NEWSExpanding Gold Discovery and New Gold Target Zones at Riverside's Tajitos Gold Project in Sonora, Mexico
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Apr 07, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX News Network) --
Riverside Resources Inc. ("Riverside" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: RRI) is pleased to announce new high grade gold results and additional gold targets from the Tajitos Gold Project in Sonora, Mexico. Since the announcement of the Tajitos acquisition on January 5, 2010 the Company has advanced the Project towards a drill program. The focus of the Tajitos exploration program is to identify a large orogenic gold body with similar geologic structures, surface mineralization and aged host rocks to near by operating open pit gold mines. Highlights from the past two months of work on the property include:
- The identification of disseminated gold mineralization in the wall rock, in addition to the high-grade gold quartz veins at the central Tajitos target. This expands the discovery and increases the potential for a disseminated gold body near the surface.
- The addition of the 146.7 km2 Cortes Concession to the Tajitos Project. The recently staked land triples the Tajitos land package and adds over 25 km of ground in the heart of the Mojave Sonora Megashear gold belt.
- Sampling and magnetic results from the Tejo, Tajitos and Cortes targets. The recently acquired results confirm Riverside's geologic theory and have identified at least two new drill target zones on the project. Recent magnetic results are available at www.rivres.com/tajitos/diagrams.html.
Field work by Riverside's geologists, along with new aeromagnetic geophysical data, identified a 25 km extension within the Mojave Sonora Megashear. The extension is located adjacent to Riverside's Tejo and Tajitos targets, in the heart of the Mojave Sonora Megashear. The Megashear is one of the richest gold belts in Mexico and has multiple large scale open pit heap leach gold operations. The 146.7 km2 Cortes Concession, which lies within the Megashear, more than triples the area of the Tajitos project and shows the potential for the project to become a district sized opportunity. Riverside has been strategically developing a commanding land holding along this major gold belt and is now advancing its gold discoveries.
Recent work on the project has identified three target drill zones, each of which has the potential to be advanced towards a mine. These include:
- The central Tajitos zone, where Riverside has identified high grade gold in quartz veins. Sampling has identified up to 1 Oz/t Au in 1-3m wide vein structures with broad lower grade Au halos of up to 20 meters.
- The Tejo zone, where the magnetic results and geology indicate a continuation of the gold mineralization immediately to the southeast of the high-grade vein system.
- The Cortes Concession to the southeast, which has more than 25 kilometers strike length and various hydrothermal targets.
"The Tajitos project has been on Riverside's radar since the Company's inception. The property is in the right place and has the right geology for a major gold discovery. Recent exploration on the project shows evidence of our initial theory that the gold anomaly continues to the southeast below cover. As historic drilling has documented, there is disseminated gold mineralization in the wall rock, in addition to the high-grade gold quartz veins. This enhances the potential for an open pit type gold body," stated John-Mark Staude, President and CEO of Riverside Resources, "This latest discovery is consistent with our exploration model and begins to demonstrate the potential to find and build near surface resources on the property."
Project Overview:
Geochemical and geophysical exploration results have found continuity of the greater than 1 oz/t Au surface samples, and traces the overall gold structural trend on Riverside's tenement for over 20 kilometers. A number of new high-grade gold anomalies indicate Riverside has potentially identified a major gold camp. The gold anomaly extends to the southeast of the Tajitos concession onto the Cortes and Tejo concessions. Riverside has completed field mapping and ASTER alteration analysis, and is continuing to define the structural block using a detailed ground magnetic survey. After analyzing the new data, Riverside's technical team believes that the high-grade gold anomaly on the Tajitos project could lead to a much larger gold system.
On the Tajitos property proper, two vein systems were mined during the 1800's and 1900's, and since that time a larger potentially open pit gold target has been identified. Historic mining on the property extracted only the highest grade quartz veins and did not focus on the broad oxidized, disseminated gold potential. Sampling results range up to 34 g/t Au from a total of 137, 1.5m channel samples, which include:
-- 78 samples returning greater than 0.5 g/t Au. -- 54 samples returning greater than 1 g/t Au. -- 18 samples returning greater than 3 g/t Au. -- 11 samples returning greater than 5 g/t Au. -- 3 samples returning greater than 10 g/t Au.
Geologic Significance:
This mineralization confirms and extends the historic mining areas to more than 5 km of veins and still more are being identified and sampled on Tajitos. New detailed structural mapping not only breaks out the subhorizontal stacked shear zones near surface but also identified northwest trending high angle tension fractures and perpendicular open cracks which host base and precious metals. The focus of the current program is to delineate targets and find the controls of the high grade gold veins. Mineralization is found along strike jogs and vein stock work intersections which in some places meet flat shear structures. Consistent with Riverside's model of the Tajitos district, the rock type is sheared, likely Jurassic metasediments including schist and phyllites, both of which make a strong fracture opening mineralization-hosting unit. Riverside's management believes that the Tajitos gold anomaly is part of a much larger gold system. The regional Megashear encompasses the adjacent mine areas and extends through Riverside's land holdings. Mineralization controls on the Project are similar and occur within the core zone of the regional northwest structural fabiric that is the Mojave Sonora Megashear Gold Belt.
These project results represent an orogenic gold model type that is similar to the key gold mining operations currently active along the Mojave Sonora Megashear. Some of the companies that are actively mining orogenic gold deposits on the belt that continue to show potential include:
-- Newmont-Fresnillo, which is mining the Herradura Mine. -- Timmins Gold, which is mining the San Francisco Mine. -- Capital Gold, which is mining the Chanate Mine
Results of an internal Qualified Person (QP) visit to the Tajitos property have resulted in the following verification sampling analysis that has confirmed the presence, and as expected, nuggety nature of gold vein mineralization. The results show a locally high grade mineralized zone and is part of the on-going QA-QC program by Riverside.
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Sample
Original Northing Original
Sample Verification Sample Easting (UTM NAD Assay (Au Verification
Number Sample Number (UTM NAD 27) 27) ppb) Assay (Au ppb)
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10320 10501(i) 369711 3245466 2029 6926
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10321 10502 369724 3245462 957 403
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10121 10503(i) 368655 3425935 32020 13988
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10109 10504 367918 3426676 151 764
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(i)Note: Sample 10501 and 10503 were repeated due to high grade Au in sample
using a gravimetric finish - gravimetric result reported for these samples