Prospero Silver Identifies Large Epithermal Targets, Substantially Increases Landholding in Santa Maria Del Oro District, Mexico
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/02/12 -- Prospero Silver Corp. (TSX VENTURE: PSL) ('Prospero' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce the acquisition (through staking) of an additional 19,272 hectares in the Santa Maria del Oro gold/silver district. The new ground lies to the northeast and east of the historic, high-grade gold Magistral vein system. With this addition, Prospero holds a total of approximately 33,000 hectares that surround the historic Magistral del Oro mines, records from which indicate oxide ore mined at an average grade exceeding 15 g/t Au through the mid-20th century. The project claims are located in Durango state, 220km NW of Durango City, and 20km west of Inde.
The two new targets in this 19,272 Ha package are:
The Matorral Zone - This structurally controlled epithermal vein system is at least 7km long. Detailed mapping and sampling are currently in progress to define targets.
The Pastoria-Llanos de Cabrera valley - The area of interest measures 14km x 12km and the company believes this to be a large hot spring environment. A multi-elemental soil sampling program across the valley is currently in progress to better define the optimum sampling grid for the entire valley.
Geology
The Matorral target is a major northwest to north trending, high level, structurally controlled, epithermal vein system at least 7km in length and intimately associated with a felsitic dike complex which exhibits the same structural trends. Both the veins and the dikes are hosted in Jurassic clastic metasediments, andesites and limestones. These are the same host rocks present in the historic portion of the district to the west. This zone is located 9km northeast of the historic Cocinera and Recompensa mines.
The high level veins are characterized by the presence of red jasperoids with high primary iron oxide content, as well as pyrite where unoxidized. The jasperoids represent both vein fill as well as replacement silica in bodies up to over 100m away from feeder structures, particularly in limestone host rocks. Detailed mapping and sampling are currently in progress to define targets in the Matorral system.
Further east in the Pastoria-Llanos de Cabrera valley, extensive jasper float occurs in soils of conspicuous red color. The iron-rich soils in the valley occur over an area of 14km x 12km. The telltale jasper boulders in the soils are concentrated in the western portion of the valley covering an area of approximately 7km x 3km.
Stockwork zones below a sinter environment have hosted hot spring gold deposits in other projects around the world, McLaughlin (California) being a particularly well-known example. Along the western margin of the Cabrera valley a Tertiary marker rhyolite crystal tuff seen in outcrops hosts abundant stratiform lenses of jasper. The Company believes that these could reflect hot spring activity (sinters) and suggests that the jasperoids represent a position close to or at the top of the hydrothermal system. Under the marker rhyolite crystal tuff a carbonate sequence with invasive silicification and alteration appears to represent near paleo-surface hydrothermalism.
While outcrops only occur along certain portions of small creeks that cross the valley, it appears that an extensive paleo-hot spring type environment could underlie the Pastoria.Llanos de Cabrera valley.
A multi-elemental soil sampling program across the valley is currently in progress to better define the optimum sampling grid for the entire valley. The Company anticipates this will achieve the following:
-- Identify geochemical 'hot spots',
-- These 'hot spots' could represent underlying feeder zones to the paleo-
surface jasperoids,
-- Identification of initial drill targets.
Prospero recently completed a ground Mag survey crossing a large lineament in the western portion of the Santa Maria del Oro district (see news releases November 24, 2011 and January 2, 2012). Ground Mag surveying will now continue in the eastern Pastoria-Llanos de Cabrera valley to search for lineaments that could also reflect structurally controlled feeder zones under the valley soils.
All styles and geologic levels of mineralization exposed in the district are high in iron content, both as sulphide (pyrite and chalcopyrite) as well as oxide (hematite, specularite). Mineralization in the historically mined portion of the district consists of a quartz-sericite-pyrite-chalcopyrite-gold assemblage which may represent a style of IOCG (Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold) mineralization.
Summary
The district appears now to represent a much larger system than initially anticipated. In satellite images two nested circular structures can be identified.
-- The larger is 30km in diameter and extends from the western periphery of
the historic district to the eastern portions of Pastoria-Llanos de
Cabrera valley to the east,
-- The second circular feature is 15km in diameter and is centered upon the
Pastoria-Llanos de Cabrera valley.
Further mapping is necessary to document if the Tertiary felsic volcanism present both in the western and eastern sectors of the district is related to development of a large caldera complex in the Santa Maria del Oro district.
The Company is very encouraged by its estimates of the size, number, and variety of centers of high level epithermalism which suggest the historic portion of the district may represent the only area where a deeper geologic environment exposed economic mineralization at the present surface.
Tawn Albinson, M.Sc., President of the Company, is a Qualified Person, as defined in NI 43-101, and is responsible for the technical content of this press release.
About Prospero Silver Corp.:
Prospero is a Canadian resource company with the majority of its staff based in Mexico and who work for its wholly owned subsidiary Minera Fumarola, SA de CV (Fumarola). Prospero's objective is to quickly evaluate the properties currently optioned for their suitability to provide size potential and/or amenability for strategic joint ventures.
Forward-Looking Statement Cautions:
This news release contains certain 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, relating to the closing of a non-brokered Private Placement. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words 'expects', 'plans', 'anticipates', 'believes', 'intends', 'estimates', 'projects', 'aims', 'potential', 'goal', 'objective', 'prospective', and similar expressions, or that events or conditions 'will', 'would', 'may', 'can', 'could' or 'should' occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, the Company's inability to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for its planned activities, and the Company's inability to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies. The reader is referred to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com, including the risk factors discussed in Prospero's November 27, 2009 prospectus. Except as required by securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, Prospero disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Neither the 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.
Contacts:
Prospero Silver Corp.
William Murray
Chairman
(604) 248-0797
Contact Financial
Peter Murray
(604) 689-7422
