The value proposition for Tocvan continues to strengthen.First, and very important, the Exchange has accepted the Private Placement for $5.125 M and the first scheduled payment will start July 30. This financing will provide a great springboard for continued drilling at Pilar and commencement of drilling at Picacho. In addition, they will have money to compete Rogers Creek spin out and put together an aggressive media campaign in Canada, the US and Germany.
There is a mountain of informtion in the last 3 press releases that it is impossible to summarize here, so I encourage everyoine to read them in detail.
They have already completed seven drill holes, totalling 1,382 metres. Drilling focused on stepout targets along the 4-T and a newly discovered trend between the Main zone and 4-T. The good part is all seven drill holes intersected target horizons, implying to me that the Pilar gold structure is robust and becoming well defined and should provide a better basis for a resource estimate. They completed 4 holes as indicated by their release July 6, and now another 3 holes, results are pending and will likely be staggered as they are received.
I was very encouraged about the metallurgical results from four samples trenches submitted for column leach to a strategic partner Minera Castor, a local private gold producer in Mexico which has developed and operates its own heap leach facilities. All four samples returned a recovery of gold above 85 per cent.
The two takeaways from the metallurgical testing, 1) Minera operates its own heap leach facilities which could be instrumentl in fast tracking Pilar to production and 2) greater than 85% recovery would make this a very profitable mine given the gold concentrations. 2022 initial metallurgical sample highlights: - Four column leach samples submitted for analysis;
- Head grade range: 0.4 gram per tonne Au to five g/t Au;
- Gold recovery range: 88.9 per cent to 96.9 per cent.
Of particular interest to me is the very high value of 5 g/t Gold. Clearly they are sitting on something special and have sent samples to another laboratory for confirmation. Of importance is the recovery of 88.9% to 96.9% is nothing short of excellent.
I also note, samples ranged in total weight from 52.8 kilograms to 58.2 kg each, which provides a very clear picture of the gold contained in the ground due the size as compared to what a core would provide. Lastly, another piece of the puzzle and value add for Tocvan is El Picacho. They have begun exploration with very encouraging surface samples. I suspect the drills will be turning in August. Surface highlights from Murcielago indicate a fFour-hundred-fifty-metre trend of gold-silver hosted in a brecciated dolomitic limestone, highlighted by: - 7.2 g/t Au, 36 g/t Ag and 4.4 per cent Pb;
- 4.5 g/t Au, 197 g/t Ag, 4.8 per cent Pb and 7.1 per cent Zn;
- 3.3 g/t Au, 67 g/t Ag and 1.6 per cent Pb;
- 2.7 g/t Au, 25 g/t Ag and 1.9 per cent Zn.
Historic Murcielago results, highlighted by:
- 15.1 g/t Au, 18 g/t Ag and 2.9 per cent Pb;
- 13.8 g/t Au, 83 g/t Ag and 1.7 per cent Pb;.
- 8.8 g/t Au, 234 g/t Ag and 4.6 per cent Pb.
"The results from our recent surface exploration program have confirmed another untested drill target at El Picacho," commented chief executive officer Brodie Sutherland. "The Murcielago prospect is one of six key target areas at El Picacho that has seen little-to-no drilling. The consistent mineralization seen across a 450-metre trend coupled with high-grade historic results along old shafts, makes Murcielago an additional compelling drill target as we look to unlock the potential of the project. Sonora is well known for cost-effective mines that can operate open pits with grades below 0.5 g/t, Au with very favourable production costs. Seeing this broad low-grade mineralization and higher-grade within gives us a lot of confidence in the potential we have here."