New High-Grade Gold Zone Confirmed at Tahuehueto Yesterday, LUCA Mining (LUCA.v LUCMF) confirmed a new high-grade gold zone with significant mining widths at its Tahuehueto Gold Mine in Durango, Mexico!
The mineralization occurs in shoots branching off the main Creston vein at Underground Level 23; Creston is one of the main two structures currently being mined.
Notably, new geological mapping and chennel sampling at this level confirmed the presence of breccia ore shoots up to 20m wide with internally assayed channel samples returning greater than 20g/t Au.
LUCA's Interim CEO, Ramon Perez, commented:
"Our geology team at Tahuehueto are doing excellent work. They are progressively adding to our understanding of the mineralisation and confirming the enormous upside potential of the mine. These wide and higher-grade mineralised zones at depth, where two vein splays intersect, were identified in earlier drilling. With the added detail from mapping and channel sampling we see the excellent potential in multiple areas. These wider, high-grade zones will be part of our plan to ramp-up to 1,000 tpd, a milestone we expect to achieve in the next few months. I look forward to providing more updates as our work here unfolds."
Tahuehueto Overview
Spanning 7,492 hectares and boasting 24k M&I ounces of gold, 9.5M M&I ounces of silver and 535k M&I ounces of AuEq, Tahuehueto covers at least 12 mineralized zones honested within a structurally controlled epithermal system that has been traced for more than 6km.
As LUCA's flagship asset, over $30M has been invested into the project between exploration, prefeasibility study and mine development.
With a goal of commencing commercial production in 2024, Tahuehueto's 100tpd processing plant is currently under construction
Level 23 Geology
Since 2022, the underground mine development at Tahuehueto has been advancing, most recently including developing access, dewatering and mining the first stopes of Level 23, currently the lowest level in the mine.
Two mineralized splays have been exposed on the hanging wall and footwall sides of the Creston fault, with mineralized breccia in between with economic widths up to 20m.
The first type of mineralization in the zone is represented by northeast-trending veins of structurally controlled hydrothermal breccias carrying zinc and lead sulphides, hosted in highly altered andesitic rocks with greater contents of gold and copper as a result of higher temperature and deep-seated mineralization.
The second type consists of high-grade gold and silver mineralization, superimposed over the lodes and breccias of base metals sulphides formed in previous stages of mineralization.
Notably, the block model developed for the pre-feasibility study identified maximum vein widths in this area of the 8.4m in the hanging wall and 6.5min the footwall vein splays. Actual vein widths are very comparable, with up to 4.9m in the footwall and 9.5m in the hanging wall. Plus, the footwall splay has been exposed 160m along strike with excellent continuity.
Amid continued development at both its Tahuehueto Project and the Campo Moado Mine where successful metallurgical testwork yielded promising results and validated LUCA's aim to produce three distinct valuable concentrates, LUCA has a strong path ahead.
Full News Release: https://lucamining.com/press-release/?qmodStoryID=6953874401172091
Posted on Behalf of Luca Mining Corp.