Fredonia Mining Inc. Receives Environmental Permit and Begins 6,000 Metre Drilling Program at its El Dorado-Monserrat Gold Project
Fredonia Mining Inc. Receives Environmental Permit and Begins 6,000 Metre
Drilling Program at its El Dorado-Monserrat Gold Project
TORONTO, Ontario, October 12, 2021 – Fredonia Mining Inc . (“Fredonia” or the “Company”)
(TSXV:FRED) is pleased to announce that it has obtained an Environmental Permit to complete
its planned initial 6,000 metre drilling program at its El Dorado Monserrat gold project (“EDM”)
in Santa Cruz, Argentina.
Estanislao Auriemma, CEO and Director of Fredonia M ining commented, “We are very pleased
to be able to rehab the roads and the camp, while we obtained the environmental permit on
time to begin our 6,000 m drilling program last week”.
Fredonia rehabilitated the camp and roads while working with the authorities towards
permitting. Drilling commenced at Monserrat Oeste on October 6, 2021, and the Company will
continue to work towards having initial results during Q4 2021.
An initial 13 drill holes are planned to depths of up to 320 metres as detailed below in Table 1
and Figures 1 and 2.
PROPOSED
HOLE ID TARGET EASTING NORTHING ELEVATION AZIMUTH DIP EOH
P9 Monserrat Oeste 2528490 4638590 220 270 -55 320
P10 Monserrat Oeste 2528500 4638800 235 270 -55 320
P11 Monserrat Oeste 2528460 4638950 246 270 -60 300
P4 Monserrat Oeste 2528484 4638163 218 270 -55 315
P3 Monserrat Oeste 2528458 4638065 214 270 -50 295
P1 Monserrat Oeste 2528360 4637890 210 270 -50 245
PP1 La Herradura 2532503 4632914 193 188 -60 280
PP2 La Herradura 2532451 4633064 178 188 -60 330
PP3 La Herradura 2532232 4632991 189 188 -60 250
PP4 La Herradura 2532054 4633071 188 188 -70 320
PP5 La Herradura 2531733 4633000 179 188 -60 250
PP6 La Herradura 2531478 4632909 168 188 -60 250
PP7 La Herradura 2531347 4632939 186 188 -60 250
3725
Table 1 initial proposed holes at Monserrat Oeste and La Herradura.
Figure 1. Monserrat Oeste, historic (black) and proposed holes
Figure 2. La Herradura, historic (black) and proposed holes.
The drilling at both project areas is design ed to increase potential by demonstrating depth and
along strike continuity. A second tranche of drilling once results are received will focus on further
expanding the extent of the known mineralisation as well as scout drilling on other adjacent
prospects and increasing confidence in the ‘in-house-resource’ defined at Main Veins.
El Dorado-Monserrat (‘EDM’) Project
The EDM property is located in an area of low rolling hills in the Deseado Massif of Santa Cruz
Province, close to a number of known mines and prospects. Santa Cruz Province is part of the
region of Patagonia which has the Andes Mountains to the west and the Atlantic coast to the
east. In general, the area is very sparsely populated, and a large proportion of employment is in
sheep farming which is managed from widely scattered ‘estan cias’. However, in 2011 sheep
farming was the second ranking economic activity in this area, as oil, gas and mining (coal and
gold) overtook agriculture, giving Santa Cruz the highest GDP per capita in Argentina.
The nearest major centres to the Fredonia licences are Puerto Deseado (population 10,000),
Puerto San Julian (population 6,000) and Comodoro Rivadavia (population 140,000). Rio Gallegos
(population 79,000), the capital of Santa Cruz Province, lies to the south of the project areas. The
major centres can provide basic goods and services, and the national power grid serves these
centres. Comodoro Rivadavia and Rio Gallegos are serviced with national airports. A well-
maintained concrete airstrip is located at Puerto Deseado, serviced via small to mid -size charter
aircraft. Workers are readily available from the surrounding area.
The Deseado Massif is a large tectonic block in Santa Cruz Province. During the Jurassic and
Cretaceous Periods, widespread volcanic activity included the outpouring of rhyolitic ignimbrites
and deposition of sediments which together form the Bahia Laura Group. This Group includes the
Chon Aike, La Matilde Formations, overlying the Bajo Pobre Formation. Hydrothermal systems
associated with the Chon Aike (and Bajo Pobre) volcanism produced important epithermal AuAg
vein deposits in the Deseado Massif. Since 1976, the San Jose, Cerro Negro, Mina Martha,
Manantial Espejo, Cerro Moro, Cerro Vanguardia and other deposits have been discovered.
Epithermal veins are the most common ore deposits. Vein systems can be followed for
kilometres, often with a north-westerly trend as at Cerro Vanguardia and Cerro Moro. The quartz
veins may be brecciated and contain limonitic and manganiferous veining and breccia fill. Barite,
adularia, and haematite may occur in the quartz veins. The quartz veining may be associated with
rhyolitic domes that are the source of the mineralising fluids and provide structural loci for their
deposition.
Extensive low sulphidation epithermal vein style mineralisation, including a significant north -
south trending system termed the Main Vein zone, was initially discovered in the early 1980s on
the EDM Property during a survey conducted by Government geologists for barite. The Main Vein
and Abanico areas extend in a north- south direction and carry significant gold and silver values,
their total strike length, from trench intercepts in the south-southwest to drill hole intercepts in
the north-northeast, is approximately 2.8 km and mineralised zones vary in thickness from le ss
than 1 m to over 10 m. The veins occupy a north striking, sinistral shear zone. In the south, the
system swells to around 1 km in width, hosted by andesitic Bajo Pobre Formation rocks. The Main
Veins area was the focus of a NI-43101 Exploration Target report in 2018 and updated in 2021.
The Monserrat Oeste area is located 2 km west of the Main Vein zone in a northwest oriented
dilational corridor. At surface, a silica cap, secondary oxidation, leaching, breccia and residual
quartz textures are reported by Fredonia. Surface mapping by previous owners Samco Gold and
drilling data from Aur Resources indicates that Monserrat Oeste is located within the Chon Aike
Formation, while drilling data suggests that mineralised zones are related to veining and
brecciation and have a north to north-northeast trend, dipping 55 to 75° to the east. Mineralised
zones are characterised by argilisation and intense silicification with dense veins of quartz, barite,
pyrite, limonite, haematite and clays.
Reinterpretation of the available data suggests that the Monserrat Oeste prospect is analogous
to the Cerro Negro model of a buried epithermal system.
La Herradura and Beethoven, in the south of the Project area, are considered to be part of the
same system, located close to a volcanic centre.
Mineralisation at the La Herradura prospect is hosted by veins and veinlets of massive quartz
with iron oxide staining. Hydrothermal breccias composed of sub- angluar clasts up to 1 cm are
also present. Fredonia reports that the veins hav e an azimuth of around 300° and a dip of 65 to
75° to the northeast. It is reported that average vein lengths are 120 to 250 m, with thicknesses
from 0.15 to 0.5 m. Depths of mineralised zones at La Herradura vary from surface to around
220 m below surface. The footprint of the main mineralised area is approximately 480 m in length
and 70 to 130 m wide, though mapping indicates the structure continues to 1400m and remains
open.
Other prospect areas in the Property include Beethoven, Bajo Pedernal, Monserrat East, Pamela
and Vanina.
Exploration Programme
Fredonia has initiated a comprehensive exploration programme to enable the further assessment
of the potential of the El Dorado -Monserrat Property. Initially improvement to access and re -
establishing the camp at the Monserrat homestead enable d completion of the Environmental
Impact Assessment required before commencement of exploration drilling.
The EDM Project area is considered to contain significant potential and the drilling, trenching and
surface exploration conducted on the prospects by prior operators are adequate to demonstrate
the overall potential of the property.
The exploration programme planned includes mapping, surface sampling, trenching and
geophysics. However, the near term emphasise of future exploration will be drill focussed at both
Monserrat Oeste and La Herradura. Additional drilling as well as resamplin g of historic drill core
will be required to fully assess the potential and to enable the reporting of a Mineral Resource
for the Main Vein area. Outside the three primary prospect areas: Main Vein Monserrat Oeste
and La Herradura, there is also considerable potential for additional mineralised zones to be
identified. Follow-up drilling at Abanico and Bajo Pedernal, initial drilling at Monserrat Este will
enable an improved understanding of the geometry and extent of the mineralised zones in these
areas. Further to this, additional exploration of the Anita, Vanina, Pamela and Juan Luis to the
north of the Main Veins will determine the potential for additional significant mineralised zones.
Technical Information
The technical contents of this press release have been reviewed and approved by Marc J. Sale
FAustIMM MAIG, a qualified person pursuant to National Instrument 43 -101 (“NI 43-101”). Mr.
Sale is qualified as a geologist with a technical background in mineral exploration, including
specifically gold and silver deposits.
ACA Howe’s Senior Associate Geologist, Marc J. Sale (QP), was onsite for several days during
Fredonia’s drilling in March 2018.
This press release is intended for distribution in Canada only and is not intended for distribution
to United States newswire services or dissemination in the United States. The securities being
issued have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933,
as amended, or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States
or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent U.S. registration or an applicable
exemption from the U.S. registration requirements. This release does not constitute an offer for
sale of securities in the United States.
About Fredonia
Fredonia, incorporated under the laws of the British Virgin Islands, directly or indirectly, owns
100% interest in certain license areas (totaling approximately 18,300 ha.) (collectively, th e
“Project”), all within the Deseado Massif geological region in the Province of Santa Cruz,
Argentina, including the following principal areas: El Aguila, approx. 9,100ha, Petrificados,
approx. 3,000ha, and the flagship, advanced El Dorado -Monserrat (“EDM ”) covering approx.
6,200ha located close to Anglo Gold Ashanti’s Cerro Vanguardia mine, subject to a 1.5% net
smelter return royalty on the EDM project, 0.5% net profits interest on Winki II, El Aguila I, El
Aguila II and Petrificados.
For further information: Please visit the Company website www.fredoniamanagement.com or
contact: Carlos Espinosa, Chief Financial Officer, Direct: +1 -647-401-9292, Email: