Vancouver, Canada, September 28th, 2021 – Heliostar Metals Limited (TSX.V: HSTR, OTCQX: HSTXF, FRA: RGG1) ("Heliostar" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a successful sampling and mapping program at its 100% owned Cumaro Project in northern Sonora State, Mexico.
Program Highlights
Sample Highlights
Heliostar CEO, Charles Funk, commented: “Heliostar considers each of its projects in Mexico to be a potential company maker and these results from Cumaro are a significant step towards this goal. These veins trend from a historic mine on SilverCrest Metals’ claims to the west and extend onto Heliostar’s ground, where they have never been drilled. Returning so many high-grade hits on surface over a broad area is very positive. The company continues detailed sampling in the eastern half of the claims to finalize a maiden drill program at Cumaro.”
Cumaro Detail
The Cumaro project is a five square kilometre inset claim within the El Picacho district. It hosts the extensions of the El Salto, Dos Amigos, Basaitegui and Verde Veins (Figure 1). The current geological model indicates that a fault divides the Picacho-Cumaro district into western and eastern halves. West of the fault, where these results have been collected, veining and mineralization are exposed at surface. On the eastern side of the fault host rocks are interpreted as down-dropped, exposing only the weakly altered upper portions of the veins and thereby preserving the mineralized vein system at depth.
The robust gold assays reported in this release resulted from a detailed sampling and mapping program that was undertaken to define drill targets in the westernmost part of the Cumaro claim (Figure 1). Despite the presence of historical mine workings, the veins in the western part of the Cumaro claim have never been drill tested.
Detailed mapping and sampling delineated three mineralized structures in the Verde Vein Corridor (Figure 2):
The Verde and Orilla Veins are sub-parallel northwest striking, steeply dipping epithermal veins, separated by about 60 metres that dip towards each other. Banded quartz and calcite with areas of green quartz make up most of the vein’s geology. Similar green quartz occurs within the high-grade areas of many mineralized systems in northern Sonora and this relationship holds true at Cumaro. Select samples from the green quartz returned values up to 41.2 g/t gold and 364 g/t silver. Gold and silver values spike at vein bends and intersections within the vein corridor.
The Verde Vein can be traced as a single vein over a length of 500 metres at surface with numerous exposures of high-grade gold and silver. Vein width ranges from 0.5 metres to greater than 2 metres. There is an 85 metre long historic tunnel on a single level that is accessible and underground exposures of the vein returned values including 1.75 metres at 11.5 g/t gold and 125 g/t silver and 1.65 metres at 11.9 g/t gold and 130 g/t silver at the eastern end of the drift. Grades increase to the east where underground access ends. Strong up-dip surface results such as 3 metres at 4.68 g/t gold and 60.8 g/t silver demonstrate good continuity of mineralization and makes this vein an excellent drill target.
The Orilla Vein can be traced as multiple sub-parallel veins over a strike length of more than 750 metres. Surface exposures of this vein return values such as 0.8 metres at 11.3 g/t gold and 146 g/t silver and 2.25 metres at 3.57 g/t gold and 29.9 g/t silver.
The junction of the Verde and Orilla Veins presents a compelling target in the form of a dilational zone and ore shoot. Since the vein interpretation shows them dipping towards each other, this ore shoot may be shallowly plunging and this intersection is another excellent drill target.
The Shaft Area is a high-grade zone of stockwork green quartz veining hosted within a porphyritic rhyolite dyke. The dyke strikes east-west and the exposure runs over 300 metres long and up to 20 metres wide. The pre-mineral dyke hosts several strongly mineralized intervals including 5.0 metres at 2.79 g/t gold and 39.9 g/t silver, 2.1 metres at 8.35 g/t gold and 91.8 g/t silver and 5.9 metres at 2.65 g/t gold and 104.7 g/t silver.
Exploration within the Verde Vein Corridor is on-going to expand on current outcropping mineralization and define additional drill targets ahead of the maiden drill program at Cumaro.
Furthermore, several other veins are present on the western side of Cumaro that will be mapped and sampled in detail in the coming weeks. Priorities include the extensions of the Dos Amigos Vein from the neighbouring El Picacho property. Additionally, detailed sampling and mapping will be conducted on the main vein trends identified on the eastern half of Cumaro in earlier programs.
On the eastern side, the veining and mineralization is only partially exposed by erosion. The full vertical extent of the precious metals system could be preserved at depth. No drilling has occurred within the Cumaro claim.
Previous Heliostar programs completed at eastern Cumaro defined surface alteration corridors of clay and silica-clay alteration. These assemblages support the interpreted shallow level of erosion. Sampling from that program returned 390 g/t silver from a 1.0 metre channel which demonstrates the potential for high grade mineralization. Additionally, a greater than 1 g/t silver anomaly over a 500 by 600 metre area may also define another mineralized system at depth.
Heliostar’s exploration at Cumaro prioritizes these locations. The company plans to identify additional drill targets through ongoing geologic mapping and sampling. We look forward to announcing further results.
Table of Significant intercepts
Quality Assurance / Quality Control
Rock samples were shipped to ALS Limited in Hermosillo, Sonora for sample preparation and for analysis at the ALS laboratory in North Vancouver. The ALS Hermosillo and North Vancouver facilities are ISO/IEC 17025 certified. Silver and base metals were analyzed using a four-acid digestion with an ICP finish and gold was assayed by 30-gram fire assay with atomic absorption (“AA”) spectroscopy finish and overlimits were analyzed by 50g fire assay with gravimetric finish.
Control samples comprising certified reference samples and blank samples were systematically inserted into the sample stream and analyzed as part of the Company’s quality assurance / quality control protocol.
Qualified Person
The Company’s disclosure of technical or scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Stewart Harris, P.Geo., Exploration Manager for the Company. Mr. Harris is a Qualified Person as defined under the terms of National Instrument 43-101.
About Heliostar Metals Ltd.
Heliostar is a well-financed junior exploration and development company with a portfolio of high-grade gold projects in Alaska and Mexico.
The company’s flagship asset is the 100% controlled Unga Gold Project on Unga and Popof Islands in Alaska. The project hosts an intermediate sulfidation epithermal gold deposit, located within the district-scale property that encompasses 240 km2 across the two islands. Additional targets on the property include porphyry copper-gold targets, high sulphidation targets and intermediate sulphidation epithermal veins.
On Unga Island, priority targets include: the SH-1 and Aquila, both on the Shumagin Trend, the former Apollo-Sitka mine, which was Alaska’s first underground gold mine, and the Zachary Bay porphyry gold-copper prospect.
Gold mineralization at the Centennial Zone is located on neighbouring Popof Island within four kilometres of infrastructure and services at Sand Point.
In Mexico, the company owns 100% of three early-stage epithermal projects in Sonora that are highly prospective for gold and silver. Cumaro forms part of the El Picacho district, while the Oso Negro and La Lola projects are early-stage projects considered prospective for epithermal gold-silver mineralization.
For additional information please contact:
Charles Funk
Chief Executive Officer
Heliostar Metals Limited
Email: charles.funk@heliostarmetals.com
Rob Grey
Investor Relations Manager
Heliostar Metals Limited
Phone: +1 778 357 1313
Email: rob.grey@heliostarmetals.com
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Information. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements in this press release include Heliostar’s plans to continue aggressive exploration at Unga in 2021 and its goal of defining a resource in excess of one million ounces, its plan to continue infill drilling to expand to depth where the system remains open, and its belief that the SH-1 prospect has considerable potential for expansion. Although Heliostar believes that the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not a guarantee of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, weather, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
