Aztec Minerals - Record Drill Results and Upcoming Maiden Resource Estimate at Tombstone
Summary
Aztec Minerals reports its thickest well-mineralized intersection yet at Tombstone, Arizona: 155.4 metres averaging 1.63 gpt gold-equivalent (grams per tonne, gold plus silver).
Reverse circulation drilling is pushing mineralization east and north beyond the main Contention pit, with first-pass holes in new areas all hitting gold.
First core holes testing deep CRD-style targets returned narrow intersections; downhole geophysics will refine which structures justify costlier follow-up drilling.
A maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (a first formal tally of deposit size and grade) is targeted for late September, with drilling through mid-August included.
A Tucson lab deal cut assay turnaround to three weeks; about 19,000 of 21,000 program metres are drilled with results pending.
Cory Fleck's takeaways
- Top takeaway As host, he frames TR26-30 as possibly the best hole drilled at Tombstone in terms of thickness and drives the interview toward MRE timing, lab turnaround, and remaining meterage.
- He notes that the other RC holes in the July 15 release appear to have hit gold mineralization across the board, though at lower widths and grades than the highlight hole.
Simon Dyakowski's takeaways
- Top takeaway He argues TR26-30 validates the refined drilling setup ā a crew on site for 14 months with better equipment ā which let Aztec drill much deeper through ground that caved in prior years and deliver the property's thickest well-mineralized intersection.
- He frames Aztec as transitioning from CRD exploration to de-risking a shallow oxide gold-silver deposit, capping deep CRD drilling at about 20% of time and money while prioritizing the maiden resource and a hoped-for rerate on open-pit economics.
- He treats the first-pass holes in new target areas, including near the Independence Mine, as wins because they hit mineralization instead of the dusters common in first-pass drilling, calling them vectors for expansion discoveries.
- He expects pending deep core holes TC26-02 and TC26-05, plus downhole geophysics, to clarify the system's plumbing and potentially point to a sulfide discovery at depth.
- He notes Aztec's results and share price bucked a weak summer market during consolidation, which he reads as a good omen for the back half of the year as precious metals seasonally bottom around this time.