Coronado, Mexico
Multi-element Gridded Soil Results, Coronado
Thematic Multi-element Maps of Soil Results
Airborne Magnetics – Total Field
(Mexican government issue)
Airborne Magnetics – Reduced to Pole
(Mexican government issue)
INTRODUCTION
The 100% Wealth-owned Coronado property covers 9911 Ha and is located in southern Chihuahua, Mexico, about 35 km southwest of the city of Jimenez and roughly 25 km east of the Valsequillo property. The property has excellent road access, topography is essentially flat at an elevation of 1580 metres and work can be carried out year round. Surface rights are held by a local ejido.
Within the Coronado concession, there are two areas owned by outside interests: the Torito concession of 30 Ha, which covers the immediate area of a mineralized diatreme, and a series of small concessions covering about 450 Ha and lying in the center of the concession.
REGIONAL SETTING & MINERALIZATION
Coronado property lies within the Mesa Central of Northern Mexico. This area coincides with a regional tectonic feature known as the Chihuahua Trough within which numerous carbonate replacement type Pb, Zn (Ag, Cu, Au) deposits (CRD’s) are located. In some cases these deposits can be linked to deep seated, higher temperature intrusive/porphyry settings. The recent discoveries at Concepcion del Oro/Peñasquito and Cinco de Mayo demonstrate a continuum between distal, low temperature, carbonate replacement and epithermal systems through proximal skarn settings to deeper seated porphyry copper (molybdenum, gold) deposits.
The Concepcion del Oro district is considered an analog, having five current or past producing mines including Peñasquito (current reserves and resources of approximately 1.3 billion tonnes grading 0.5 g/t Au, 30 g/t Ag and 1% combined Pb-Zn). The potential for the discovery of skarns, replacements, high- and low-sulphidation epithermal systems and mineralized breccia bodies all centrally located around one or more deep seated porphyry copper systems is considered to be excellent.
EXPLORATION POTENTIAL
The target at Coronado is a Peñasquito-type Au-Ag breccia deposit and/or related carbonate replacement deposits (CRD). Initial reconnaissance work carried out in 2012 identified one showing on the enclosed El Torito property, consisting of a small knoll (called a peñasquito) measuring about 70 metres in diameter and rising about 20 metres above the surrounding terrain. The knoll consists of a brownish, limonitic, silicified, polymictic breccia with a number of small artisanal pits. Three grab samples of the mineralized material from the workings and dumps on the knoll all returned high grade copper with anomalous gold (1 to 7% Cu and 0.5 to 4.6 g/t Au). An additional seven samples from dumps and talus around the base of the knoll returned an average of around 1% Cu, 0.5 g/t Au and 10 g/t Ag. The mineralization consists of malachite stained fractures and coatings and traces of chalcopyrite in a hydrothermal breccia with obvious epithermal textures (druses, cavities and cockade textures). The breccia consists of angular to sub-rounded clasts of variably altered El Toro series granitic rocks with about 15-20% carbonate rock; clasts range in size from 1 to 20 cm in diameter. Limonite is abundant and malachite is commonly seen in all the dumps and workings.
The north side of the knoll is more irregular and could include a north striking extension to the nearly circular main outcrop area.
To the south and east of the knoll are several low-lying outcrops of medium- to fine-grained granodiorite to quartz monzonite with minor irregular xenoliths of older gneissic rock as well as garnet skarn. A trench 100m to the southwest exposes more of the breccia. A low-lying ridge about 500 meters to the south consists of shallowly north-dipping recrystallized limestone with minor skarn patches. To the distal north and northwest, bedrock is obscured by a flat lying area of alluvium and colluvium. It is under this cover that mineralized breccia and CRD may occur.
There is no record of exploration work completed on the Coronado property. Only on the knoll, on the 3rd party Torito property, are a number of shallow artisanal workings, but no evidence of modern exploration or drilling. Adjacent ground about 3 km to the east and southeast contains at least six known copper occurrences in skarn settings. Some of these showings have small exploration pits and shafts and one (La Rocosa) has been recently drilled (no record of results).
2016 SOIL SAMPLE GRID AND 1:5000 SCALE MAPPING
In May, 2016, Wealth completed a soil sample grid and 1:5000 scale mapping over the southwest corner of the property, centred on the El Torito breccia, where the topography is almost flat with a few low hills..Outcrops are scarse, with most of the area covered by soil, but there are several regoliths of subcrop of intrusive rocks and altered calcareous sedimentary rocks. There are more outcrops in low hills at the eastern part of the work area, where the majority of outcrops are skarns and intrusive rocks.The soil lines were spaced 200 metres apart and the samples 100 metres. A total of 841 soil samples (including 19 field duplicates and 21 blacks for QA/QC) were taken from the B Horizon. In average the depths of the holes sampled were between 25 and 40 cm. The samples were sieved (about -10 mesh) to remove larger fragments, with the average size being between 500 and 600 grams. Samples were transported to ALS Chemex Laboratories, Chihuahua for preparation; the pulps were analyzed by method AUMETL43 (25g trace Au plus 43 multi-element) at ALS Laboratories in North Vancouver, B.C.
INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
Three broad (>1 km) soil anomalies were defined by the soil sampling: 1) A southern Ag-Zn-Cu anomaly at the southern end of the claim block, coinciding with the contact of marble of the Cuesta del Cura formation with El Toro granite; this anomaly is on trend with the structurally controlled La Rocosa Ag-Cu prospect to the southeast, 2) an irregular Au±Cu anomaly that occurs over the El Torito breccia on the 3rd party claims; Cu extends to the northwest following the trend of ElToro granodiorite intrusions, whereas Au forms a parallel anomaly offset to the northeast and extending southeast, and 3) a broad (>2 km) east-west oriented, low-level Ag-Zn-Cu anomaly in the central part of the grid; this anomaly is off the regional northwest trend.
The Ag-Zn-Cu anomalies are separated from each other by the central northwest trending subcrops of El Toro granite dikes, which at their centre host both the El Torito breccia and the more extensive Au anomaly. Fragments of silicified El Toro granite occur within the breccia. In general, the metals Ag-Zn-Cu are positively correlated with each other, and lie outboard of the northwest trending dikes and the Au anomaly. This is typical of zoned skarn/manto districts, where Ag-Zn CRDs occur outboard of central Au±Cu stockwork or breccia mineralization.
Regional aeromagnetic data released by the Mexican government shows a northeast trending series of highs centred on each of the three soil anomalies, which is encouraging for potential mineralization below