Northern Crown hits Mexican high grade — Work on a prefeasibility study to begin immediately

More high-grade gold and silver have been recorded along the San Miguel-Chiripa zone at Northern Crown Mines’ (NCW-T) Guadalupe de los Reyes project in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa.

The San Miguel-Chiripa zone is the northwestern continuation of the Noche Buena structure, which connects to the Zapote-Mariposa vein system. Northern Crown found consistently high-grade surface samples and a continuous gold-in-soil anomaly along the entire 1.4-km length of the zone.

Drill holes 32 and 33 were the most westerly holes that tested the zone. The former had the highest-grade intersection: 4.5 metres grading 32.92 grams gold and 273.1 grams silver per tonne.

Hole 33 intersected 12.2 metres of 5.75 grams gold and 53 grams silver, including 3 metres of 20.69 grams gold and 69.1 grams silver.

Some 400 metres remain to be drilled between hole 33 and the zone’s junction with the Zapote deposit.

Hole 31 returned 9.1 metres of 4.03 grams gold and 312.4 grams silver, including 6 metres grading 5.88 grams gold and 454.6 grams silver. Northern Crown says those intersections confirm continuity of high silver-gold grades reported earlier in hole 12, which returned 4.55 grams gold and 441.8 grams silver over 6.1 metres, and hole 11, with 3.68 grams gold and 51.9 grams silver over 6.1 metres.

Hole 29 returned 3 metres grading 2.48 grams gold and 46.7 grams silver, and hole 30 intersected 7.6 metres of 0.73 gram gold and 74.2 grams silver.

For the current year, Northern Crown has budgeted $5.5 million for drilling, road building and exploration. The current drilling is part of a planned 20,000-Metre program.

On the Zapote zone, 197 drill holes have been completed, including eight new holes.

Results included 9.1 metres grading 2.35 grams gold and 23.3 grams silver from hole 179, including 7.6 metres of 2.75 grams gold and 26.5 grams silver.

Hole 181 intersected 4.5 metres grading 1.89 grams gold and 21.9 grams silver; hole 183 reported 4.5 metres of 1.5 grams gold and 27.7 grams silver; and hole 188 returned 21.3 metres of 1.5 grams gold and 17.9 grams silver, including the highest grade intercept from Zapote: 6.1 metres grading 3.34 grams gold and 23.6 grams silver.

Work on a prefeasibility study for an open-pit, heap-leach project at Zapote will begin “immediately,” the company says. Officials from the Vancouver-based company have gone to Mexico City to brief government officials on the development plans and to begin mine permitting.