Royal Road Minerals Ltd. Provides Exploration Update for Its Caribe Gold Discovery; Nicaragua
Scout RC Drilling Extends Gold Mineralization to the West, Diamond Drilling CommencesToronto, March 2, 2022 - Royal Road Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: RYR) ("Royal Road" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an exploration update from its Caribe gold discovery in northeastern Nicaragua.
The Caribe project forms a part of the Company's Strategic-Alliance agreement (see press release; September 6, 2017) with Hemco Mineros Nicaragua ("Hemco" a subsidiary of Mineros S.A., TSX:MSA) and is located in the highly prospective "Golden Triangle" of northeastern Nicaragua. Royal Road Minerals is operator of the Strategic Alliance.
Royal Road's exploration team discovered the Caribe project during reconnaissance exploration in February of 2018. Outcrop at Caribe is concealed under soil and saprolite cover and there is no previous record of mining or mineralization in the area. In 2019, Royal Road and Hemco completed an initial 4-hole, exploratory drilling program at Caribe which returned promising results for gold. A follow-up diamond drilling program commenced at the project during August of 2020 and has returned encouraging initial results including CB-DDH-025, 207.45 meters at 1.1 grams per tonne, CB-DDH-016, 100.45 meters at 1.0 gram per tonne; CB-DDH-017, 90 meters at 1.0 gram per tonne and CB-DDH-015, 63 meters at 1.0 gram per tonne gold (see Press Releases November 10, 2020, February 11, 2021, March 17, 2021, September 1, 2021 and Table 1).
Drilling at Caribe has revealed that in some cases, soil and laterite cover extends to depths in excess of 30 meters, concealing important geological and geochemical information and frustrating efforts to interpret geometry and predict extensions to known gold mineralization. Consequently, in September 2021, the Company took the decision to suspend diamond drilling and commence a program of grid-based scout reverse-circulation drilling at the project. The program utilizes a small, low-impact, man-portable reverse-circulation (RC) drilling rig which drills through soil and saprolite cover down to the first 2-3 meters of weathered rock where a sample is taken for analysis. 210 vertical scout-RC holes averaging approximately 18m in depth have so far been completed (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:
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Results received to-date imply that the gold mineralizing system remains open to the west and southwest and portable XRF analyses[1] suggest a broad and significant copper anomaly towards the east (Figure 1).
Gold at Caribe is hosted in coarse pyroclastic rocks and associated with multi-phase stockwork and hydrothermal breccia events within a broad low-temperature sericite halo and in later-stage sulfide-rich hydrothermal breccia bodies with a matrix composed of pyrite, chalcopyrite and molybdenite. Previous interpretations had assumed a fault- limited control to the western extent of gold mineralization at Caribe, however this new scout-RC data clearly implies continuity across the fault and/or some element of fault control to gold mineralization at the project.
Diamond drilling has now recommenced at the project and further infill and extensions to the scout-RC program are planned.
| TABLE 1: CARIBE PRELIMINARY DRILL RESULTS TABLE (> 0.9 g/t GOLD) | |||||||||||||
| GOLD | COMMENTS | ||||||||||||
| HOLE ID | E | N | Z(m) | DIP | AZIM | DEPTH | FROM | TO | LENGTH (m)* | GRADE (g/t) | |||
| 2019 Program | |||||||||||||
| CB-DDH-001 | 793252 | 1530691 | 49 | 60 | 306 | 94.55 | 2.00 | 30.00 | 28 | 1.1 | |||
| CB-DDH-002 | 793252 | 1530688 | 49 | 60 | 111 | 138.57 | 1.00 | 14.00 | 13 | 1.0 | |||
| 33.00 | 37.00 | 4 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-003 | 793254 | 1530689 | 49 | 60 | 42 | 112.85 | 78.00 | 80.00 | 2 | 1.7 | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | ||
| 110.00 | 112.85 (EOH) | 2.85 | 1.2 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-004 | 793346 | 1530775 | 44 | 60 | 40 | 67.10 | 13.00 | 31.00 | 18 | 1.0 | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | ||
| 62.00 | 67.00 (EOH) | 5 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| 2020-2021 Program | |||||||||||||
| CB-DDH-005 | 793258 | 1530689 | 43 | 60 | 220 | 100.65 | NO SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS >1g/t GOLD | ||||||
| CB-DDH-006 | 793350 | 1530772 | 36 | 60 | 40 | 160.12 | 28.00 | 102.00 | 74 | 0.9 | |||
| 129.00 | 143.00 | 14 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-007 | 793349 | 1530769 | 36 | 60 | 220 | 123.52 | 22.00 | 28.00 | 6 | 1.0 | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | ||
| 61.00 | 63.00 | 2 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| 65.00 | 77.00 | 12 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| 83.00 | 89.00 | 6 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-008 | 793395 | 1530824 | 35 | 60 | 40 | 79.30 | NO SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS >1g/t GOLD | ||||||
| CB-DDH-009 | 793270 | 1530770 | 38 | 60 | 125 | 161.65 | 9.00 | 14.00 | 5 | 1.0 | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | ||
| 37.00 | 82.00 | 45 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| 123.00 | 158.00 | 35 | 1.1 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-010 | 793296 | 1530664 | 37 | 60 | 305 | 114.37 | 0.00 | 42.00 | 42 | 1.0 | |||
| CB-DDH-011 | 793338 | 1530633 | 35 | 60 | 40 | 80.82 | 38.00 | 80.00 | 42 | 1.0 | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | ||
| CB-DDH-012 | 794646 | 1532046 | 37 | 60 | 360 | 184.52 | NO SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS >1g/t GOLD | ||||||
| CB-DDH-013 | 794646 | 1532046 | 37 | 60 | 335 | 131.15 | |||||||
| CB-DDH-014 | 793875 | 1532118 | 40 | 60 | 40 | 180 | |||||||
| CB-DDH-015 | 793349 | 1530771 | 43 | 90 | 0 | 190.62 | 18.00 | 26.00 | 8 | 1.0 | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | ||
| 53.00 | 62.00 | 9 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| 88.00 | 151.00 | 63 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-016 | 793314 | 1530813 | 43 | 60 | 125 | 149.45 | 49.00 | 149.45 (EOH) | 100.45 | 1.0 | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | ||
| CB-DDH-017 | 793295 | 1530744 | 43 | 60 | 90 | 244 | 51.00 | 141.00 | 90 | 1.0 | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | ||
| CB-DDH-018 | 793364 | 1530641 | 35 | 60 | 40 | 68.62 | NO SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS >1g/t GOLD | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | |||||
| CB-DDH-019 | 793296 | 1530664 | 35 | 50 | 40 | 102.17 | 0.00 | 35.00 | 35 | 1.0 | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | ||
| 56.00 | 66.00 | 10 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| 79.00 | 82.00 | 3 | 2.1 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-020 | 793604 | 1530412 | 37 | 60 | 40 | 67.1 | NO SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS >1g/t GOLD | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | |||||
| CB-DDH-021 | 793349 | 1530846 | 34 | 60 | 125 | 250.1 | 88.00 | 117.00 | 29 | 1.0 | |||
| CB-DDH-022 | 793498 | 1530892 | 37 | 60 | 236 | 353.8 | 75.00 | 87.00 | 12 | 1.2 | |||
| 97.00 | 99.00 | 2 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| 110.00 | 117.00 | 7 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| 186.00 | 191.00 | 5 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-023 | 793498 | 1530892 | 37 | 60 | 40 | 340.07 | 188.90 | 199.00 | 10.10 | 0.6 | 0.86 | 960 | 43 |
| COPPER % | MOLYBDENUM ppm | SILVER ppm | |||||||||||
| CB-DDH-024 | 793338 | 1530633 | 34 | 50 | 40 | 114.57 | NO SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS >1g/t GOLD | BOGGED AND ABANDONED | |||||
| CB-DDH-025 | 793290 | 1530792 | 34 | 60 | 125 | 224.17 | 3.00 | 210.45 | 207.45 | 1.1 | INCLUDING 21m at 4.2 g/t GOLD | ||
| CB-DDH-026 | 793383 | 1530891 | 35 | 60 | 125 | 130.57 | 116.75 | 126.57 | 9.80 | 1.4 | |||
| CB-DDH-027 | 793386 | 1530889 | 34 | 60 | 305 | 149.45 | 29.00 | 32.50 | 3.50 | 1.0 | |||
| 83.00 | 114.00 | 31.00 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-028 | 793423 | 1530824 | 34 | 60 | 305 | 218.07 | 101.00 | 103.00 | 2.00 | 1.0 | |||
| 139.90 | 147.65 | 7.75 | 0.4 | 0.23 | |||||||||
| COPPER % | MOLYBDENUM ppm | SILVER ppm | |||||||||||
| 155.00 | 163.00 | 8.00 | 1.3 | ||||||||||
| CB-DDH-029 | 793496 | 1530893 | 34 | 60 | 305 | 242.47 | 177.70 | 215.50 | 37.80 | 1.0 | |||
| CB-DDH-030 | 793454 | 1530965 | 34.64 | -60 | 305 | 222.65 | NO SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS >1g/t GOLD | ||||||
| CB-DDH-031 | 793539 | 1530944 | 34.36 | -60 | 305 | 215.02 | |||||||
| CB-DDH-032 | 793385 | 1530645 | 37 | -60 | 305 | 170.8 | 62.00 | 75.00 | 13.00 | 0.9 | |||
| CB-DDH-033 | 793547 | 1530903 | 35 | -60 | 305 | 218.07 | NO SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS >1g/t GOLD | ||||||
| CB-DDH-034 | 793289 | 1530795 | 35 | -90 | 0 | 166.22 | |||||||
| CB-DDH-035 | 793289 | 1530795 | 37 | -60 | 305 | 195.63 | |||||||
| CB-DDH-036 | 793399 | 1530740 | 37 | -60 | 220 | 137.25 | 84.00 | 105.98 | 21.98 | 0.8 | |||
| CB-DDH-037 | 793440 | 1530771 | 37 | -60 | 220 | 190.62 | NO SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS >1g/t GOLD | ||||||
| CB-DDH-038 | 793442 | 1530712 | 38 | -60 | 220 | 140.3 | |||||||
| *NOT TRUE WIDTH AND THE COMPANY DOES NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT INFORMATION TO MAKE A DETERMINATION OF THE TRUE WIDTHS OF THE DRILL HOLE INTERSECTIONS | |||||||||||||
| DOWN HOLE CUT-OFF 0.2 g/t gold | |||||||||||||
| MAXIMUM INTERNAL DILUTION, 10 Meters | |||||||||||||
"We are pleased that the scout-RC program is returning the information we had hoped for and revealing further potential for gold and possibly copper mineralization at Caribe" said Tim Coughlin, Royal Road's President and CEO "The influence of such deep saprolite cover and the inability to confidently predict geometry and continuity, made locating diamond drill holes something of a challenge towards the latter end of last years campaign. With these new scout-RC results, as further results are received and as we extend and infill the scout-RC grid, we will be better able to understand controls and guide the location of our diamond drill holes".
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.
The information in this news release was compiled, reviewed and verified by Dr. Tim Coughlin, BSc (Geology), MSc (Exploration and Mining), PhD (Structural Geology), FAusIMM, President and CEO of Royal Road Minerals Ltd. and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Royal Road Minerals employees are instructed to follow standard operating and quality assurance procedures intended to ensure that all sampling techniques and sample results meet international reporting standards. More information can be found on Royal Road Minerals web site at www.royalroadminerals.com
Quality Assurance and Quality Control:
Diamond drill core is cut in half over 1-meter downhole intervals using a core saw. Samples are prepared and assayed by independent and ISO accredited laboratories of Bureau Veritas Minerals (BVM) and their local subsidiaries. Bagged 1-meter samples are collected from site and delivered to BVM sample preparation laboratories in Managua. Samples are prepared using the BVM codes PRP70-250 plus PUL85, where samples are crushed to 70% less than two millimeters, a riffle split of 250 grams is collected and then pulverized to better than 85 per cent passing 75 microns. Prepared sample pulps are then sent for analysis to BVM labs in Vancouver Canada. Gold is analyzed by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish and a measurement range of 0.005 to 10 ppm. Samples over 10-ppm gold are re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Multielement concentrations are analyzed by four-acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. Samples over 10,000ppm Cu, Zn, Pb or Mn and 200 ppm W, are re-analyzed with four acid digestion and Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometer (ICP-ES). Commercially prepared standards (gold-copper pulps), blanks (pulps and coarse chips) and field duplicates are inserted into the sample stream by Royal Road Minerals for a total of 15% QA/QC to ensure sample precision. In the case of duplicate analyses of a sample, the average of both analyses is used as the final reported value. Unless otherwise stated, gold grades are not capped for calculation of length-weighted averages.
RC chip samples are taken every meter after having entered 2-3 meters within the saprock-fresh rock boundary. Samples are collected from the drilling site and dried at the core yard. Where dry sample weights exceed 4.5Kg they are split. Bagged 1-meter samples are collected from site and delivered to the BVM sample preparation laboratory in Managua. Samples are prepared using BVM codes PRP70-250 plus PULSW where a riffle split of 250 grams is collected and then pulverized to better than 85 per cent passing 75 microns. Sample pulps are then sent for analysis to BVM labs in Vancouver Canada. Gold is analyzed by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish and a measurement range of 0.005 to 10 ppm. Samples over 10 ppm gold are re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Multielement concentrations are analyzed by four-acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. Samples over 10,000ppm Cu, Zn, Pb or Mn and 200 ppm W, are re-analyzed with four acid digestion and Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometer (ICP-ES). Commercially prepared standards (gold-copper pulps), blanks (pulps and coarse chips) and field duplicates are inserted into the sample stream by Royal Road Minerals for a total of 15% QA/QC to ensure sample precision. In the case of duplicate analyses of a sample, the average of both analyses is used as the final reported value. Unless otherwise stated, gold grades are not capped for calculation of length-weighted averages.
Cautionary statement:
This news release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements") including statements relating to the Hemco-Mineros Alliance and those describing the Company's future plans and the expectations of its management that a stated result or condition will occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or developments in the Company's business or in the mineral resources industry, or with respect to the Hemco-Mineros Alliance, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include all disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results of operations that is based on assumptions about, among other things, future economic conditions and courses of action, and assumptions related to government approvals, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The words "plans", "prospective", "expect", "intend", "intends to" and similar expressions identify forward looking statements, which may also include, without limitation, any statement relating to future events, conditions or circumstances. Forward-looking statements of the Company contained in this news release, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, those related to the Hemco-Mineros Alliance, Hemco-Mineros, and the Company's plans exploration plans.
The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. There is no guarantee that the anticipated benefits of the Hemco-Mineros Alliance and the Company's business plans or operations will be achieved. The risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others: economic market conditions, anticipated costs and expenditures, government approvals, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with Canadian provincial securities regulators or other applicable regulatory authorities. Forward-looking statements included herein are based on the current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions of the Company management and, in part, on information provided to the Company by Hemco-Mineros, and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change.
For further information please contact:
Dr. Timothy Coughlin, President and Chief Executive Officer
USA-Canada toll free 1800 6389205
+44 (0)1534 887166
info@royalroadminerals.com
[1] Semi-quantitative only, derived from in-house portable Olympus Delta XRF Premium DP-6000 analyzer, results require confirmation by an independent certified laboratory. XRF cannot analyze for gold.
