Golden results for Cayden in first El Barqueno drilling

VANCOUVER – Cayden Resources (TSXV: CYD) is wrapping up its first drill program at the El Barqueno project in Mexico and 24 of the first 25 holes hit gold.

The drills have been testing Azteca, a target in the middle of El Barqueno I, the central concession of three that make up the property. Overall, results to date suggest the gold Cayden identified on surface continues at depth, permeating several geologic structures, and copper grades seem to creep up as drills push deeper down.

Hole 23, for example, returned two intercepts: 15 metres grading 1.43 grams gold per tonne, 20.4 grams silver per tonne, and 0.54% copper from 75 metres depth, followed by 10 metres of 0.48 gram gold, 43.8 grams silver, and 1.36% copper.

Some of the holes at Azteca hit into fairly high grades. In the latest set of results, hole 21 cut 18 metres grading 3.38 grams gold, 18.3 grams silver, and 0.23% copper from 65 metres depth, while hole 24 returned 10 metres of 4.4 grams gold and 9.8 grams silver from 30 metres downhole. 

Several holes from earlier sets of results also returned notably higher-grade intercepts. Hole 3 cut 20 metres grading 4.26 grams gold, 6.2 grams silver, and 0.06% copper, starting just 9 metres downhole. Hole 10 intercepted 10 metres grading 5.88 grams gold, 5.5 grams silver, and 0.03% copper from 10 metres depth. And hole 14 returned 16 metres grading 5.89 grams gold from 30 metres depth followed by 7 metres of 7.83 grams gold from 59 metres depth.

Other holes produced longer intercepts. Hole 15 cut through 35.5 metres averaging 1.62 grams gold, 214 grams silver, and 0.66% copper, starting 38 metres downhole, and hole 22 returned 23 metres of 1.44 grams gold, 5.6 grams silver, and 0.09% copper from 69 metres depth. Earlier, hole 8 also produced a longer intercept: 43 metres averaging 0.61 gram gold, 9.5 grams silver, and 0.45% copper from 129 metres depth.

Many holes returned mineralization not only from the targeted Azteca structure but also from two additional zones beneath that bear “the classic banded veining typical of a low-sulphidation state epithermal gold system,” according to Cayden.

For example, the second hole drilled at Azteca returned 59 metres grading 2.2 grams gold, 6.2 grams silver, and 0.13% copper from 48 metres depth, followed by 18 metres of 1.92 grams gold, 7.2 grams silver, and 0.21% copper at 118 metres depth and 42 metres grading 0.7 gram gold, 15.6 grams silver, and 0.51% copper from 135 metres downhole.

Cayden has tracked the Azteca zone on surface for 2.2 km strike. This initial drill program has now tested 1.2 km of that strike and hit gold in all but one hole. Cayden has completed 4,500 metres of its planned 5,000-metre drill program at Azteca, with several holes still awaiting assay.

While drills probed El Barqueno I, Cayden completed mapping, soil and rock sampling, and trenching at El Barqueno II. A similar mapping, sampling, and trenching program at El Barqueno I last year identified anomalous gold mineralization over 15 km of strike within seven target areas.

To date Azteca is the only one of those target areas that Cayden has drilled. The company started with Azteca after it returned best trenching result of 4 metres grading 41.6 grams gold and 13 metres of 8.3 grams gold. Another target, known as Pena de Oro, also returned promising trench results, including 8 metres of 14.7 grams gold and 29 metres of 3.1 grams gold. Cayden’s geologists have mapped massive stockwork veining and silicification at Pena de Oro over an area measuring 750 metres by 200 metres, still open along strike.

El Barqueno’s three concessions total 467 sq. km. The project sits 130 km west of Guadalajara, in an area with good infrastructure and paved roads. Cayden inked a deal for El Barqueno I, the central concession, in April 2012, agreeing to pay Grupo Mexico US$8 million and spent US$4 million on exploration at the site over three years. Over the next year Cayden signed another deal for El Barqueno II and staked the lands that make up El Barqueno III.

The lands have a long history of artisanal mining, with evidence of operations reaching as far back as the 1500s. In the 1980s the Mexican government produced a small amount of gold from two open pits and in the 1990s and 2000s Grupo Mexico completed some exploration.

Cayden is well funded. At the end of September the company had $2 million in the bank, but in December Cayden received US$7.87 million from Goldcorp (TSX: G; NYSE: GG), the second of two payments following Goldcorp’s deal to buy part of Cayden’s Morelos Sur project for US$15.7 million. Now Cayden is concentrating on selling another of its properties to Goldcorp: the Las Calles concession, which sits adjacent to Goldcorp’s Los Filos mine.

Cayden’s share price gained 3¢ on news of its latest results from El Barqueno to close at $1.10. When Cayden released initial trenching results from the project in September the company’s shares climbed as high as $1.80, from a low of 64¢ a few months earlier. Cayden has 41.6 million shares outstanding.