TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Mexico-focused explorer Newstrike Capital on Monday said it had completed an independent technical report on its Ejutla property, in Oaxaca state, Mexico, which confirmed three significant mineralised structural corridors, each host to extensive gold/silver-bearing low-sulphideation epithermal veins.

The National Instrument 43-101-compliant report, completed by geologist Robert Lunceford of Reno, Nevada, concluded that the geochemical sampling and geologic mapping completed on the property indicated a style of low-sulphidation gold/silver mineralisation that was believed to be similar to gold/silver mineralisation in the central Taviche mining district.

“Work completed by the company on the Ejutla property has been successful in advancing the property to a stage where drill testing is warranted and necessary to determine the economic viability of the property,” Lunceford concluded.

Ejutla comprises the 18 866 ha Ejutla Fracc 2 claim block, 100% owned by Newstrike with no royalties, 45 km south of the capital city of Oaxaca de Juarez.

The property is in the region of Fortuna Silver's producing San José-Trinidad mine, 20 km to the west of Ejutla, and Gold Resources' El Águila mine, which is 25 km to the east, as well as several other Canadian exploration projects.

Newstrike reported that it would now evaluate the report’s recommendations for further exploration and drilling to select the targets and scope of work for future focused exploration programmes.

“I’m extremely pleased with the progress being made on site and Ejutla’s potential upside. Given the geology, mineralisation, size and location, the property is shaping up to be an attractive gold/silver exploration opportunity,” Newstrike president and CEO Richard Whittall commented in a prepared statement.

EXPLORATION UPSIDE

Newstrike reported in June that among the exploration highlights were channel sample 59092, which measured 0.412 g/t of gold and 701 g/t silver over a 0.6 m interval, sample 29055, which measured 0.013 g/t gold and 664 g/t silver over a 5 m interval and sample 39466, which measured 1.26 g/t gold and 14 g/t silver over a 1.8 m interval.

The three structural corridors consist of a series of north-west-trending fracture zones that display important northerly and north-easterly-trending splays, each filled by mineralised felsic dikes and/or by complex sub-parallel mineralised low-sulphidation banded epithermal quartz and quartz/calcite veins and vein systems typical of structures in the surrounding Taviche mining district.

Individual veins vary in thickness from a few centimetres to as much as 10 m and are separated by a host wallrock that displays extensive argillic alteration and silicification.

One of the structural corridors, ‘Las Casas’, located in the western half of the property, had been most extensively explored to date and was mapped in detail over an 8 km strike length, with outcrop evidence suggesting it exceeded 10 km along strike and was as much as 3 km in width.

Vein textures and geochemistry were found to be typical of those encountered in the boiling zones of epithermal systems or just above the boiling zone, indicating that the higher parts of the mineralised system were exposed at surface.

Newstrike added that the location was an ideal scenario for preserving potential metal lodes at depth. Mapping was ongoing to advance the other two structural corridors, both of which exceeded several kilometres along strike and vary from 1 km to 2 km in width.

Newstrike is also focused on developing its low-risk, high-grade Ana Paula gold exploration project, in Mexico’s Guerrero gold belt.