00:53:27 EDT Fri 03 May 2024
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Torex Gold Resources Inc (2)
Symbol TXG
Shares Issued 85,885,453
Close 2024-02-23 C$ 13.66
Market Cap C$ 1,173,195,288
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Torex drills 37.1m of 14.75 g/t AuEq at ELG underground

2024-02-26 12:17 ET - News Release

Ms. Jody Kuzenko reports

TOREX GOLD REPORTS ADDITIONAL IMPRESSIVE DRILLING RESULTS FROM ELG UNDERGROUND

Torex Gold Resources Inc. has provided an update on the company's continuing drilling program at ELG underground, the results of which continue to support the company's strategy to extend and optimize the mine life of ELG Underground and fill the mill beyond 2027.

Jody Kuzenko, president and chief executive officer of Torex, stated:

"The investment in our 2023 drilling program at ELG underground continued to build on the positive results achieved year on year to grow the overall mineral endowment at ELG and unlock the significant cash generation potential of the Morelos asset. Drilling was successful in identifying a new zone of mineralization where the La Flaca fault intersects the El Limon Sur trend near existing underground infrastructure. Highly positive drill results, including an outstanding intercept of 11.75 grams per tonne gold equivalent over nearly 23 metres, further support the potential to bring mineralization in this area into a mineral resource estimate when the company releases its year-end 2023 mineral reserve and resource update in March.

"Additionally, drilling carried out in the latter portion of 2023 extended higher-grade mineralization along the southern portion of the El Limon Sur trend (29.88 g/t AuEq over 9.6 m) and further bolstered the mineralized potential at the 400 m level (5.53 g/t AuEq over 3.7 m), which is the deepest level drilled to date within this trend. At the El Limon West trend, drilling continues to support the potential for a new mining front, with mineralization open along strike and at depth, while drilling along the Sub-Sill and El Limon Deep trends also extended mineralization outside of existing resources.

"The 2023 drilling program has reinforced our confidence in the ability to continue to grow resources and extend the reserve life of ELG underground, all with a goal of filling the mill with higher-grade feed and maintaining annual gold equivalent production of over 450,000 ounces beyond 2027."

1) For additional information on Torex's five-year production outlook, please refer to the company's press release dated Jan. 16, 2024, titled "Torex Gold provides 2024 operational guidance and updated five-year production outlook."

Highlights

The final results of the 2023 exploration and drilling program at ELG underground support potential reserve replacement and expansion of the mineralized footprint, indicating the potential to extend the life of ELG underground beyond 2026. The exploration team has encountered untapped upside along the identified structural trends, many of which are in close proximity to existing underground infrastructure, which will allow investments made to date to be leveraged.

El Limon Sur trend:

  • Drill hole LS-295 returned 29.88 g/t AuEq over 9.6 m, confirming the continuity of high-grade mineralization along the southern extension of the El Limon Sur trend. This mineralization was encountered 30 m north of the previously reported high-grade intercept in drill hole LS-293 (20.74 g/t AuEq over 4.6 m), indicating potential for a high-grade zone that is open along trend to the south.
  • Follow-up drilling to test the continuity of mineralization at the 400 m level encountered 5.53 g/t AuEq over 3.7 m in drill hole SST-318, more than 300 m south of the previously reported drill hole SST-299 (4.17 g/t AuEq over 3.7 m).
  • Drilling targeting mineralization at the junction of the El Limon Sur trend and La Flaca fault returned outstanding results. The best intercept was from drill hole LDUG-239 at 11.75 g/t AuEq over 22.9 m, located in an expanding new zone of mineralization measuring 400 m high by 400 m wide that includes multiple intercepts above five g/t AuEq. These findings indicate the potential to increase both indicated and inferred resources at year-end 2023. When considered in conjunction with the other drilling results in this area, this mineralization may also be open at depth to at least the 400 m elevation level, which is the deepest the drilling has been conducted to date within the El Limon Sur trend.

El Limon Deep trend:

  • Infill drilling along the El Limon Deep trend continued to return high-grade intercepts, including 26.93 g/t AuEq over 3.6 m, 14.75 g/t AuEq over 37.1 m and 7.87 g/t AuEq over 6.4 m in drill hole LDUG-299, and 9.26 g/t AuEq over 3.4 m and 5.26 g/t AuEq over 6.8 m in drill hole LDUG-303. Drill hole LDUG-311 (10.21 g/t AuEq over 20.6 m and 6.21 g/t AuEq over 6.8 m) extended mineralization to the south and confirmed mineralization in this region plunges to the southwest.

Sub-Sill trend:

  • Drilling confirmed the continuity of mineralization along the Sub-Sill trend north of the La Flaca fault and encountered high-grade mineralization, including drill hole LDUG-238, which returned 9.65 g/t AuEq over 12.3 m. Importantly, these intercepts are located in close proximity to existing underground infrastructure.

El Limon West trend:

  • Stepout drilling to the south along the El Limon West trend encountered 13.73 g/t AuEq over four m and 11.92 g/t AuEq over 3.6 m in drill hole LS-290, expanding the mineralized footprint of the El Limon Sur pit to the south and reinforcing the high-grade potential at depth in this area.
  • Follow-up drilling conducted near drill hole LS-229 (6.90 g/t AuEq over 3.4 m, previously reported) confirmed the continuity of mineralization 100 m to the south at the 550 m level, with drill hole LS-231 returning an intercept of 3.01 g/t AuEq over 3.1 m. Further work will be conducted to assess the mineralization potential at this depth northwest along trend toward the Z71 fault.

2023 ELG underground drilling program

In 2023, 60,699 m across 248 holes were drilled as part of the ELG brownfield and near-mine exploration and drilling programs, achieving the target set for the year. Assay results have been returned for all holes drilled and will be reported with the company's year-end 2023 mineral reserve and resource update.

A majority of this latest round of drilling was dedicated to delineating new resources within the most promising areas of the El Limon Sur trend, where stepout drilling yielded high-grade results. Additionally, mineralization was extended both north and south along the Sub-Sill and El Limon West trends.

As a result of this success, the 2024 program will focus on further exploring the northeast-trending structural corridors, with a particular focus on their intersections with the La Flaca fault where the highest grades and volumes of mineralization are concentrated. Initial drilling efforts will test the depth extensions of these mineralized zones before exploring lateral continuity along the corridors. Approximately $12-million has been allocated to infill and stepout drilling (total of 54,500 m) at ELG underground in 2024. The overall objective of the program continues to be the replacement of reserves and expansion of resources, all with the aim of continuing to extend the life of ELG underground.

El Limon Sur trend

Drilling along the El Limon Sur trend in 2023 focused on expanding resources, particularly where the trend intersects the La Flaca fault above the 600 m elevation level. Results have been successful, with many intercepts exceeding five g/t AuEq with widths ranging from three m to 23 m, indicating the potential to add ounces to year-end 2023 mineral resources.

Of particular note, earlier results from the 2023 drilling program indicated the potential extension of this mineralized zone to a depth of 400 m. Newly reported drill hole SST-318 not only confirms the vertical continuity of mineralization, but also validates the extension of deeper mineralization within the El Limon Sur trend south of the Z71 fault.

Exploration at the southern known boundary of the El Limon Sur trend also encountered high-grade mineralization, potentially expanding resources to the south and indicating that this mineralization may be plunging to the southeast. Drill hole LS-295, located 30 m north of the high-grade intercept previously encountered in drill hole LS-293, returned an intercept with AuEq grades close to one ounce per tonne over 9.6 m. This indicates the potential for a high-grade zone of mineralization along this trend that is open to the south and at depth.

Furthermore, continuing drill results in this area consistently returned impressive levels of copper mineralization, indicating the potential to enhance future copper production if proven as mineral reserves and once upgrades to the processing plant are completed later this year as part of the Media Luna project.

El Limon Deep trend

Infill drilling conducted along the northeast-trending structural corridor known as the El Limon Deep trend returned several notable intercepts, indicating the potential to upgrade inferred resources to the indicated category with the year-end 2023 mineral resource update. A number of the latest drill holes, including LDUG-299 and LDUG-303, returned multiple intercepts exceeding five g/t AuEq.

Stepout drilling targeting resource categorization extended mineralization at depth by approximately 200 m. Mineralization remains open at depth and further work will be conducted in 2024 to test the full extension of this trend.

Drilling in this area also encountered high-grade mineralization such as drill hole LDUG-311, which returned 10.21 g/t AuEq over 20.6 m. This is comparable with the mineralized zone that follows the El Limon Sur trend, a further indicator that the overall system is controlled by the intersection of north-south-trending structural corridors with the northeast-trending La Flaca fault.

Sub-Sill trend

One of the most significant findings along the Sub-Sill trend was the continuation of mineralization north of the La Flaca fault. Drilling in this area encountered high-grade mineralization, confirming the exploration potential to the north, further enhanced by their proximity to existing underground infrastructure.

Additionally, between the La Flaca and Z71 faults, drilling in five holes confirmed the inferred resources' block model, with grades in three holes ranging from four to six g/t AuEq and thicknesses not exceeding six metres. Two holes did not encounter mineralization, thus confirming the geometry of this mineralized zone.

Finally, south of the Z71 fault, the exploratory hole SST-325 encountered mineralization along the southern extension of the trend, indicating that the trend remains open to the south.

El Limon West trend

Follow-up drilling along the El Limon West trend was successful in confirming the continuity of mineralization to the south, most notably in drill hole LS-290, which returned multiple high-grade intercepts. Additionally, follow-up drilling conducted via hole LS-231, located 100 metres to the south of the previously reported intercept from LS-229, confirms the continuity of deeper mineralization identified in this zone. Drilling in this area continues to support the potential for a new mining front, with mineralization open along strike and at depth. Results indicate that mineralization is trending north toward the Z71 fault, a hypothesis that will be the focus of drilling in this area in 2024.

Geology of the ELG mine complex

The ELG mine complex, located in the central part of the Guerrero gold belt in southwest Mexico, is hosted in the Mesozoic carbonate-rich Morelos platform, which has been intruded by Paleocene granodiorite stocks, sills, dikes and afterward uplifted close to surface by maar-diatreme complexes.

Skarn-hosted gold mineralization develops along contacts of the intrusive rocks and carbonate-rich sedimentary rocks of the Cuautla and Morelos formations, as well as along the footwall contact of the Mezcala formation. At depth, the mineralization has a strong structural control related to the main stages of deformation, with the collision of allochthonous terrain being responsible for the major north-south faults, while the almost east-west faulting is associated with the beginning of a subduction process.

Gold mineralization at ELG occurs in spatial association with a skarn body that was developed along a two-kilometre-long corridor following the northeast contact of the ELG granodiorite stock. The skarn zone that occurs at the marble stratigraphic level of the Morelos formation is in contact with hornfels developed in the Mezcala formation. At El Limon, skarn mineralization is also structurally controlled by north-south- and northeast-trending faults. Early-stage deposition corresponds to skarn alteration and mineralization at ELG and is fairly typical of calcic gold-skarn systems. Zones of coarse, massive, garnet-dominant skarn appear within and along the stock margin, with fine-grained pyroxene-dominant skarn more common at greater distances from the contact with the stock. Significant gold mineralization at ELG is spatially associated with the skarn, preferentially occurring in pyroxene-rich exoskarn but also hosted in garnet-rich endoskarn that has been affected by retrograde alteration, which suggests that the most important gold event is late stage, strongly related to bismuth and of epithermal origin.

Dikes and sills are found to crosscut the hornfels and marble, along the structural trends mentioned above, and are spatially associated with the skarn formation. In some cases, these are the ore controls of the main gold mineralization stage at depth.

The style of mineralization along the El Limon Deep, El Limon Sur, Sub-Sill and El Limon West trends is characterized by gold, with locally high silver and copper grades. Given that gold precipitates due to the buffer exerted by the early stage of calc-silicate alteration and sulphide mineralization, it is free and generally dissociated from the previous copper event mainly related to chalcopyrite.

Quality assurance/quality control and qualified person

Torex maintains an industry-standard analytical quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) and data verification program to monitor laboratory performance and ensure high-quality assays. Results from this program confirm reliability of the assay results. All sampling and analytical work for the mine exploration program is performed by SGS de Mexico SA de CV in Durango, and by SGS at Minera Media Luna site facilities in Mexico. Gold analyses comprise fire assays with atomic absorption or gravimetric finish. External check assays for QA/QC purposes are performed at ALS Chemex de Mexico SA de CV.

The analytical QA/QC program is currently overseen by Carlo Nasi, chief mine geologist for Minera Media Luna SA de CV.

Scientific and technical data contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Carolina Milla, PEng. Ms. Milla is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (member ID No. 168350), has experience relevant to the style of mineralization under consideration, is a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, and is an employee of Torex. Ms. Milla has verified the data disclosed, including sampling, analytical and test data underlying the drill results; verification included visually reviewing the drill holes in three dimensions, comparing the assay results with the original assay certificates, reviewing the drilling database and reviewing core photography consistent with standard practice. Ms. Milla consents to the inclusion in this release of said data in the form and context in which they appear.

Additional information on the ELG underground, sampling and analyses, analytical labs, and methods used for data verification is available in the company's technical report entitled the "Morelos Property, NI 43-101 Technical Report, ELG Mine Complex Life of Mine Plan and Media Luna Feasibility Study, Guerrero State, Mexico," dated effective March 16, 2022, filed on March 31, 2022, and in the annual information form (AIF) dated March 30, 2023, each filed on SEDAR+ and the company's website.

About Torex Gold Resources Inc.

Torex is an intermediate gold producer based in Canada, engaged in the exploration, development and operation of its 100-per-cent-owned Morelos property, an area of 29,000 hectares in the highly prospective Guerrero gold belt located 180 kilometres southwest of Mexico City. The company's principal asset is the Morelos complex, which includes the El Limon Guajes (ELG) mine complex, the Media Luna project, a processing plant and related infrastructure. Commercial production from the Morelos complex commenced on April 1, 2016, and an updated technical report for the Morelos complex was released in March, 2022. Torex's key strategic objectives are to optimize and extend production from the ELG mine complex, derisk and advance Media Luna to commercial production, build on ESG (environmental, social, governance) excellence, and to grow through continuing exploration across the entire Morelos property.

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