Drilling News Sandspring drills 5.9 m of 23.41 g/t Au at Toroparu
2016-02-03 07:37 ET - News Release
Mr. Richard Munson reports
SANDSPRING RESOURCES REPORTS ENCOURAGING RESULTS FROM ITS FALL 2015 EXPLORATION CAMPAIGN, INCLUDING 5.9 M OF 23.41 G/T GOLD
Sandspring Resources Ltd. has released encouraging results from its fall 2015 exploration program at its Toroparu gold project in Guyana, South America. The Company completed a 3,700-meter diamond drilling program on the promising Sona Hill Prospect, located 5 km southeast of the main Toroparu deposit, and also conducted a 100-km2 geochemical survey on unexplored concessions within the northwest region of the Company's property.
Sona Hill Drilling
Assay results from the 2015 Sona Hill diamond drilling program confirmed saprolite and bedrock mineralization that was initially intercepted in the Q4-2012 reconnaissance drill program. The 2012 program, which included 30 reverse circulation holes (SOR001-SOR030) and five diamond drill holes (SOD001-SOD005), defined gold mineralization in saprolite and bedrock along the western flank of the 1-km long north-south oriented Sona Hill anomaly. Sona Hill is the eastern most gold anomaly in a cluster of ten gold features located within a 20 km by 7 km hydrothermal alteration halo around Toroparu.
The 2015 diamond drilling program recovered 3,691 meters of drill core from 35 holes (SOD006-SOD041) drilled to a vertical depth of 100 meters. Highlights from both the 2012 and 2015 core include:
Drill Weighted Gold From To Width Grade Average Hole-ID (m) (m) (m) (g/t) 2012 DDH camp. SOD001 49.0 56.5 7.5 4.35 incl. 52.0 56.5 4.5 6.60 SOD004 46.0 63.0 17.0 1.59 incl. 46.0 50.5 4.5 2.54 2015 DDH camp. SOD008 78.0 85.9 7.9 2.76 SOD009 68.3 74.5 6.2 3.74 SOD009 101.4 105.3 4.0 6.84 SOD016 66.2 74.6 8.4 2.73 incl. 66.2 69.5 3.3 4.25 SOD022 53.5 59.4 5.9 23.41 incl. 56.5 58.0 1.5 41.40 SOD029 62.7 66.7 4.0 8.72 incl. 62.7 64.0 1.3 16.80 SOD031 0.0 4.0 4.0 8.45 incl. 0.0 2.5 2.5 11.40 SOD032 86.1 90.0 3.9 5.48 incl. 86.1 87.2 1.1 17.20 SOD038 0.0 2.5 2.5 7.99 incl. 0.0 1.0 1.0 19.20 SOD038 44.5 55.0 10.5 3.63 SOD041 81.4 83.5 2.1 6.14
A complete list of gold drill intercepts can be found in Exhibit 1: Sona Hill Drill Results. The reported holes SOD001-SOD041 (2012 and 2015 drill programs) represent a total of 4,501 meters of diamond core drilling within the Sona Hill Area (Exhibit 2: Sona Hill Exploration Drilling; Exhibit 3: Location Map).
Examination of drill core from the Sona Hill drill program indicates that high-grade gold mineralization generally occurs in tourmaline and feldspar-bearing quartz veins forming a network above an intensely altered, low-angle shear (fault) zone. The surrounding intrusive host rocks are commonly bleached and altered, likely related to the emplacement of the quartz veins. Sona Hill drilling results and the cluster of geochemical gold features around Toroparu suggest that the main deposit may be part of a larger regional mineralized system and surrounded by other mineralized systems in different geologic settings.
The Sona Hill mineralized system remains open along strike and down dip at depth. Sandspring is committed to developing the Sona Hill prospect into a resource, and is planning further exploration of Sona Hill and the other geochemical gold anomalies in the hydrothermal alteration halo in an effort to identify additional ounces.
Geochemical Survey
Sandspring completed a 100-km2 regional geochemical survey across the Otomung River area, located 20 km northwest of the Toroparu deposit (Exhibit 3: Location Map; Exhibit 4: Otomung Geochemical and Geophysics Map). Through its Guyana subsidiary ETK, Inc., Sandspring controls 25,602 acres of property in the Otomung River area (the "Otomung Block"). The Otomung area lies to the northwest of an interpreted large geologic flexure in the Puruni Shear Corridor, the geologic feature that hosts the Toroparu deposit and can be traced for more than 150 km within the Puruni volcano-sedimentary belt into producing goldfields in Venezuela. Sandspring extended its regional geochemical survey grid into the Otomung Block, which is adjacent to the current boundaries of the Toroparu property block, with the objective of identifying gold anomalous features that could indicate additional mineralized systems.
The Otomung geochemical survey collected 764 samples on a 1000 meter x 100 meter grid. Multi-element data indicate that gold anomalous values occur at the border of a geochemical feature interpreted as an elongated granitoid intrusion in the center of the survey area. This interpretation is consistent with indications from earlier exploration work in the area that suggested the presence of intrusives in the same zones and reflects a geological setting comparable to Toroparu. Sandspring plans to follow up these results with an extension of the survey grid further to the northwest to explore for other intrusive structures, and will infill survey lines and sampling in the zones of interest in order to develop new drill targets.
Rich Munson, CEO states: "I am pleased with the results of the Sona Hill drilling campaign, which confirm the existence of a gold mineralization system underneath the geochemical anomaly and further demonstrate the potential to find and develop satellite deposits in the vicinity of the main Toroparu Deposit. The geochemical survey was also very promising, indicating the potential to discover other deposits along the Puruni Volcano-sedimentary Belt as it extends to the west from Toroparu."
The technical information in this document has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Lucas W. Claessens, P.Geo. and Pascal Van Osta, P.Geo., both Senior Exploration Consultants for Sandspring, who have sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralization under consideration and are Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43-101.
Shares for Debt Transaction
Sandspring has reached an agreement with an arms-length party to pay $15,000 in invoices in common shares. Subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval, Sandspring will issue a total of 100,000 common shares to the party at a deemed price of $0.15. The shares will be subject to a four-month hold period.
We seek Safe Harbor.