Golden Minerals Announces Drill Program at Mogotes Property and Additional Project Activities
September 15 2017 - 6:45AM
Golden Minerals Company (“Golden Minerals”, “Golden” or “the
Company”) (NYSE American:AUMN) (TSX:AUMN) is pleased to share a
business update, including:
- 1,500 meter initial drill program at its Mogotes property
(Durango, Mexico) is scheduled to start the week of September 18,
2017
- Dewatering of El Quevar underground workings is planned to
accommodate a potential drill program (Salta, Argentina)
- A re-modeling of El Quevar’s silver deposit resource is
underway to identify a potentially economic resource in the core of
the Yaxtche deposit
- Argentina Value Added Tax (“VAT”) refunds received totaling
US$1.1 million in second and third quarters of 2017
- Further to the Company’s September 7, 2017 news release
announcing the start of a new drill program at its Santa Maria
property (Chihuahua, Mexico), three holes totaling 700 meters have
been completed as of September 11, 2017, with drilling ongoing
Golden Minerals President and Chief Executive
Officer Warren M. Rehn commented, “We are dedicated to unlocking
the full value of our existing resources and infrastructure in
Mexico and Argentina. The drill program at Mogotes is a first
test of an extensive altered area that shows signs of being a
productive epithermal system hosted in volcanic rocks within a few
kilometers of our existing mills at Velardena. Surface values
from channel samples show strongly anomalous gold, arsenic and
antimony values associated with hydrothermal breccia veins and
silicification along a major fault structure.
“Further geologic investigation underpinned by a
re-logging effort at El Quevar has led us to re-model the higher
grade portion of the existing silver resource with the goal of
identifying a smaller but higher grade and potentially economic
silver resource at current metal prices. This project is
ongoing and we expect to report results around year end. We
now have the financial resources to move the El Quevar project
forward to the next step ourselves. The improved business
investment climate in Argentina underscores the timeliness of this
focus.
“Lastly, I want to reiterate that our financial
resources continue to improve and allow us to increase spending on
our exploration programs. We reported a cash balance at the
end of June of $2.7 million and have recently reported the receipt
of an additional $2 million from Hecla securing the option to
continue the oxide plant lease, and finally the VAT refunds from
Argentina reported here.”
Mogotes
Golden Minerals has contracted to start a 1,500
meter drill program on its Mogotes property next week on the El
Mogote claim located 7 kilometers southeast of the town of
Velardena, Durango, Mexico. The drill program is planned to test an
area of silicifcation and breccias hosted in andesitic volcanic
rocks. The altered area is exposed over a strike length of
1.5 kilometers and a width of about 500 meters. The breccias
are interpreted to be a combination of fault breccias and
hydrothermal breccias associated with strong silicification
controlled in part by a northwest striking southwest dipping normal
fault that juxtaposes Tertiary volcanics west of the fault against
Cretaceous limestone east of the fault. The altered area has
a strong geochemical signature of widespread anomalously high
arsenic and antimony with erratic values of gold up to 1.8 ppm from
surface rock samples.
Golden plans to drill seven holes totaling 1,500
meters in this initial test of the Mogotes East target. The
Company is targeting veins and breccias that may be associated with
the exposed hydrothermal alteration and anomalous geochemistry, and
expects to encounter sulfide mineralization at depths of less than
200 meters below surface.
The Mogotes property was purchased from Silver
Standard Resources in 2015 and is wholly owned by one of Golden
Minerals’ Mexican subsidiaries, subject to a 2 percent Net Smelter
Return royalty to Silver Standard and a pre-existing finder’s fee
agreement (2 percent of direct exploration and development
expenditures, capped at $270,000).
El Quevar
The company has applied for a permit to dewater
the underground mine workings at its El Quevar silver project
located in Salta, Argentina, to evaluate the possibility of
exploration drilling from underground in conjunction with a current
project to re-model the existing silver resource at the Yaxtche
deposit. Based on the previous resource model results and
using a higher cutoff grade for silver, Golden is evaluating the
potential to define a smaller but higher grade silver resource in
the core of the previously defined Yaxtche deposit that could be
amenable to potentially profitable underground mining and flotation
processing.
Argentina VAT Refund
Golden is pleased to report that since April
2017, the Company has received US$1.1 million in refunds of
previous VAT payments made in Argentina during 2012 and 2013.
The refunds, available through certain provisions in the Argentina
Mining Investment Law, have been pending for several years, but
were only recently approved for payment by the Argentine tax
authority. The added cash allows Golden more flexibility in
advancing its exploration projects, particularly at El Quevar.
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.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act
of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934, as amended, and applicable Canadian securities
legislation, including statements relating to expectations
regarding future drilling plans at Mogotes, and the timing
and expectations of evaluation activities at El Quevar. These
statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including
changes in interpretations of geological, geostatistical,
metallurgical, mining or processing information and interpretations
of the information resulting from future exploration, analysis or
mining and processing experience, new information from drilling
programs or other exploration or analysis, unexpected variations in
mineral grades, types and metallurgy, fluctuations in silver and
gold metal prices, increases in costs and declines in general
economic conditions, and changes in political conditions, in tax,
royalty, environmental and other laws in Mexico or Argentina, 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 and Exchange Commission by Golden Minerals,
including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2016.
For additional information please visit
http://www.goldenminerals.com/ or contact:
Golden Minerals CompanyKaren WinklerDirector of
Investor Relations(303)
839-5060Investor.relations@goldenminerals.com
SOURCE: Golden Minerals Company
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