GR Silver Mining Signs Definitive Binding Agreement with Mako to Acquire Marlin Gold Mining Ltd.
GR Silver Mining Signs Definitive Binding
Agreement with Mako to Acquire Marlin Gold
Mining Ltd.
VANCOUVER, BC
,
Feb. 1, 2021
/CNW/ -
GR Silver Mining Ltd.
(TSXV: GRSL) (FRANKFURT:
GPE) (OTCQB: GRSLF)
("GR Silver" or the "Company")
announces that further to its news
releases dated
December 17, 2019
and
December 29, 2020
, the Company and Mako Mining Corp.
("
Mako
" "
MakoMiningCorp
") have now signed a definitive binding Share Purchase Agreement (the
"
Agreement
") pursuant to which the Company will acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding
shares of Marlin Gold Mining Ltd. ("
Marlin
") from Mako. Marlin is a private
British Columbia
company, 100% owned by Mako. Marlin owns, amongst other assets, Oro Gold de
Mexico
, S.A. de
C.V. ("
Oro Gold
"), a Mexican company that owns the
La Trinidad
mine facilities ("
La Trinidad
"),
currently being decommissioned.
Oro Gold
also controls 100% of nine concessions totaling
104,094.5 ha (the "
Properties
") located adjacent to GR Silver's existing portfolio of
properties, hosting a number of known silver gold showings, and porphyry igneous intrusions that are
of strong exploration interest to the Company for future drilling. (Figure 1).
As consideration for all of the issued and outstanding shares of Marlin, GR Silver will pay
CDN$50,000
to Mako and
Oro Gold
will grant Mako a 1% net smelter return ("
NSR
") royalty on the
concessions owned by
Oro Gold
. GR Silver and/or
Oro Gold
will be granted the right to purchase
the NSR at any time upon making a one-time payment of
US$2,000,000
. Mako shall be responsible
for and shall pay all costs related to the Closure Plan Activities at
La Trinidad
and all other matters
that may be required to obtain the Closure Plan Certification. All proceeds from the lawsuit Mako
and
Oro Gold
have filed against their insurers and reinsurers related to damages from Hurricane
Willa will be for the benefit of Mako, and Mako will be responsible for the costs of this litigation.
Oro
Gold
will be liable and obligated to pay all outstanding Mining Duties owed on its concessions and is
in the process of negotiating a reduced amount and a payment plan with the Mexican government,
the details of which will be disclosed once these negotiations are completed. GR Silver and Mako
are now working diligently to satisfy closing conditions in anticipation of closing this transaction by
March 31, 2021
.
Figure
1
- Location Map
- GR Silver Mining Ltd. Portfolio and Potential Acquisition (CNW Group/GR
Silver Mining Ltd.)
GR Silver Mining President and CEO,
Marcio Fonseca
, commented,
"
We are pleased to enter
into the Agreement with Mako for the acquisition of Properties. This acquisition will strengthen our
position in this region and is consistent with our strategy of controlling 100% of what we believe are
the most important silver and gold assets in the Rosario Mining District,
Sinaloa
, Mexico. GR Silver
is the first company to achieve control of all these assets and unlock the opportunity for exploration
potential and discoveries, towards developing the next generation of silver and gold mines. This
acquisition supports our goal of delivering significant shareholder value through new discoveries."
Brief Description of Properties
The history of precious metals exploration in the Properties dates back to local miners discovering
silver and gold early last century in the vicinities and in the La Trinidad Concession, Figure 1. In the
1980's, Anaconda Mining Copper Company completed drilling programs in the La Trinidad
Concession before leaving
Mexico
. Almaden Resources Corp. acquired the La Trinidad Concession
in 1992 and optioned to Eldorado Gold Corporation ("
EGC
") in 1995. EGC, through its Mexican
subsidiary, operated a 1500 tpd open pit heap leaching operation until 1998.
Oro Gold
acquired
100% of the La Trinidad Concession on
December 2005
. Additional exploration concessions were
later staked or acquired near the La Trinidad Concession by
Oro Gold
which completed an
exploration program including geochemistry, sampling, geophysics and geological mapping and also
defined a series of drilling targets.
Oro Gold
staked an additional 650 sq km
2
in the Rosario Mining
District from 2005 to 2008 and carried out extensive grass roots exploration efforts in the district.
Mako completed a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("
PEA
") in 2013, and commercial production
was declared for La Trinidad Mine on
November 1, 2014
. The Trinidad Mine operated from 2014
until 2019, being one of the highest-grade open-pit heap-leach gold mines in
Mexico
in this period.
The Properties lie within the western border of the Sierra Madre Occidental geologic province and is
underlain by Tertiary volcanic, volcanoclastic and intrusive rocks. These rocks comprise Cretaceous
to Eocene volcanic arc rocks of intermediate composition and upper Oligo-Miocene ignimbrites.
Intermediate to felsic intrusions are exposed to low topographic level and likely part of the Laramide
Sinaloa Batholit. The Properties occur within the
Rosario
mining district, of which the historical
Rosario
mine was probably one of the most significant historic Au-Ag producers.
The Properties include not only the Trinidad Concession, but also highly prospective concessions
located next to GR Silver's existing portfolio in the Rosario Mining District. These Properties cover
an extensive area of the Rosario Mining District and are complementary to the Plomosas and San
Marcial Projects. At closing of the acquisition, GR Silver will control the majority of the gold and
silver-rich targets in the Rosario Mining District.
The Company has completed a detailed technical due diligence on the Property in 2020 including
fieldwork and sampling. Existing and new exploration Ag-Au targets and Ag-Au old workings were
visited and sampled. The results evidenced the presence of low-intermediate sulphidation epithermal
veins and hydrothermal breccias, which are likely to be drilled in the near future.
The Company is also encouraged by the mineralized structures mapped in the Properties, which
indicate a possible structural connection between the mineralized trends at Plomosas and the San
Marcial Projects, providing support that the mineralization discovered to date is part of a district
scale enriched system.
The acquisition includes an extensive regional database of geological, geochemical and geophysical
information, resulting from historical exploration by previous companies since 2006. This
incorporates regional scale stream sampling, rock chip, channel and soil sampling as well as drilling
of more advanced targets.
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical data contained in this News Release was reviewed and/or prepared
under the supervision of
Marcio Fonseca
, P.Geo. He has approved the disclosure herein.
About GR Silver Mining Ltd
.
GR Silver Mining Ltd. is a
Mexico
-focused company engaged in cost-effective silver-gold resource
expansion on its key assets which lie on the eastern edge of the Rosario Mining District,
Sinaloa,
Mexico
.
PLOMOSAS SILVER PROJECT
GR Silver Mining owns 100% of the Plomosas Silver Project located near the historic mining village
of
La Rastra
, within the Rosario Mining District. The Project is a past-producing asset where only
one mine, the Plomosas silver-gold-lead-zinc underground mine, operated from 1986 to 2001. The
Project has an 8,515-hectare property position and is strategically located within 5 km of the
Company's San Marcial Silver Project in the southeast of Sinaloa State,
Mexico
.
The
March 2020
acquisition of the Plomosas Silver Project included 563 historical and recent drill
holes from both surface and underground locations. These drill holes represent an extensive
database allowing the Company to advance towards resource estimation and potential project
development in the near future.
The Company has commenced an
11,900 m
drilling program with surface holes focused on
expanding known mineralization along strike in two initial areas, the Plomosas Mine Area and the
San Juan Area
. Underground drilling included in the program will target the extension of recent
polymetallic discoveries at the lowest level (
775 m
RL, or ~250 m below surface) of the Plomosas
Mine Area and six low sulphidation epithermal veins at
San Juan Area
. Both areas will be the subject
of NI 43-101 resource estimations following completion of this drill program.
The 100%-owned assets include all facilities and infrastructure including: access roads, surface
rights agreement, water use permit,
8,000 m
of underground workings, water access, 60 km - 33
KV power line, offices, shops, 120-person camp, infirmary, warehouses and assay lab representing
approximately
US$30 million
of previous capital investments. The previous owners invested
approximately
US$18 million
in exploration, including extensive geophysics and geochemistry
programs.
The silver and gold mineralization on this Project display the alteration, textures, mineralogy and
deposit geometry characteristics of a low sulphidation epithermal silver-gold-base metal vein/breccia
mineralized system. Previous exploration was focused on Pb-Zn-Ag-Au polymetallic shallow
mineralization, hosted in NW-SE structures in the vicinity of the Plomosas mine. The E-W portion of
the mineralization and extensions for the main N-S Plomosas fault remain under-explored.
In addition to the resource potential at Plomosas, a review of the existing drill hole database,
geophysical surveys and geochemical data covering most of the concession, has defined 16 new
exploration targets from which 11 have high priority for future exploration programs.
SAN MARCIAL PROJECT
San Marcial is a near-surface, high-grade silver-lead-zinc open pit-amenable project, which contains
a 36 Moz AgEq (Indicated) and 11 Moz AgEq (Inferred) NI 43-101 resource estimate. The company
recently completed over
320 m
of underground development in the San Marcial Resource Area, from
which underground drilling is planned to expand the high-grade portions of the resource down dip.
The Company recently discovered additional mineralization in the footwall, outside of the existing
resource, and will also be drilling this area. GR Silver Mining is the first company to conduct
exploration at San Marcial in over 10 years. The NI 43-101 resource estimate (San Marcial Project –
Resource Estimation and Technical Report) was completed by WSP Canada Inc. on
March 18,
2019
and amended on
June 10, 2020
.
Recent exploration has identified silver and gold mineralization in areas previously defined as non-
mineralized, discovering evidence of pervasively altered rocks with intense silicification, veining and
associated wide, silver and gold mineralized zones on the footwall of the NI 43-101 resource.
Plomosas and San Marcial collectively represent a geological setting resembling the multimillion-
ounce San Dimas Mining District which has historically produced more than 600 Moz silver and 11
Moz gold over a period of more than 100 years.
OTHER PROJECTS
GR Silver Mining's other projects are situated in areas attractive for future discoveries and
development in the same vicinity of Plomosas and San Marcial in the Rosario Mining District.
Mr.
Marcio Fonseca
P. Geo, President & CEO
GR Silver Mining Ltd.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in
the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this press release.
Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the
beliefs of management and reflect the Company's current expectations. When used in this press
release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict",
"may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable
terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Such statements
and information reflect the current view of the Company. Risks and uncertainties may cause actual
results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and
information. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements,
or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements..
SOURCE
GR Silver Mining Ltd.
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For further information:
+1 (604) 202 3155, Email: [email protected]
CO: GR Silver Mining Ltd.
CNW 09:34e 01-FEB-21