Additional High-Grade Gold Discoveries - Completion Of Airborne Geophysical Survey At Maripa Project

 

VANCOUVER - Columbus Gold Corp. reported an update on the 2019 exploration program at the Maripa gold project located in French Guiana. Columbus has an option to acquire up to a 70% interest in Maripa. Prospecting in the northern half of Maripa led to the discovery of 4 new quartz-gold vein systems exposed by artisanal mine workings (Site #1 to #4) in the vicinity of the Changement and Filon Dron gold zones: Site #1, located 150 meters west of Filon Dron, was initially reported. Sampling of mine stockpiles had returned best assays of 86.80 and 5.84 g/t gold. New sampling of outcrops and mine stockpiles at Site #1 returned a best assay of 11.45 g/t gold; Site #2, located 800 meters south of the past producing Changement mine, was reported in a news release dated October 31, 2019. Sampling of mine stockpiles returned best assays of 115.70, 83.48, 68.43, 42.60, 29.57, 15.51, 14.70, 9.42, 6.04 and 5.98 g/t gold; Site #3 is located 100 meters to the north-northwest of Site #2 and potentially represents the north extension of this structure. Sampling of mine stockpiles returned best assays of 52.33, 16.99, 14.64, 14.50, 9.75, 7.36 and 6.83 g/t gold; Site #4 is located 450 meters west of Filon Dron. Sampling of rock exposures at the mine workings and mine stockpiles returned best assays of 15.22 and 13.07 g/t gold; The newly identified gold mineralized structures remain untested by drilling; & A high-resolution magnetic and radiometric heliborne geophysical survey was completed on November 7th. The survey covered 256 square kilometers at a 100-meter line spacing, centered and extending beyond the limits of Maripa.

The initial exploration phase at Maripa prioritized Changement and Filon Dron, two of the five partially drill-defined gold zones at Maripa, for comprehensive evaluation, extension drilling and resource definition. Prospecting in and around the Changement and Filon Dron gold zones was initiated in late June in preparation for drill programs to commence in early 2020. Field investigation of micro relief anomalies recorded by the 2018 airborne Lidar topographic survey identified four abandoned sites artisanal mine workings (Site #1 to #4) that expose previously unrecognized quartz-gold vein systems.

Since June, a total gold of 158 select rock samples and 50 channel samples (Site #3, AG1 trench) were collected during the field work. Gold assay results were received for all samples. Results from the initial prospecting at Sites #1 and #2 were disseminated.

Past exploration and recent field work conducted by Columbus has now identified five sub-parallel quartz-gold vein systems in the northern half of the Maripa property (Changement, Site #2-3, Filon Dron, Site #1 and Site #4), defining a northerly trending gold mineralized structural corridor of up to 450 meters wide. The gold mineralized vein systems are localized within north to north-northwest striking sub-vertical shear zones and associated moderately east- and west-dipping conjugate shear-tension structures. The newly identified quartz-gold vein systems remain untested by drilling.

Site #1 was initially identified by prospecting the Filon Dron discovery area. Ten (10) samples had been collected at Filon Dron and 20 samples at Site #1. The material sampled was primarily from stockpiles extracted from the mine workings. Best assays of 86.80 and 5.84 g/t gold were obtained at Site #1. More recently, five  additional samples taken from outcrops and mine stockpiles at Site #1 returned best assays of 11.45 and 3.96 g/t gold.

Site #3 is located 100 meters to the north-northwest of Site #2 and potentially represents the north extension of this structure. Nine (9) mine shafts and 2 mine adits were found over a strike extent of 90 meters along the structure. Gold assay results were received for 24 select samples of mineralized quartz veins and wall rock collected from stockpiles extracted from the mine workings. Eleven of the 24 samples returned gold values above 1 g/t gold, including 7 higher grade values of 52.33, 16.99, 14.64, 14.50, 9.75, 7.36 and 6.84 g/t gold. Also, an old trench (AG1) located at the south end of the mine workings was systematically sampled at 1-meter intervals and returned a gold mineralized interval of 1.20 g/t gold over 18.4 meters.

In early November, another site of artisanal mine workings was identified 450 meters to the west of Filon Dron. Twelve (12) mine shafts and 2 mine adits were found over a 200-meter by 50-meter area. The previously unrecognized vein system was extensively worked over a strike extent of 200 meters. Gold assay results were received for 7 select samples of mineralized quartz veins and wall rock taken from rock exposures at the mine workings and material collected from stockpiles extracted from mine workings. 5 of 7 samples returned values above 1 g/t gold, including 15.22 and 13.70 g/t gold.

A 1.5-meter wide mineralized quartz vein and pyritize wall rock was recently exposed at the site of the Filon Dron discovery. Gold assay results were received for 8 samples of the quartz vein and/or wall rock collected from the outcroppings. 4 of the 8 samples returned values above 1 g/t gold, including 13.13 g/t gold.

The Filon Dron prospect, located in the central part of the Maripa property, is centered over a 2,800 meter by 800 to 1,100 meter gold-in-soil anomaly, straddling the contact between volcanic assemblages of the Paramaca Formation and younger pull-apart basin coarse detrital sediments of the Upper Detrital Unit (UDU or Rosebel Formation). 

Past exploration at Maripa includes 134 core holes, for a total of 9,000 meters, which partially defined five (5) broad gold zones, namely Changement, Filon Dron, Maripa Sud-Est, Rhyodacite and Filon Scieur. Drilling was limited to shallow depths within the oxidized saprolite layer with all five prospects returning drill intersections of economic interest with demonstrated potential for expansion and mineral resource delineation including: 4.3 g/t gold over 36 meters; 12.4 g/t gold over 10.5 meters; 1.8 g/t gold over 34.5 meters, 2.5 g/t gold over 25.5 meters and 2.2 g/t gold over 21.5 meters.