Benzinga | Mar 15, 2021 08:30AM EDT

Almaden Says Resumes Exploration At The Ixtaca Property

Almaden Minerals Ltd. (("Almaden" or "the Company", TSX:AMM, NYSE:AAU) is pleased to report that it has resumed exploration in the area of the Ixtaca project.



Initial work is going to focus on identifying drill targets in the area of the Southeast ("SE") Alteration Zone through further mapping and additional geophysics. As reported in the Fall of 2020, this area measures about 1.5 kilometre (km) east-west by 1 km north-south, and is centred approximately 1 km southeast of the Ixtaca deposit.

The SE Alteration Zone comprises white argillic (clay-altered) volcanics and, most interestingly, clusters of anomalies identified from a hyperspectral survey that include the spectral signatures of important epithermal alteration minerals such as kaolinite, alunite and buddingtonite.

In November, 2020, the Company announced the discovery of several areas of veining cropping out within the SE Alteration Zone, and seventeen samples of the veining were collected and submitted for analysis to ALS Global in Zacatecas, Mexico. All but one sample returned below detection gold and silver, with the exception returning a value of 62 ppb gold. However, even though the outcrops are leached and weathered, many of the samples also returned elevated values for epithermal pathfinder elements which are commonly found in the higher parts of epithermal alteration zones. The presence of pathfinder elements in these samples is very encouraging as it corroborates the Company view that the SE Alteration Zone could represent the higher levels of a potential underlying epithermal system. It is quite typical that the higher parts of these systems contain negligible precious metals values.

The SE Alteration Zone lies well outside of the current Ixtaca deposit resource area, which was the focus of a Feasibility Study (results of which were announced by the Company in December, 2018). A report titled "Ixtaca Gold-Silver Project, Puebla State, Mexico NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Feasibility Study", which was prepared in accordance with NI 43-101, is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR and on the Company's website.

All work conducted as part of this program will be conducted in strict accordance with COVID-19 safety protocols, to ensure the safety of employees and local communities, employing local people wherever possible.