Gold-Silver Geochemical Anomalies Defined by Soil Sampling Program at El Zanjon, Argentina

 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rugby Mining Limited (“Rugby” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: RUG) is pleased to report on the results of a soil sampling program recently completed on the El Zanjon gold-silver project in Santa Cruz province, Argentina.

The program was initiated by Rugby as a follow-up to ground magnetic surveys which had outlined prospective structures for hosting epithermal gold silver mineralization characteristic of the Deseado Massif. The favourable host rocks underlie recent sediments up to 100 meters (“m”) thick.

Highlights

• The geochemical program comprised some 108 surface samples collected at 320 m spaced intervals over 35-line kilometres.
• Samples were assayed for 61 multi-elements using ultra-sensitive Ionic Leach by ALS (Vancouver). This methodology is used to identify metal zonation within and haloes surrounding mineralization.
• Gold values range from 0.02 to 0.96ppb and silver values range from 11 to 30.1ppb (Figures 2 & 3).
• Ten zones of anomalous gold-silver geochemistry were defined (Figure 4) ranging from 320 m to 2,800 m in length.
• A number of these anomalies have coincident lower pH readings (Figure 5) suggesting an acidic environment which can indicate oxidation from sulfides at depth, an association common to other epithermal projects in Patagonia.
• Additional in-fill geochemical sampling is recommended.

Project Location

El Zanjon covers approximately 600 square kilometres near world class mines at Cerro Negro (Newmont-Goldcorp), Cerro Vanguardia (AngloGold Ashanti) and Cerro Moro (Yamana) (Figure 1).

Chief Executive Officer, Bryce Roxburgh commented “We are very encouraged by these early results and plan more detailed follow-up sampling in the southern spring when the weather is more favourable. Searching for gold below recent sediments represents a challenge yet this approach is showing considerable promise. Our exploration team comprises members from the Extorre technical group responsible for the discovery of the high-grade Cerro Moro mine.

“Argentina, like most countries, is currently subject to lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus, but we hope that we will be in a position to work in several months”.

Sampling Methodology

• The soils were sampled following ALS laboratories sampling instructions.
• All site locations were recorded as WGS84, UTM Easting and Northing coordinates Zone 19 using a hand-held Garmin eTrex® 20.
• Samples were collected from 10 cm to 20 cm below the surface.
• A 120-gram sample was collected and placed in a Ziplock plastic bag with the sample number permanently marked on the bag.
• The bag was folded over to remove most of the air and sealed, then placed in another plastic bag again removing as much air as possible prior to sealing.
• Jewelry was removed and only plastic and wooden implements were used.
• All 108 samples were placed in plastic boxes and dispatched to ALS (Vancouver) for Ionic Leach analysis by ME-MS23™ method. ALS are certified ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and ISO 9001:2015
• Ten laboratory duplicate samples were included in the analysis

Data Analysis

• The geochemical data were imported into project’s database for geostatistical analysis, determination of correlation and geochemical mapping.
• The dataset of 108 assays was filtered by soil type and grouped in Sand and Gravel (SG) or Tertiary (TR) to analyse them independently.
• Geostatistics were calculated using Discover software for the sub-dataset Ag, As, Au, Cd, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mo, Pb and Sr.
• The percentiles were then used to prepare accurate geochemical thematic maps with the objective of distinguishing anomalies.

Paul Joyce, Rugby’s Chief Operating Officer, Director and a “qualified person” (“QP”) within the definition of that term in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has verified the technical information that forms the basis for this news release.

About Rugby
Rugby is an exploration company conducting “discovery stage” exploration on highly prospective targets in Colombia, Argentina, the Philippines and Australia. Importantly, Rugby controls a large portfolio of projects and applications in Colombia that have considerable potential for significant gold-copper discoveries.

The Company benefits from the experience of its directors and management, a team that has either been directly responsible for world-class mineral discoveries or have been part of the management teams responsible for such discoveries. Prior companies under their management included Exeter Resource Corporation and Extorre Gold Mines Limited, which held significant projects in South America. These companies were taken over by Goldcorp (Newmont) and Yamana respectively.

For additional information you are invited to visit the Rugby Mining Limited website at www.rugbymining.com.

Jon Hermanson, VP, Corporate Development Tel:  604.688.4941  Fax: 604.688.9532 Toll-free: 1.855.688.4941

Suite 810, 789 West Pender St. Vancouver, BC Canada  V6C 1H2 info@rugbymining.com

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is “forward-looking information” within the meaning of the British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario Securities Acts. This includes statements concerning the Company’s plans at its projects including the expected timing of drilling and/or geophysics programs, prospectivity, high grade potential and potential for mineral discoveries, the style or occurrence of the mineralization and drilling costs which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. In addition, the Company holds certain of its projects under option agreements, which require expenditure and/ or drilling requirements in order to maintain its interest. Should the Company not be able to meet its obligations or renegotiate the agreements it will lose its rights under the option agreement. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, the effect on prices of major mineral commodities such as copper and gold by factors beyond the control of the Company; events which cannot be accurately predicted such as political and economic instability, terrorism, pandemics or any other serious global health problem that prevents the ability to do operations, environmental factors and changes in government regulations and taxes; the shortage of personnel with the requisite knowledge and skills to design and execute exploration programs; difficulties in arranging contracts for drilling and other exploration services; the Company’s dependency on equity market financings to fund its exploration programs and maintain its mineral exploration properties in good standing; political risk that a government will change, interpret or enforce mineral tenure, environmental regulations, taxes or mineral royalties in a manner that could have an adverse effect on the Company’s assets or financial condition and impair its ability to advance its mineral exploration projects or raise further funds for exploration; risks associated with title to resource properties due to the difficulties of determining the validity of certain claims as well as the potential for problems arising from the interpretation of laws regarding ownership or exploration of mineral properties in the Philippines and Colombia and in the sometimes ambiguous conveyancing characteristic of many resource properties, currency risks associated with foreign operations, the timing of obtaining permits to conduct exploration activities, the ability to conclude agreements with local communities and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in each of the Company’s management discussion and analysis and those contained in its financial statements for the year ended February 28, 2019 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. In addition, forward-looking information is based on various assumptions including, without limitation, assumptions associated with exploration results and costs and the availability of materials and skilled labor. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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