VANCOUVER, BC, March 8, 2022 /CNW/ - Zacatecas Silver Corp.
("Zacatecas" or the "Company") (TSX Venture: ZAC) (OTC Markets:
ZCTSF) (Frankfurt: 7TV) is pleased
to announce that the Company's common shares will resume trading at
the market open on Thursday, March 10,
2022. Shares were temporarily halted from trading
following the announcement that Zacatecas had entered into an
agreement to acquire the Esperanza Project ("Esperanza") from
Alamos , as described in a
Zacatecas News Release dated February
28, 2022.
Highlights:
- Recent announcement of the acquisition of the Esperanza
Project from Alamos Gold Inc. ("Alamos").
- Upon completion of the transaction, Alamos will become the largest shareholder of
Zacatecas
- Order books closed, with allocations complete, on recently
announced $18 million
financing.
- In addition to the Esperanza transaction, drilling continues on
the Company's Zacatecas silver
properties following up on multiple recently announced high grade
intercepts at Panuco North.
Esperanza is an advanced stage,
attractive low-cost, low-capital-intensity and low-technical-risk
growth project located in Morelos
state, Mexico. Alamos has progressed the project through
advanced engineering, including metallurgical work, while also
focusing on stakeholder engagement, including building community
relations.
Esperanza is a high-grade oxide
gold deposit with scalable upside, with a historic measured and
indicated resource of 34,352,000 tonnes at 0.98 gram per tonne
(g/t) gold and 8.09 g/t silver for 1,084,000 ounces of gold and
8,936,000 ounces of silver and inferred resource of 718,000 tonnes
at 0.80 g/t gold and 15.04 g/t silver for 18,000 ounces of gold and
347,000 ounces of silver (see below for details).
To date, significant core and reverse circulation drilling has
occurred at the Esperanza gold
project, resulting in a total of 389 drill holes for 69,716 metres.
Four targets adjacent to or close to the historical resource were
identified to expand the historical resource. The project also
hosts seven regional exploration targets, largely untested, that
also merit drill testing.
Mineralization at the Esperanza
gold project is associated with the intrusion of a stock of
granodiorite composition into the carbonate rocks of the
Guerrero-Morelos platform, specifically the rocks of
the Xochicalco formation.
Spatially related to the intrusive contact with the carbonate rocks
are varying degrees of skarn and marble development. Intruded by
the granodioritic stock are the limestone of the Xochicalco formation of Aptian age (early
Cretaceous) that have beds of varying thickness from very thin to
medium. Primary mineralization consists of gold and, to a lesser
extent, silver, associated with the skarn zones spatially related
to the intrusive.
Based on previous preliminary assessments completed by previous
owners, the Company anticipates that the project would be amenable
to a conventional open-pit, heap leach operation with two-stage
crushing. Crushed material would be conveyed to the leach pad and
irrigated with dilute cyanide solution. Gold will be recovered from
pregnant solutions utilizing carbon adsorption, subsequent
electrowinning and on-site smelting to produce gold and silver dore
bars.
The Company plans to carry out an extensive work program to
prepare an updated resource estimate, undertake economic studies on
the project as well as drilling on nearby exploration
targets.
The total consideration of the transaction is approximately
$60-million (U.S.) with most of the
payments not made until significant steps toward commercial
production are achieved. The initial consideration consists of
$5-million (U.S.) in cash,
$10-million (U.S.) in Zacatecas shares and a silver stream in favour
of Alamos valued at $6-million (U.S.) (see Zacatecas News Release
dated February 28, 2021 for details
of the transaction).
After announcing the transaction, Zacatecas announced a CAD $15 million financing via a brokered private
placement and then upsized the financing to CAD $18 million due to strong investor demand (see
Zacatecas News Release dated March 4,
2022 for details of this upsized financing).
Qualified person
The contents of this news release have been reviewed and
approved by Dr. Wilson, BSc (honours), PhD, FAusIMM (CP), FSEG,
chief operating officer of Zacatecas Silver. Dr. Wilson is a
qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is
responsible for all technical information in this news release.
Alamos resource
estimate
Alamos reported in its most
recent annual information form a resource estimate of a measured
and indicated resource of 34,352,000 tonnes at 0.98 g/t gold and
8.09 g/t silver for 1,083,366 ounces of gold and 8,936,201 ounces
of silver and inferred resource of 718,000 tonnes at 0.80 g/t gold
and 15.04 g/t silver for 18,375 ounces of gold and 347,192 ounces
of silver. The Company considers this to be an historical resource
for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101. Resource blocks
were defined using with dimensions of 10 metres (m) by 10 m by five m. The
estimation of grades was performed with the ordinary kriging method
on capped composites. An added step in the estimation strategy was
the utilization of the dynamic anisotropy technique in Vulcan's unfolding options. This added
capability allows for a more realistic outcome of the estimated
grade's spatial distribution as it follows the folded shape of the
deposit. Assumptions used in the resource include the following
metal prices: gold price of $1,400
(U.S.) per ounce (oz) and silver price of $22 (U.S.) per oz. The resource assumed the
following economic assumptions: recovery of 60.4 per cent at 0.2
g/t to 71.9 per cent at 1.6 g/t for gold, 25 per cent for silver,
$2.60-per-tonne mining costs,
64-cents-per-tonne general and
administrative costs, $4.20-per-tonne
milling costs and a pit slope of 45 degrees. The Company considers
the resource relevant due to its identification and modelling of
the Esperanza deposit.
The Company has not done sufficient work to classify the
resource as a current mineral resource or mineral reserves and the
Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral
resources or mineral reserves. Although the resource estimate is
considered reliable, the Company will resample a portion of the
drill core for the purpose of carrying out a new resource estimate.
Furthermore, additional data verification, including resurveying of
select diamond drill holes collars; review of graphic drill core
logs, comparison of these logs with remaining half-cut core and a
cross check of select geological logs agonist database entries; and
a check of original assay certificates against the assays and drill
hole database.
About Zacatecas Silver Corp.
The Zacatecas silver property
is located in Zacatecas state,
Mexico, within the highly
prospective Fresnillo silver belt,
which has produced over 6.2 billion ounces of silver. The company
holds 7,826 hectares (ha) (19,338 acres) of ground that is highly
prospective for low-sulphidation and intermediate-sulphidation
silver base metal mineralization and potentially low-sulphidation
gold-dominant mineralization. On Dec. 15,
2021, Zacatecas announced a
mineral resource estimate at the Panuco deposit consisting of 2.7 million
tonnes at 187 grams per tonne (g/t) silver equivalent (AgEq) (171
g/t silver (Ag) and 0.17 g/t gold (Au)) for 16.4 million ounces
AgEq (15 million ounces silver and 15,000 ounces gold).
The property is 25 kilometres (km) southeast of MAG Silver
Corp.'s Juanicipio mine and Fresnillo PLC's Fresnillo mine. The property shares common
boundaries with Pan American Silver Corp. claims and El Orito,
which is owned by Endeavour Silver. There are four main high-grade
silver target areas within the Zacatecas concessions: the Panuco deposit, Muleros, El Cristo and San
Manuel-San Gill. The property also includes El Oro, El Orito, La
Cantera, Monserrat, El
Penon, San Judas and
San Juan silver base metal vein
targets. These targets are relatively unexplored and will be the
focus of rapid reconnaissance.
On behalf of the Company,
Bryan Slusarchuk
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains
forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the
date of this news release. These statements reflect management's
current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are
not guarantees of future performance. Zacatecas Silver cautions
that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and
that actual performance may be affected by many material factors,
many of which are beyond their respective control. Such factors
include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to
Zacatecas Silver's limited operating history, its proposed
exploration and development activities on is Zacatecas Properties
and the need to comply with environmental and governmental
regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events,
conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates,
beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the
forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable
securities legislation, Zacatecas Silver does not undertake to
publicly update or revise forward-looking information.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange)
accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this
release.
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SOURCE Zacatecas Silver Corp.