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Sara Alicia looks for partner

by Mark Andrews

zure Minerals Ltd hopes the high-grade gold and cobalt
Aland package assembled at Sara Alicia, Sonora State, will
prosper under a partnership agreement or new owners now that
the scope of the project has been expanded.
The company was recently granted the Sara Alicia II mineral
concession after
an historical cancellation of the concession was overturned.
Sara Alicia II adjoins Azure’s 100% Sara Alicia property, which
now encompasses a total area of 49ha in a gold and cobalt-rich
district of northern Mexico.
Azure entered the district when cobalt was running hot two
years ago, with the company encouraged by its drilling hits of
26.2m @ 8.6 g/t gold, including 12.6m @ 14.9 g/t and 26.2m @
1.26% cobalt, including 6.35m @ 3.57% at Sara Alicia. Drilling at Sara Alicia has produced results in the ilk of 26.2m @ 8.6
g/t gold, including 12.6m @ 14.9 g/t and 26.2m @ 1.26% cobalt,
Mineralisation is known to extend from Sara Alicia into Sara
including 6.35m @ 3.57%
Alicia II, however, there has been limited exploration completed
to realise the potential of the area.
During the two-year period it has taken for the Federal Court the company,” Rovira said.
to instruct the mining registry to award Sara Alicia II to Azure, Further to production from Oposura, also in Sonora State, there
the company has been monitoring activity in the area to is a keen emphasis on drilling at Alacrán, which was handed
identify opportunities to bolster its Sara Alicia landholding upon back to Azure from Teck Resources Ltd.
availability. Alacrán, north of Oposura, hosts a resource of 32 moz silver
In the meantime, reconnaissance exploration with geological and 150,000oz gold at Mesa de Plata and Loma Bonita, which
mapping, geochemical sampling and geophysical surveys will includes a high-grade component of 15.5 moz silver @ 275 g/t
be undertaken in the first half of this year at Sara Alicia, as the from surface at Mesa de Plata.
company’s priorities are elsewhere in Mexico. The company has had immediate success at Alacrán since
“Sara Alicia is now the third ranked project, we are looking at restarting exploration at its now 100%-owned project, with
that and doing some regional work on that. We will probably look five new targets identified from sampling of five separate mine
to find a partner or purchaser for Sara Alicia,” Azure managing dumps which returned maximum values of 3,675 g/t silver, 24.1
director Tony Rovira told GMJ. g/t gold, 2.3% copper, 33.5% lead and 21% zinc.
“We acquired Sara Alicia originally because it was very rich in “We will be back on the ground at Alacrán in probably January
cobalt and it was at that time when cobalt was very much flavour or during the first quarter with drilling again to increase the size
of the month, but the Sara Alicia project itself is very prospective of our silver and gold resources at the two deposits that we have
for gold. We did a little bit of work on it and we got some very found,” Rovira said.
high-grade gold and cobalt drill intersections, but once we In addition to expanding resources at Loma Bonita and Mesa de
acquired the more advanced Oposura project we decided to Plata, the company will also restart metallurgical studies at both
focus on that.” deposits, while also continuing to do greenfields exploration to
In what is still a tough time for the junior resource sector, Azure’s develop new projects.
decision to prioritise Oposura appears on-song with the project Rovira said that while the administrative mining system had
on track to produce cash flow in Q1 and provide the company been slowed by the current administration’s quest to reduce
with a springboard into other opportunities in its portfolio. costs, doing business in Mexico was good and the civil unrest
Phase 1 mining of 6,100t @ 13.4% zinc and 10.7% lead, including seen in other parts of Latin America was not occurring in the
2,100t @ 24% zinc and 18.3% lead has been completed at country.
Oposura, which hosts a resource of 3.1mt @ 5% zinc, 2.7% lead “Because of the austerity programme and reducing the size
and 18 g/t silver. of the public services there are fewer public servants to carry
“Within the first quarter/first half [2020] we will be generating out the administrative tasks that need to be done. For example,
cash flow from sales of our lead-zinc concentrate at maybe the granting of mining leases or carrying out or approving
Oposura. That income proves that the concept in mining and environmental applications for drilling or mining programmes
processing is workable at Oposura and we will continue with [might take longer]. The system is a little bit slower than what
more mining and processing to maintain that cash flow into it was a year ago, but it is still working quite well,” Rovira said.

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