Azure Minerals unearths massive near surface 126m gold intercept at Loma Bonita

Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) has unearthed a massive 126m gold intercept while drilling the Loma Bonita gold-silver deposit within its wholly-owned Alacran project in Mexico.

The 126m intercept graded 2 grams per tonne gold and 26g/t silver from 1.5m.

Within it was a 34.5m interval grading 3.9g/t gold and 60g/t silver from 76.5m.

The massive intercept was uncovered during infill drilling, with expansion drilling returning 36m at 1g/t gold from 12m.

Loma Bonita has a current resource of 5.4 million tonnes at 0.9g/t gold and 28g/t silver for 150,000 ounces of contained gold and 4.8Moz silver.

To date, 10 holes for 1,259.5m have been completed at the project, with drilling now underway at the Cerro San Simon prospect.

Previous drilling at this prospect has returned 29.6m at 0.56g/t gold and 27g/t silver, and 63m at 0.47g/t gold and 27g/t silver.

Alacran gold project

Azure claims Sonora, where Alacran is located, is a tier one mining province within a safe, stable and supportive jurisdiction.

The region is believed to have a mining history spanning 500 years, with a strong mining culture and competitive tax rates.

Global resources at Alacran are 150,000oz gold and 32Moz silver, including 15.5Moz of silver grading 275g/t.

Mineralisation at the project is shallow and amenable to a simple open pit mining, with favourable metallurgy to develop a low-cost high profit mining operation.

Priority targets at the project include Loma Bonita and the high-grade silver deposit Mesa de Plata.

A lower priority target has been identified at Cerro Alacran, which hosts 220,000t of copper.

Oposura zinc-lead-silver project

In addition to Alacran, Azure owns the Oposura zinc-lead-silver project where trial processing during the December quarter generated 35% zinc, 20% lead and 140g/t silver.

The concentrates were produced from a small-scale open pit mining operation that was carried out in August and September last year.

This generated 6,100t of ore grading 13.4% zinc and 10.7% lead.

Azure is continuing with trialling, assessing and advancing various processing and offtake options for the zinc, lead and silver concentrates.