver Inc. announce the approval of a 22 hole, 5,000 meter reverse circulation (“RC”) drilling program at
the Cervantes porphyry gold -copper property in Sonora, Mexico. Aztec (65%) and Koote nay (35%)
recently formed a 65/35 joint venture (“JV”) and the JV Management Committee met this week to review
and approve the Phase 2 drill program which follows up on the results of the recently completed 2021
Phase 1 exploration program (see news release date August 4, 2021).
The JV plans to commence the 22 hole, 5,000 m reverse circulation program in late November and will
test four main targets. View: Cervantes Proposed Phase 2 RC Drilling Plan
1) At the California target, where Aztec previously discovered extensive porphyry gold -copper
mineralization (drill intercepts up to 0.77 gpt gold over 160m), the JV will drill 14 infill and step-
out holes at a 50m spacing to expand and better define the area of mineralization , followed by
two 500m deep holes to test the depth extent of the strong IP chargeability anomaly
2) At the California North prospect, o ne hole will test the coincident IP chargeability and gold-
copper-molybdenum soil geochemical anomaly
3) At the Jasper prospect, one hole will test the outcropping copper mineralization and copper-
molybdenum soil geochemical anomaly
4) At the Purisima East target, six holes will test the high grade gold mineralization in the Glory Hole
mine working and coincident IP chargeab ility and gold -copper-molybdenum soil geochemical
anomaly within a breccia along the rim of a brecciated QFP porphyry intrusion
The primary objectives of the two phase 2021 exploration program are to better define the open pit, heap
leach gold potential of the porphyry gold 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.
Aztec CEO Simon Dyakowski commented “Success in the upcoming drilling program will help build our
confidence in advancing the project to an initial open pit resource estimate and elevate the profile of the
Cervantes project in a region that has both porphyry copper and heap leach gold production in Mexico.”
Cervantes Project Overview
Cervantes is a highly prospective porphyry gold -copper-molybdenum property located in southeastern
Sonora state, Mexico. The project lies 160 km east of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico within the famous
Laramide porphyry copper belt approximately 265 km southea st 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) , 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 resistivity
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.
California Target
In 2017-18, Aztec completed a Phase 1, 17 diamond core hole drill program, totaling 2,675 meters (m)
(see news release dated June 26, 2018). Phase 1 drilling tested the California target 900m by 600m gold-
in-soils anomaly that averaged 0.44gpt covering hydrothermal breccias within a quartz feldspar porphyry
stock intruding Paleozoic siliciclastic sediments.
The Phase 1 drill program consistently intersected an oxidized gold cap to a porphyry -type gold-copper-
silver system at California, including multiple 100+ meter widths of exceeding 0.40 gpt gold, spanning an
800-meter length and a 200-meter breadth, to a maximum vertical depth of 150 meters. The area tested
by drilling represents only 30% of the surface gold soil anomaly.
Mineralization at the California zone is open in all directions. Highlights of the 2017 -18 Phase 1 drill
program are as follows:
• 160m @ 0.77 gpt gold incl 80m @ 1.04 gpt gold, 0.11% copper in 18CER010
• 139m @ 0.71 gpt gold incl 20m @ 2.10 gpt gold, 0.16% copper in 17CER005
• 118m @ 0.63 gpt gold incl 43m @ 1.18 gpt gold, 0.16% copper in 17CER003
• 122m @ 0.60 gpt gold incl 62m @ 0.88 gpt gold, 0.06% copper in 18CER007
• 170m @ 0.42 gpt gold incl 32m @ 0.87 gpt gold, 0.06% copper in 18CER006
Preliminary metallurgical tests on California drill cor es were conducted in 2019 (see news release dated
March 12, 2019). Drill core samples were grouped into 4 separate types of mineralization: Oxide 1, Oxide
2, Mixed Oxide/Sulfide and Sulfide. The preliminary results of bottle roll tests showed excellent potential
for heap leach gold recovery, as follows:
• 85.1% recovery on 2.0mm material and 94.3% on 75-micron material in sample Oxide 1
• 87.7% recovery on 2.0mm material and 94.2% on 75-micron material in sample Oxide 2
• 77.9% recovery on 2.0mm material and 89.0% on 75-micron material in sample Mixed
Oxide/Sulphide
• 51.2% recovery on 2.0mm material and 78.7% on 75-micron material in sample Sulphide
Additional Targets
Purisima East – outcropping gossans, altered and mineralized diatreme breccias and porphyry intrusions
marked by a 700m by 600m geochemical soil anomaly in 193 samples that average 0.25 gpt gold, a small
historic ‘glory hole’ mine where rock chip sampling returned high-grade mineralization up to 44.6 gpt gold.
Estrella - outcrops of gossan and sulfides in silicified Paleozoic sediments near quartz porphyry dikes with
rock chip samples up to 3.9 gpt gold and 2,010ppm copper.
Purisima West - a mirror image of Purisima East in size and type of gossans, altered and mineralized
breccias and intrusions in association with gold and copper soil anomalies.
Jasper – 2017 trenching returned skarn/replacement -type mineralization up to 0.52% copper and 0.62
gpt gold over a 92.4 m length.
California North – coincident IP chargeability and gold-copper-molybdenum soil geochemical anomalies
may be a north extension of the California target
Other targets – porphyry alteration and geochemical soil anomalies mark the Jacobo and Brasil prospects
but more work is required to expand and define these targets
Allen David Heyl, B.Sc., CPG., VP Exploration, is the Qualified Person who 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. The historic, district -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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