Dr. Morgan Poliquin reports
ALMADEN INTERSECTS 302.41 METERS OF 1.01 G/T AU AND 48 G/T AG (1.7 G/T AUEQ) AND
1.67 METERS OF 60.66 G/T AU AND 2112 G/T AG (93.2 G/T AUEQ)
IN THE IXTACA ZONE, A NEW DISCOVERY IN MEXICO
Almaden Minerals Ltd. has provided the results from the first-ever drilling on what is now being called the Ixtaca zone within the company's 100-per-cent-owned Tuligtic project located in Puebla state, Mexico.
Reported today are the results of hole TU-10-1, the first drilled. Results are pending from the two other holes drilled in this program, TU-10-2 and TU-10-3. Hole TU-10-1 intersected multiple quartz-carbonate-sulphide-vein zones over its entire length, averaging 1.01 grams per tonne gold and 48 g/t silver over 302.41 metres from the base of overburden at 47.5 metres in depth to the bottom of the hole at 349.91 metres in depth. Vein intersections include 0.7 metre of 129 g/t gold and 4,288 g/t silver (within an interval of 4.1 metres from 174.5 to 178.6 metres that averaged 25.71 g/t gold and 936 g/t silver). There are two tables showing the broad intervals of gold-silver mineralization and the high-grade, gold-silver-vein zones respectively.
As reported in Almaden's news release in Stockwatch on July 5, 2010, the veins are composed of banded fine-grained quartz, calcite, rhodochrosite and sulphides which display textures typical of classic low-sulphidation epithermal veins. The Ixtaca zone is a blind drilling discovery as there is very little surface manifestation of the veins. The discovery is the result of the company's interpretation of the surface geology and using epithermal models of mineralization.
J.D. Poliquin, chairman of Almaden, commented: "This is an exciting new gold-silver prospect in a brand new district. Both the high-grade and bulk-tonnage potential of this discovery have been demonstrated, and future exploration will now focus on developing a resource. Upon receiving the assay results from holes TU-10-2 and TU-10-3, a follow-up drilling program will be planned, likely to commence in early September, 2010."
BROAD INTERVALS, IXTACA ZONE, HOLE TU-10-1
From (m) To (m) Width (m) Gold (g/t) Silver (g/t) Gold Eq. (g/t) Ag/Au
47.5 349.91 302.41 1.01 48 1.7 47
including 62.00 275.00 213.00 1.23 62 2.2 51
and 101.00 275.00 174.00 1.49 74 2.6 50
and 225.77 271.26 45.49 1.95 69 3.0 36
and 315.00 349.91 34.91 1.23 32 1.7 26
HIGH-GRADE GOLD-SILVER INTERVALS, IXTACA ZONE, HOLE TU-10-1
From (m) To (m) Width (m) Gold (g/t) Silver (g/t) Gold Eq. (g/t) Ag/Au
106.70 109.73 3.03 4.44 453 11.4 102
174.50 178.60 4.10 25.71 936 40.1 36
including 174.50 176.17 1.67 60.66 2,112 93.2 35
and 174.50 175.20 0.70 129.00 4,288 195.0 33
202.30 215.06 12.76 1.45 116 3.2 80
225.17 263.13 10.96 3.90 114 5.7 29
including 225.77 233.45 7.86 5.44 136 7.5 25
and 230.72 233.45 2.73 5.35 312 10.2 58
and 232.62 233.45 0.83 8.30 641 18.2 77
253.54 261.90 8.36 2.71 61 3.6 22
315.65 319.43 3.78 9.53 279 13.8 29
including 315.65 317.40 1.75 17.28 527 25.4 31
Project details
The property lies within the trans-Mexican volcanic belt about 120 kilometres southeast of the Pachuca gold/silver deposit which has reported historic production of 1.4 billion ounces of silver and seven million ounces of gold. The Tuligtic property was acquired by staking in 2002 following prospecting work carried out by the company in the area. Since that time, Almaden has optioned the property to three separate partners, all of which have relinquished all rights to the property and none of which conducted work on the Ixtaca zone. The Ixtaca zone is located along a trend of shallowly eroded epithermal systems that Almaden has identified in eastern Mexico. Almaden has several other projects staked along this trend.
The Ixtaca zone occurs in deformed carbonate rocks about two kilometres southwest of the Tuligtic porphyry-copper zone where the first-ever drilling was carried out in late 2009 and early 2010. Surface manifestation of the Ixtaca zone is very obscure because the region is almost completely covered with a thin layer of recent volcanic ash. Reports of historic clay mines brought Almaden's attention to the area. These kaolinite and replacement silica alteration zones are typical of the surface manifestation of an ancient hot spring environment. Within the feeder faults which channel hot mineral solutions from depth to surface hot springs, quartz, carbonate, gold and silver can deposit. This was the model employed by the company in testing the Ixtaca zone where, in an arroyo beneath the kaolinite and silica alteration, some very narrow (0.1-to-three-centimetre) veins with epithermal textures occur in a small (about two-metre-by-five-metre) outcrop. These veins assayed up to one g/t gold and 110 g/t silver. Small cobbles of float in the creek returned assays of up to 600 g/t silver and another such cobble assayed six g/t gold. Work prior to drilling included a single induced polarization geophysical line across this area which detected a resistivity anomaly, and several short geochemical soil sample lines showed coincident anomalous gold and silver values.
There was not sufficient surface exposure to determine the strike or dip of the overall vein zone, nor the veins it comprised. Based on limited data, the three holes drilled to date were fanned out in a small area, each in a different direction to test the prospect. The site area chosen for this drilling was also constrained by topography. It is now apparent that all the holes were collared within the vein zone. This zone is now thought to have a general northeasterly trend, but at this time, true widths cannot be calculated with confidence. Additionally, individual veins have several different apparent attitudes and may not be oriented parallel to the strike of the overall vein zone.
Aimed at the centre of the resistivity anomaly, hole TU-10-1 was drilled at 110 degrees with a minus-55-degree dip and is considered to be oriented oblique to the vein zone. Hole TU-10-2 was drilled away from TU-10-1 with an azimuth of 330 degrees and a dip of minus 55 degrees. Hole TU-10-3 was drilled at an azimuth of 150 degrees with a dip of minus 50 degrees. Of the three holes, TU-10-1 is believed to have most completely crossed the core of the vein zone while holes TU-10-2 and TU-10-3 are thought to have been collared closer to the hangingwall and footwall, respectively. Accordingly, lower-vein frequency was observed in holes TU10-2 and TU-10-3. The assay results from TU-10-1 suggest that gold and silver grades may be increasing with depth. This is consistent with the shallow portions of epithermal vein systems as represented at the surface of the Ixtaca zone. Holes TU-10-2 and TU-10-3 are likely to have only intersected shallow levels of the portions of the vein system they crossed.
Dr. Morgan J. Poliquin, PhD, PEng, the president and chief executive officer of Almaden, and a qualified person under the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, reviewed the technical information in this news release. The analyses reported were carried out at ALS Chemex Laboratories of North Vancouver using industry-standard aqua regia, ICP and fire-assay techniques. Blanks, field duplicates and certified standards were inserted into the sample stream as part of Almaden's quality assurance and control program which complies with National Instrument 43-101 requirements. Gold-equivalent values were calculated using a silver-to-gold ratio of 65 to 1. Intervals that returned assays below detection were assigned zero values.
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