Rugby Mining Limited (“Rugby” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: RUG) is pleased to announce that field work is underway on its prospective Pastora and El Playon gold concession applications near Bucaramanga, Colombia.
Rugby geological teams have recently been conducting detailed ground proofing of strong geochemical anomalies delineated on Pastora and El Playon. This work program commenced following the recent notice that the Agencia Nacional de Mineria (“ANM”) expects to advance the process for approval of the Pastora and El Playon applications. Our teams have confirmed interesting sulfide rich silica veining in thickly covered areas with little outcrop. These have been sampled and assays are awaited.
Pastora and El Playon were acquired in 2016, when Rugby purchased Soratama, the Colombian subsidiary of a major global gold miner (News Release: NR16-03). Prior to Rugby’s acquisition, Soratama had spent approximately US$20 million exploring the major Colombian gold belts over a 10-year period. Soratama made numerous applications during this period over areas with identified gold targets generated from their comprehensive regional geochemical sampling programs.
At Pastora 1,800 soil samples previously collected by Soratama have defined a large 7 km x 6 km gold soil anomaly. The anomaly has similar geological characteristics and size to the La Bodega* and La Mascota deposits* located in the California-Vetas mining district situated 25 km to the east.
The Soratama assets purchased by Rugby include concession applications covering approximately 845 km2 and a vast geochemical and geophysical database. Surface exploration on these concession applications is permissible at this stage; however, subsurface work can only be done once the concessions are granted.
The notification from the ANM indicates that community presentations will soon be conducted to obtain local approval which is the final step before a full grant of the concession(s). Nine Soratama applications, including four at Pastora and El Playon have now advanced to this stage (figure 1 below). Importantly, the Pastora and El Playon applications are all outside the Paramo de Santurban, national parks and forestry reserves.
The ongoing ground exploration programs recently initiated by Rugby’s technical team are intended to further identify high priority gold targets. Identification of targets will allow for a drilling program to commence shortly after these concessions are granted. Timing for final grant(s) is not known at this time but Rugby considers this to be a near-term outcome and has thus put importance on advancing these projects ahead of grant.
