Key Points: 

• Mesa De Plata: Diamond drilling underway to test high-grade silver discovery

• La Morita: Assay results identify wide zones of anomalous copper mineralisation

Azure Minerals Limited (ASX: AZS) (“Azure” or “the Company”) is pleased to advise that diamond core drilling is underway on the Mesa de Plata silver prospect, part of the Alacrán Project, located in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

Following the successful discovery of extensive, high grade silver mineralisation in the maiden Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program (refer ASX release of 16 September 2015), a followup diamond core drilling program has commenced at Mesa de Plata. Four holes are planned for approximately 800m of drilling, and hole locations are shown in Figure 1.

The purpose of this drilling is to provide drill core for mineralogical and metallurgical studies of the high grade silver mineralisation, and to provide a comparison between diamond core results versus RC results for mineral resource estimation purposes.

The first three holes will twin the three RC drill holes with strongest silver mineralisation (LM- 06, 07 & 09). A summary of the intersections in these holes is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Silver mineralised drill intercepts from maiden RC drilling program

The fourth hole will be drilled in the northern part of the Mesa de Plata zone, where surface sampling returned high silver grades up to 489g/t Ag, (refer ASX release 25 September 2015) in order to test the northern extent of the Mesa de Plata deposit.

The diamond drill program is expected to take four weeks to complete, and Azure will provide an update when results are available. Azure is also awaiting approval for a close-spaced RC drilling program to be undertaken covering Mesa de Plata.

DRILLING RESULTS FROM LA MORITA

Azure has received final assays from the six RC holes drilled to test the La Morita prospect for porphyry-related copper mineralisation. Five of the six holes targeted geochemical anomalies presenting as secondary copper mineralisation located at surface and within the underground mine workings (refer ASX releases 3 June and 24 June 2015). These anomalies were considered potentially indicative of a blanket of supergene copper or primary, porphyry-hosted copper sulphide mineralisation.

All six drill holes intersected wide zones of highly anomalous copper values (up to 0.5% Cu), which are similar to the grades identified at surface. However no primary porphyry mineralisation nor supergene mineralisation blanket was intersected.

The anomalism encountered does not sufficiently explain the source of the secondary copper mineralisation or the high grade copper mineralisation sampled within the La Morita adit. The source may occur at depth in association with the strong chargeability anomaly identified by the Induced Polarisation (IP) survey (refer ASX release dated 02/07/15), and further investigation is required.

One hole (LM-10) targeted the southern edge of the chargeability anomaly, but due to limitations with the drill rig, the hole was terminated at a down-hole depth of 290m, well short of the 500m target. Importantly, the hole intersected rocks with potassic alteration, significant quantities of pyrite mineralisation, and abundant quartz veinlets. These features suggest the nearby presence of porphyry style mineralisation, and further geochemical analysis will be undertaken to test this possibility.

In order to test the strongest area within the IP chargeability anomaly for porphyry copper mineralisation, an application for a permit to construct access roads into the area and drill pads has been submitted.

In the short term, given the significance of the new silver discovery at Mesa de Plata, and the high priority, intensive exploration and development activities planned for that project, further exploration to determine the source of the copper mineralisation encountered at La Morita, including deep diamond drilling, will take place at a later date.

TABLE 2: Drill Hole Information – Completed in 2015 by Azure

-ENDS-

Information in this report that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Mr Tony Rovira, who is a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Rovira is a full-time employee and Managing Director of Azure Minerals Limited. Mr Rovira has sufficient experience which is relevant to the styles of mineralisation and types of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the “Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves”. Mr Rovira consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

Information in this report that relates to previously reported Exploration Results has been crossedreferenced in this report to the date that it was reported to ASX. Azure Minerals Limited confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects information included in the relevant market announcement.

Original Article: http://www.azureminerals.com.au/azs//assets/2015/10/1481537.pdf