Written by: Jorge Diaz & Mel Herdrick
Over the past year our focus has been to complete the work necessary to support our planned Heap Leach Mining Operation (HLMO) proposal. The next step in this regard is for the EPC companies’ technical teams to visit the Cerro Caliche site in Sonora, Mexico. With much of the world essentially locked down by the COVID Pandemic, we have done all the necessary preparatory technical work for these visits and are now waiting for travel restrictions to be lifted, as well as preparing for the next drill sampling phase.
In the meantime, we judged it sensible to spend the extra time created by the COVID travel ban to take a step back and assess the total results we have accumulated to date so that we can refine our understanding regarding the size and implications of the mineralized system which comprises Cerro Caliche. The purpose of this exercise was to focus our exploration model and fine tune our approach to ensure that our future exploration activities are increasingly cost effective and ultimately successful.
To accomplish this, the Sonora team has worked through the massive amount of data generated over the past two decades by your company and three predecessors. This includes over 23,000 meters of drilling, more than 6,000 soil and rock samples and volumes of new notes regarding the rock textures and, more subtle but still critical, aspects regarding the local and regional geology.
We believe the attached report is comprehensive in its detail and it’s also available online here:
Cerro-Caliche-Project-Development-Report.pdf
Admittedly it’s lengthy, however the details are of critical importance, so we encourage you to read through it if you want to fully comprehend our understanding of the geology of the site. Taking the time to look at the big picture and apply the epithermal low sulfidation mineralization model to the Cerro Caliche site within the context of the surrounding district has turned out to be a highly worthwhile exercise. In part of the report we wrote, “What is remarkable is the ubiquitous nature of the gold contained within the hundreds of parallel NW trending quartz veins. Most quartz veins sampled carried more than 1 g/t Au. Many returned high grades ranging from 4 g/t Au to 25 g/t Au with one standout returning 97 g/t Au.”
It is apparent to us that the Cerro Caliche district contains a major gold-rich hydrothermal system which has enriched both the Cerro Caliche and the neighboring Mercedes Mine areas. After applying the classic low sulfidation epithermal model to the results thus far, it is also clear that the potential for expansion is exceptional, together with the opportunity to discover much higher-grade gold zones as we drill deeper.
We expect that between accelerating the HLMO program and our planned exploration activities, it will be a very exciting and productive 2020. In the meantime, please take a little time to read our report.
Yours very truly,
“Mel Herdrick” “Jorge Diaz”
Mel Herdrick, P.Geo. Jorge Diaz, MSc.
VP Exploration, Sonoro Metals Corp. VP Operations, Sonoro Metals Corp.