GOLDEN, Colo., Aug. 11, 2016
/CNW/ -- Golden Minerals Company ("Golden Minerals" or the
"Company") (NYSE MKT: AUMN and TSX: AUM) today provided an update
on its recent exploration property activities.
Highlights
- Santa Maria drill results
support the previous resource estimate and are favorable for
continuing to evaluate plans for further development
- Earn-in exploration and development agreement on Golden
Minerals' Celaya property signed
with Electrum Global Holdings
- 2,000-meter drill program begun on Rodeo project
- San Diego claim interests
sold to Golden Tag for $0.38 million plus 2.5 million Golden Tag shares
Santa Maria
At the Santa Maria mine west of
Hildalgo de Parral, Chihuahua, which the Company has the right to
acquire under an option agreement, Golden Minerals has recently
completed an underground drilling program of 2,200 meters in 24
drill holes. Assay results are complete and the Company is
evaluating the results to update the resource estimate and complete
a Preliminary Economic Assessment during the second half of
2016.
Significant drill results including all intercepts of the
Santa Maria vein of at least 0.5
meters true width are reported below:
Drill Hole
|
FROM (m)
|
TO
(m)
|
Width (m)
|
True Width
(m)
|
Au
g/ton
|
Ag
g/ton
|
SM16-01
|
47.9
|
49.6
|
1.7
|
1.4
|
0.52
|
103
|
SM16-02
|
46.0
|
47.8
|
1.8
|
1.1
|
0.28
|
361
|
SM16-02
|
54.1
|
59.5
|
5.4
|
4.2
|
0.96
|
326
|
SM16-03
|
55.3
|
59.5
|
4.1
|
2.4
|
0.81
|
456
|
SM16-04
|
78.3
|
80.5
|
2.2
|
1.0
|
0.54
|
289
|
SM16-05
|
33.2
|
34.1
|
0.8
|
0.7
|
0.96
|
488
|
SM16-05
|
48.5
|
50.3
|
1.8
|
1.5
|
1.01
|
290
|
SM16-07
|
82.2
|
84.4
|
2.2
|
1.3
|
1.51
|
336
|
SM16-08
|
58.4
|
58.9
|
0.5
|
0.4
|
3.15
|
373
|
SM16-09
|
68.0
|
68.8
|
0.8
|
0.5
|
1.31
|
574
|
SM16-10
|
62.5
|
64.5
|
2.0
|
1.3
|
0.09
|
48
|
SM16-11
|
2.0
|
3.6
|
1.6
|
1.4
|
0.26
|
300
|
SM16-11
|
41.4
|
43.4
|
2.0
|
1.8
|
0.28
|
149
|
SM16-12
|
51.3
|
52.1
|
0.8
|
0.5
|
1.70
|
76
|
SM16-15
|
24.3
|
26.0
|
1.7
|
1.0
|
5.79
|
991
|
SM16-15
|
86.0
|
87.5
|
1.5
|
1.0
|
0.99
|
173
|
SM16-16
|
45.5
|
46.6
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
0.29
|
145
|
SM16-16
|
51.4
|
52.5
|
1.1
|
1.1
|
0.12
|
161
|
SM16-18
|
72.0
|
73.4
|
1.4
|
1.3
|
1.45
|
1,221
|
SM16-18
|
78.6
|
79.8
|
1.3
|
1.2
|
0.42
|
342
|
SM16-19
|
92.0
|
93.8
|
1.8
|
1.0
|
1.30
|
549
|
SM16-22
|
103.3
|
104.5
|
1.2
|
0.6
|
1.11
|
222
|
SM16-23
|
1.9
|
4.0
|
2.1
|
1.5
|
0.41
|
552
|
SM16-23
|
61.7
|
63.8
|
2.2
|
1.6
|
0.82
|
298
|
Management believes that drill results support the results of
its previous resource estimation at Santa
Maria and should allow greater confidence in the location of
the higher grade ore shoots. Complete results will be
reported on the Golden Minerals website www.goldenminerals.com with
a location map.
Celaya
On August 2, 2016, the Company
entered into an earn-in agreement with a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Electrum Global Holdings, L.P.
("Electrum") related to the Company's Celaya exploration project in Mexico.
Golden Minerals received an upfront payment of $200,000 and Electrum has agreed to incur at
least $0.5 million in exploration
expenditures in the first year, reduced by costs previously
incurred in its ongoing surface exploration program on the
property. Electrum can elect to acquire an undivided 60
percent interest in a joint venture company to be formed to hold
the Celaya project after incurring
exploration expenditures totaling $2.5
million during the first three years of the agreement.
Electrum would be the manager of the joint venture. If
the Company did not contribute to additional exploration or
development expenditures after the initial earn-in period, Electrum
would have the right to earn an additional 20 percent interest in
the joint venture company by
incurring an additional $2.5 million
of exploration or development expenditures over a second three year
period. Following the second earn-in period, the Company
could maintain its 20 percent interest or its interest could
ultimately be converted into a 10 percent net profits interest.
The 6,200-hectare silver and gold Celaya project contains a strongly developed
alteration system on the main Mexico Silver belt trend, located 10
kilometers east of Plata Latina's
Naranjillo silver and gold discovery and 45 kilometers southeast of
and on trend with the historic Guanajuato District. Golden
has conducted mapping and sampling activities at Celaya since 2012. The Company completed
a 2,000 meter, three-hole drilling program in 2015 that identified
epithermal gold and silver mineralization beneath a portion of the
widespread clay-silica alteration on the claims comprising the
project.
Warren Rehn, President and Chief
Executive Officer of Golden Minerals, stated, "We are very pleased
to have Electrum as a partner in this exploration project.
The consummation of this agreement with a company of Electrum's standing confirms our views
regarding the importance of this exploration discovery and the
prospective nature of the property to potentially contain a
significant epithermal silver deposit. Combined with the
recently reported agreement between Fresnillo and Plata Latina on the neighboring property,
Naranjillo, we are seeing momentum toward the emergence of a new
mining camp with similarities to the historic Guanajuato District, 45 kilometers to the
northwest."
Rodeo
In June 2016, Golden Minerals
began a 2,000-meter core drilling program at the Rodeo gold project
located approximately 80 kilometers west of the Velardena
Properties in Durango State, Mexico, at an estimated cost of $0.3-$0.4 million.
San Luis del Cordero
Golden Minerals began a 20-hole, 4,600-meter exploration
drilling program at the Santa Rosa
vein of the San Luis del Cordero
project in the first quarter 2016. The program was concluded
in June 2016 with the final
assessment of results available in July. Results did not
expand or advance the resource estimate of the previous owner and
the Company's evaluation indicated that further work on the project
is not likely to meet near-term objectives. Golden Minerals
intends to terminate the farm-in arrangement for the property in
August 2016.
San Diego
On August 2, 2016, the Company
sold its 50 percent interest in the San
Diego silver exploration property to Golden Tag Resources
Ltd., the party holding the other 50 percent interest in the
property. Golden Minerals received approximately $0.38 million in cash, 2.5 million shares of
Golden Tag and a 2 percent net
smelter return royalty on production from the San Diego property. Following this
transaction, and including 5 million Golden
Tag shares acquired in previous transactions, the Company
holds approximately 10 percent of Golden
Tag's outstanding shares.
About Golden Minerals
Golden Minerals is a Delaware
corporation based in Golden, Colorado. The Company is
primarily focused on acquiring and advancing mining properties in
Mexico with emphasis on areas near
its Velardena processing
plants.
Review by Qualified Person and Quality Control
The technical contents of this press release have been reviewed
by Warren M. Rehn, M.Sc., a
Qualified Person for the purposes of Canadian National Instrument
43-101. Mr. Rehn has over 33 years of mineral exploration
experience and is a QP member of the Society for Mining Metallurgy
and Exploration.
To ensure reliable sample results, Golden Minerals uses a
quality assurance/quality control program that monitors the
chain-of-custody of samples and includes the insertion of blanks,
duplicates and reference standards in each batch of samples.
Core is photographed and sawn in half with one half retained in a
secured facility for verification purposes. Sample
preparation (crushing and pulverizing) is performed at an
independent ISO 9001:2001 certified laboratory in Chihuahua,
Mexico. Prepared samples are direct-shipped to an ISO
9001:2001 certified laboratory in Canada.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of
the Exchange Act and applicable Canadian securities legislation,
including statements regarding including the Company's Santa Maria drill results and planned second
half 2016 evaluation of those drill results, resource estimate
update and completion of a Preliminary Economic
Assessment; management's belief that the Santa Maria drill results support its previous
resource estimate and should allow greater confidence in the
location of higher grade ore shoots; management's belief that
the Celaya properties contain a
strongly developed alteration system on the main Mexico Silver belt
trend, and that the Company's agreement with Electrum confirms the
importance of the Celaya
exploration discovery and the prospective nature of the property to
potentially contain a significant epithermal silver deposit;
momentum toward the emergence of a new mining camp near
Celaya and Naranjillo with
similarities to the historic Guanajuato District; planned drilling programs
and expenditures at the Rodeo project; and planned August 2016 termination of the farm-in
arrangement regarding the San Luis
del Cordero project. These statements are subject to risks
and uncertainties, including: unfavorable or less favorable than
anticipated results from exploration at the Santa Maria, Celaya or Rodeo or other exploration
properties and whether we will be able to advance these or other
exploration properties; potential delays in our exploration
activities, including drilling at the Rodeo project and evaluation
of drill results, resource update and preparation of a Preliminary
Economic Assessment at the Santa
Maria project, or other activities to advance properties
towards mining resulting from environmental events or permitting
delays or problems, accidents, problems with contractors, disputes
under agreements related to exploration properties, unanticipated
costs and other unexpected events; increases in costs and declines
in general economic conditions; unfavorable results of exploration
at Santa Maria, which could reduce
our previous resource estimate and confidence in the location of
higher grade ore shoots; unfavorable exploration results at the
Rodeo property, the Celaya
property (which could result in termination of the agreement with
Electrum), or other properties; inability to raise external
financing on acceptable terms or at all; and changes in political
conditions, in tax, royalty, environmental and other laws in
Mexico, and financial market
conditions. Golden Minerals assumes no obligation to update
this information. Additional risks relating to Golden
Minerals may be found in the periodic and current reports filed
with the Securities Exchange Commission by Golden Minerals,
including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2015.
For additional information please visit
http://www.goldenminerals.com/ or contact:
Golden Minerals Company
Karen Winkler
Director of Investor Relations
(303) 839-5060
Investor.relations@goldenminerals.com
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SOURCE Golden Minerals Company