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Mirasol Resources Ltd
Symbol MRZ
Shares Issued 53,986,378
Close 2019-01-25 C$ 1.20
Market Cap C$ 64,783,654
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Mirasol consolidates Sascha-Marcelina Au-Ag district

2019-01-25 09:12 ET - News Release

Mr. Stephen Nano reports

MIRASOL CONSOLIDATES LARGE UNDEREXPLORED GOLD - SILVER DISTRICT IN SANTA CRUZ, ARGENTINA

Mirasol Resources Ltd. has signed an option-to-purchase agreement, completing consolidation of the large prospective Sascha-Marcelina low-sulphidation epithermal (LSE) Au-Ag district in Santa Cruz province, Argentina.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mirasol can acquire 100 per cent of the Marcelina claims from a privately owned mining company, by making staged option payments totalling $3.4-million (U.S.) over four years, with $3.15-million (U.S.) due on the fourth anniversary. If the option to purchase is exercised, the Marcelina claims will be subject to a 1.5-per-cent net smelter return royalty. There is a minimum $300,000 (U.S.) exploration spending commitment by Mirasol during the first three years of the option period.

Stephen Nano, president and chief executive officer of Mirasol, stated: "Consolidation of the very prospective Sascha and Marcelina projects into a large-scale district play has been a long-term objective of Mirasol. This agreement will allow the multiple underexplored prospects to be systematically explored utilizing the company's knowledge of large-zoned epithermal gold-plus-silver districts, gained through more than 15 years of successful exploration in Santa Cruz province."

Highlights of the Sascha district

The consolidated Marcelina district has a footprint in excess of 65 square kilometres, as defined by anomalous gold-plus-silver rock-chip samples and satellite-based alteration mapping.

The claims package comprises 30,600 hectares of contiguous exploration claims, including the 24,900-hectare Sascha claims, which are 100 per cent owned by Mirasol, and an additional 5,700 hectares controlled by Mirasol under the four-year option-to-purchase agreement.

The project is centred on the extensive Marcelina silica cap interpreted to represent the preserved steam-heated alteration and water table silica blanket, a feature typical of the near-paleosurface level of an LSE gold-plus-silver system.

Multikilometre-long gold-plus-silver vein and structural trends, which traverse and outcrop surrounding the Marcelina silica cap, display similarities in areal extent and geological setting to the Cerro Negro silica cap, where Goldcorp operates the Vein Zone and Bajo Negro mines in the world-class Cerro Negro gold-plus-silver mining district located 100 kilometres to the north of Sascha-Marcelina.

Rock-chip samples from the Sascha-Marcelina district have assays ranging from weakly gold anomalous (10 parts per billion) in the area of the silica cap (above the mineralized epithermal interval), up to a peak assay of 160 grams per tonne gold (5.14 ounces per ton) and 780 grams per tonne silver (25.07 ounces per ton) at the Sascha Main prospect (interpreted top of the high-grade gold-plus-silver-mineralized epithermal interval).

Initial remodelling of shallow drilling, completed at the five-kilometre-long Sascha vein trend in 2009 by then joint venture partner Coeur Mining, shows that grade vectors to depth with interpreted untested gold-plus-silver shoots of higher-grade mineralization, representing compelling priority targets for drill testing.

Other mineralized trends recognized at the project have not been systematically mapped, sampled or previously drill tested, suggesting significant potential to define new drill targets along these trends using current exploration technologies and new deposit models.

Mirasol is mobilizing a field team to the Marcelina district to begin a program of systematic surface exploration to define drill targets. This exploration will initially be focused on the Estancia, Igloo and Sascha vein trends.

Project history and ownership

The consolidated district comprises 30,600 hectares of contiguous exploration claims. Mirasol staked 16,500 hectares of the claims in 2003 to secure the Sascha vein zone. At that time, the Marcelina claims were held by competitors. The Mirasol-controlled five-kilometre-long Sascha vein zone was partially drill tested on the western end while under joint venture to Coeur Mining from 2006 to 2009. Two shallow holes were also drill by Coeur at the Sasha Sur prospect, into what Mirasol now interprets as the footwall of the structure, which warrants further testing. Coeur terminated the joint venture in 2009 and returned 100 per cent of the project to Mirasol. On Jan. 23, 2019, Mirasol signed an option to purchase for the 5,700-hectare Marcelina claims, consolidating the full district under one company for the first time.

Project geology and exploration

Mirasol has recently completed an integrated interpretation of district-scale exploration data sets collected prior to 2009. Anomalous rock-chip gold-plus-silver assays and Aster satellite alteration anomalies defined a 16.5-kilometre-by-four-kilometre (65 square kilometres) footprint to the district, showing a large-scale, zoned alteration system characteristic of a large LSE gold-plus-silver system. Five multikilometre-long mineralized vein and silicified breccia trends have been recognized to date across the consolidated district. The trends traverse the Marcelina silica cap or outcrop through postmineral gravel and basalt cover that surrounds the silica cap.

Interpretation of mapped volcanic and sedimentary stratigraphy, gold-plus-silver and multielement geochemistry, and alteration mineralogy shows that different levels of the epithermal system outcrop across the district, exposing what are interpreted to be different levels of the mineralized column of an LSE gold-plus-silver system. These patterns can be summarized as follows.

Marcelina silica cap

The geologic and geomorphic setting of the Marcelina silica cap and related silica structures and veins is analogous to the Cerro Negro silica cap, where Goldcorp is mining plus-million-ounce gold-plus-silver resources at Bajo Negro and Vein Zone deposits at the Cerro Negro mine located 100 kilometres to the north of the Sascha-Marcelina project.

The Marcelina silica cap is a three-square-kilometre area of argillic (kaolinite with minor dickite plus or minus alunite) alteration with extensive areas of low-temperature silica breccia structures and replacement of the host volcanics. The silicification is interpreted to have been deposited at the top of a hydrothermal system (paleowater table silica blanket) at the time of formation, suggesting that the complete epithermal mineral system maybe preserved at depth in this area.

The silica cap is crosscut by large northwest- and northeast-oriented silica structures and structural breccias (Pellegrini trends 1 and 2), interpreted to represent feeder structures for the silicification. Rock-chip sampling of the structures and breccias returned weakly anomalous gold, averaging 60 parts per billion and assaying up to 180 parts per billion gold and up to 11.2 parts per million silver with elevated arsenic, antimony and mercury. The assay results, in conjunction with the interpreted geological setting, suggest the Pellegrini trends may represent the upper level of mineralized vein zones, with the potential for high-grade gold-plus-silver mineralization at depth, and therefore are considered conceptual exploration targets for future drill testing.

An extensive postmineral gravel apron surrounds the immediate area of the Marcelina silica cap, concealing extensions of the alteration system, strike projections of the gold-plus-silver silica-breccia structures and potentially additional mineralized veins. Systematic mapping and geochemical sampling of the Pellegrini trends with ground magnetic and electrical geophysics surveys of the Marcelina silica cap and the gravel cover will be used to identify and refine conceptual targets for later drill testing.

Estancia, Sascha Sur and Igloo trends

These prospect areas are characterized by multikilometre-long trends of intermittently outcropping sheeted epithermal veinlet zones up to 20-metre-wide and locally developed breccia pipes, with multiphase hydrothermal brecciation. The host volcanics are altered to an intermediate argillic assemblage of illite-smectite clays. Initial rock-chip sampling of these trends averages approximately 150 parts per billion with peak assays up to 1.62 grams per tonne gold and up to 158 grams per tonne silver.

The alteration assemblage, assay results and silica textures seen at these prospects, are consistent with the interpretation that these trends may represent the top of the mineralized interval in an LSE system. The anomalous gold-plus-silver assays potentially represent geochemical leakage from concealed higher-grade precious metal mineralization at shallow (100 metres to 200 metres) depths.

The host rocks at the current outcrop level of the Estancia, Sascha Sur and Igloo trends are ash and crystal tuffs of the upper middle Jurassic Matilda formation. These volcanics are poor host rocks for large fissure vein formation. However, Mirasol's stratigraphic mapping at the Marcelina project shows that more permissive host rocks for fissure vein formation, including welded ignimbrite flows of the middle Jurassic Chon Aike formation, are present in the stratigraphy underlying these prospects. Mirasol will use a combination of detailed geological structural mapping, selective geochemical sampling, alteration vectoring studies and electrical geophysics to refine targets for drill testing.

The Estancia, Sascha Sur and Igloo trends represent priority drill targets for potential high-grade gold-plus-silver mineralization and will be the initial focus of surface exploration.

Sascha Main

Previous surface mapping and rock-chip sampling (see Sascha gold-silver project National Instrument 43-101 technical report (2004) and news release dated Feb. 21, 2006) of the Sascha Main prospect identified outcrop expressions of a series of mineralized shoots hosting high-grade gold-plus-silver mineralization. Rock-chip assays of this material ranged up to 160 grams per tonne gold and 780 grams per tonne silver, with precious metal mineralization reporting to chalcedony-adularia colloform-banded pulses hosting fine bands of sulphides and native gold (ginguro phases).

Previous joint venture partner drilling at the Sascha vein zone (see news release dated Sept. 5, 2007) included 19 diamond drill holes that partially tested the vein zone to a maximum depth of 200 metres. Drilling intersected narrow zones of gold-plus-silver mineralization, including a best interval of 1.55 metres at 8.92 grams per tonne gold and 27.7 grams per tonne silver (hole DDS-02) but did not intersect the ginguro phases with native gold evident at surface. Mirasol's remodelling of the Sascha Main exploration data suggests that the drilling may not have tested the targets optimally, possibly missing the tops of plunging high-grade shoots that could potentially to extend to depth. These shoot tops are priority targets for drill testing at the Sascha Main prospect.

Stephen Nano, president and chief executive officer of Mirasol, has approved the technical content of this news release. Mr. Nano is a chartered professional geologist and fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CP and FAusIMM) and is a qualified person under NI 43-101.

Quality assurance/quality control of the Sascha exploration program

All exploration on the project was supervised by Mirasol chief executive officer Stephen C. Nano, who is the qualified person under NI 43-101.

Mirasol applies industry-standard exploration sampling methodologies and techniques. All geochemical soil, stream, rock and drill samples are collected under the supervision of the company's geologists in accordance with industry practice. Geochemical assays are obtained and reported under a quality assurance/quality control program. Samples are dispatched to an ISO 9001:2008-accredited laboratory in Argentina for analysis. Assay results from surface rock, channel, trench and drill core samples may be higher, lower or similar to results obtained from surface samples due to surficial oxidation and enrichment processes or due to natural geological-grade variations in the primary mineralization.

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