January 16, 2023 - Bedford, NS - (TSXV:SSE) - Silver Spruce Resources, Inc. ("Silver Spruce" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the completion of further gold grain in till sampling and soil geochemical sampling, locally managed by the property vendor’s team, and recent receipt of the sample processing results on the Mystery Au project (“Mystery”) (Figure 1).
"We are pleased to report that widely-spaced gold grain in till sampling frequency, size and shape distribution data have identified anomalous sites with >20 gold grains on each of the three Properties, Marilyn, Till East and Mystery,” said Greg Davison, Silver Spruce Vice-President Exploration and Director. “A total of twenty-two (22) sites contained promising results including elevated calculated ppb Visible Gold (8 samples) and pristine morphologies (12 samples), the latter of which can indicate a proximal precious metal source. Modified gold grains were reported from twenty-five (25) sampling sites including eight (8) accompanied by pristine grains and an additional seventeen (17) sites distributed across the Properties. Soil geochemistry showed Arsenic anomalies in Marilyn, transecting from north to south, a southwesterly linear trend parallel to regional structure with three sites containing anomalous gold grains; Mystery Lake showed a cluster with elevated Arsenic and Antimony adjacent to the highest Au grain data.”
“The reconnaissance sampling (95 sites) was completed before the winter 2021 shutdown and an additional thirty-four of the readily accessible sites were tested during the current field season. Gold grain and multi-element geochemistry results from the 2022 program were received in December from Overburden Drilling Management (“ODM”) and ALS Global (“ALS”). The first pass 500m x 1000m grid results are being further evaluated and will be released in due course,” stated Mr. Davison. “The Properties comprise a large, virtually untested area with many outcrop showings and mineralized float, prospective geology, and regional and second order geophysical structures within and adjacent to our holdings. The next steps will comprise program design for detailed infill soil and till sampling around the anomalous sampling sites and contracting the detailed interpretation of the 2021/2022 MPX Geophysics MAG/VLF/RAD survey. Prospecting is proposed to complement the second phase field work.”
The gold grain in till program accompanied by B zone soil geochemical sampling is complete over a total of 129 of the proposed 184 locations (Figures 2, 3 and 4 for Mystery Lake, Till and Marilyn blocks, Figures 5 and 6 for Arsenic geochemistry on Mystery Lake and Marilyn). Those sites remaining were deferred due to distance from access trails and swampy ground and will require future helicopter support. As per the autumn 2021 program, the till samples, averaging 12kg in weight of screened -¼” or -½” material, were shipped to Nepean, Ontario and submitted to Overburden Drilling Management (“ODM”) for processing and gold grain analysis. The soil samples were shipped to ALS Global in North Vancouver for precious metal and multi-element 0analysis.
Figure 1. Map of the Mystery project claims, named from north to south, Marilyn, Till and Mystery Lake, located only 20-50km south of Bishop’s Falls, Newfoundland.
Figure 2. Map of the Mystery Lake claims showing wide-spaced Phase 1 till and B soil sampling locations and thosecompleted(red) during 2021and 2022.
Figure 3. Map of the Till claims showing wide-spaced Phase 1 till and B soil sampling locations and those completed (red) during 2021 and 2022. The claims are transected by the Bay d’Espoir Highway.
Figure 4. Map of the Marilyn claims showing wide-spaced Phase 1 till and B soil sampling locations and thosecompleted (red) during 2021 and 2022. The claims are transected by the Bay d’Espoir Highway.
Figure 5. Map of the Marilyn claims showing B soil sampling with Arsenic (ppm), a key indicator of the known Au-As-Sb mineralization, in graduated symbols. The cluster of As anomalies cuts a southwesterly linear of three significant Au grain anomalies west of the river.
Figure 6. Map of the Mystery Lake claims showing B soil sampling with Arsenic (ppm), a key indicator of the known Au-As-Sb mineralization, in graduated symbols. The easterly cluster of As anomalies is adjacent to the highest Au grain anomaly located immediately to the west (2nd row of sampling sites).
Exploration Plan
The Company has staged plans to complete regional till sampling for gold grain analysis and soil geochemistry, regional and property scale airborne geophysical compilation and interpretation, prospecting, ArcGIS geological and geophysical data compilation and as warranted by the Phase 1 results, submit additional permit applications to undertake a detailed geological mapping and sampling program, grid soil sampling and planning for our first exploration drill campaign.
Project Background
The Company signed a Definitive Agreement in September 2021 with two parties (the “Vendors”) to acquire 100% of three early-stage gold exploration properties, Mystery, Till and Marilyn, (the “Property” or the “Properties”) located near Grand Falls, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, 20-25 kilometres west of New Found Gold Corp.’s Queensway project and 15-35 kilometres south of Sokoman Minerals Corp.’s Moosehead gold project.
The 8,750-hectare project is located within the Exploits Subzone, an extensive area of mineral exploration activity and discoveries over the past two years. The Properties are well situated in terms of exploration logistics, located close to each other and 10-45 kilometres south by Bay d’Espoir Highway from Bishop’s Falls, Newfoundland. The Properties are located <70 kilometres from the Gander International Airport and are easily accessible from major paved roads and local logging and bush roads and trails.
The region is structurally complex and located, in large part, between several major crustal lineaments. Numerous major to lesser sub-parallel features merge and bifurcate along strike and are transected by NW and EW-trending faults. These deep-seated structures, which juxtapose geological terranes over hundreds of kilometres, are key to the location and formation of orogenic gold deposits containing several million ounces of gold as reported by junior companies in the district.
Historical assays were reported for 123 samples collected from Mystery and Marilyn (see Press Release of September 14, 2021). Eighteen samples reported Au >0.5 g/t (max. 12.5 g/t Au). Cu values were reported up to 9.85% with minor Ag, Pb and Zn. Arsenic was highly anomalous in thirty-six samples reporting over 2200 ppm upper limit for Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP-OES) analysis, strongly associated with elevated Au values and displayed as minor to abundant arsenopyrite.
Silver Spruce collected new rock samples and received an independent report on the mineral and rock textures potentially related to shallow epithermal and/or orogenic vein-style mineralization. The Company completed an initial phase of till and soil sampling in late 2021, and an airborne magnetic, VLF-EM and radiometric survey in February 2022 (see Press Release of February 23, 2022). Detailed interpretation of the airborne data is pending.
Multiple surface occurrences are reported of agate chalcedony to colloform and crystalline silica veining and multi-phase breccias, carbonate replacement by quartz, and open-space filling quartz and calcite, all textures indicative of the upper zones of epithermal systems and structural conduits in orogenic systems, and are accompanied by gold, arsenopyrite, stibnite, chalcopyrite, bornite and Cu carbonate mineralization in quartz veins, black shale and other sedimentary units, and ultramafic and gabbroic intrusions.
About Overburden Drilling Management
ODM is the industry pioneer and global leader in heavy mineral geochemistry and has pioneered innovative indicator mineral techniques for gold, Ni-Cu-PGE, Cu-Zn-Pb, porphyry Cu, kimberlite (diamond), uranium and rare earth element exploration.
About ALS Global
ALS Global in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is a commercial analytical facility certified as ISO 9001:2008 and accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 from the Standards Council of Canada.
Qualified Person
Greg Davison, PGeo, Silver Spruce VP Exploration and Director, is the Company’s internal Qualified Person for the Mystery Project and is responsible for approval of the technical content of this press release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), under TSX guidelines.
About Silver Spruce Resources Inc.
Silver Spruce Resources Inc. is a Canadian junior exploration company which has signed Definitive Agreements to acquire 100% of the Melchett Lake Zn-Au-Ag project in northern Ontario, 100% interest in the Mystery Au project near recent discoveries by Sokoman Minerals Corp. and New Found Gold Corp. among others in the Exploits Subzone Gold Belt, Newfoundland and Labrador, 100% interest in the Pino de Plata Ag project located 15 kilometres west of Coeur Mining's Palmarejo Mine in western Chihuahua, Mexico and up to 50% interest in Colibri Resource’s Diamante Au-Ag project located from 5 kilometres to 15 kilometres northwest from Minera Alamos's Nicho deposit in Sonora, Mexico. Silver Spruce recently signed a 50:50 joint venture agreement with Colibri on the nearby Jackie Au project. Silver Spruce Resources Inc. continues to investigate opportunities that Management has identified or that have been presented to the Company for consideration.
Contact:
Silver Spruce Resources Inc.
Greg Davison, PGeo, Vice-President Exploration and Director
(250) 521-0444
gdavison@silverspruceresources.com
Michael Kinley, CEO
(902) 402-0388
mkinley@silverspruceresources.com
info@silverspruceresources.com
Neither 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.
Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking statements," Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future, including but not limited to, statements regarding the private placement.
Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. We are not in control of metals prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate.