HIGHLIGHTS

• New zone of silver mineralisation identified near recently announced Mesa de Plata silver discovery (refer ASX release 16 September 2015)

• High grade silver assays returned from outcrop sampling, include: 369g/t Ag 181g/t Ag 148g/t Ag 136g/t Ag 116g/t Ag 103g/t Ag

• Mineralisation is hosted in the same vuggy silica rock unit as the nearby Mesa de Plata discovery

• Diamond drill program currently underway at Mesa de Plata for mineralogical and metallurgical studies

Azure Minerals Limited (ASX: AZS) (“Azure” or “the Company”) is pleased to report that multiple high grade silver assays have been returned from surface sampling over a large area located approximately 350m to the northeast of the original silver discovery at Mesa de Plata (see Figure 1).

These results, with grades reporting as high as 369g/t Ag, indicate a potential large increase of the area containing the vuggy silica unit which hosts the high grade silver mineralisation at Mesa de Plata.

Azure’s Managing Director, Mr Tony Rovira said the area of known high grade silver mineralisation at surface has now been significantly extended outside of the original discovery area on the Mesa de Plata plateau (refer ASX releases dated 16/9/15 & 25/9/15).

Mr Rovira said, “These latest results have significantly expanded the area containing high grade silver mineralisation at surface, potentially to more than 30 hectares (300,000m2 ).

“Our RC drilling at Mesa de Plata confirmed that strong silver grades at surface reflect similar or higher grades to depths of up to 70m. These latest high grade silver assays indicate that we have identified either a new mineralised zone or an extension of the original Mesa de Plata discovery.

“This augurs well for the upcoming drilling program to define large, shallow, economic silver resources.” 

DETAILS

The new zone of surface silver mineralisation is situated about 350m to the northeast of Mesa de Plata. It forms a northwest-southeast trending ridge, similar to the Mesa de Plata plateau, extending for at least 650m in length and up to 250m wide.

The Company collected a total of 24 rock chip samples from within this area, with most samples returning anomalous to very high grade silver assays (see Figure 1 and Table 1 for details). Importantly, six samples returned silver grades greater than 100g/t Ag, with a maximum value of 369g/t Ag.

These silver results are similar to the grades returned from the sampling completed over Mesa de Plata that led to the discovery from the initial RC drilling campaign.

Mineralisation is hosted in the same flat-lying, vuggy silica formation which hosts the Mesa de Plata silver deposit, with the two mineralised zones separated by a shallow, northwesterlytrending valley. It is possible that the two mineralised zones join together further to the southeast at the head of the valley. 

A second batch of ten rock chip samples were collected from an area 200m to 300m to the southeast of the Mesa de Plata discovery area. Here, a thick sequence of strongly silicified volcanic rocks overlies the vuggy silica unit which hosts the Mesa de Plata silver mineralisation, forming a prominent topographical high. Sampling of these volcanic cover rocks returned several weakly anomalous silver assays, up to a maximum of 20.7g/t Ag. 

Considering that the silver-mineralised Mesa de Plata vuggy silica unit is relatively flat-lying, these samples were collected at elevations between 25m and 60m topographically higher. It is encouraging that several samples returned anomalous silver grades and the Company considers it possible that the vuggy silica host unit continues east from Mesa de Plata beneath this hill, possibly to join with the newly identified northeastern zone.

EXPLORATION UPDATE

Diamond drilling is continuing at Mesa de Plata to provide drill core for mineralogical and metallurgical studies of the high grade silver mineralisation. The program includes twinning the existing RC drill holes to provide a comparison between diamond core results versus RC results for mineral resource estimation purposes. Azure will provide an update when results are available.

TABLE 1: SILVER ASSAY RESULTS FROM OUTCROP SAMPLING

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For further information, please contact:

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/2015/10/1485200.pdf