Announcing the start of the operating season is usually a somewhat ho-hum press release. However, Tocvan Ventures (TOC:CSE) is beginning to drill the 24 km2 area that makes up the El Picacho Project in Sonora Mexico. While the company will continue to work on its Pilar project, the real excitement this season will come from Picacho.
“There has been no drilling at Picacho for ten years,” said Tocvan CEO Brodie Sutherland in a telephone interview. “Pilar remains our flagship, but Picacho is real blue sky.”
Tocvan will not be drilling blind. Its first drill targets are at San Ramon where samples grading as high as 22 gpt gold and 22 gpt silver have been collected. As well, there are artisanal workings with high-grade gold and silver mineralization at each of the drill target zones.
In the press release announcing the season’s kick off Sutherland stated, “At Picacho, we will be working with an experienced drill contractor with extensive experience drilling the San Francisco Mine from exploration to mine development.” The San Francisco gold mine is 18 kilometers away from Picacho and has a measured and indicated resource of over 1.4 million ounces of gold. Tocvan’s drill contractor has told the company that the geology at Picacho looks very similar to San Francisco.
El Picacho has the potential to have a large resource. Essentially seams of high grade material surrounded by a halo of lower grade, but still economic, rock. With drilling commencing very shortly, Sutherland is hoping to have a stream of results beginning in mid-December. “The blend of high and low grade beginning right at surface is very prospective,” said Sutherland.
Work will continue at Pilar with the very real prospect of near-term production. It is a smaller project than Picacho which will allow it to be put into production using fairly limited resources. Tocvan has always been very careful with its treasury and production at Pilar, even on a small scale, will allow Tocvan to continue to develop both projects without significant share dilution.
Watch for regular Tocvan news releases right through 2022 and well into the New Year.
Figure 1. Overview of El Picacho Project
Figure 2. 3D Surface View of western-half of the El Picacho Project.
Figure 3. Planview map of San Ramon Prospect at the El Picacho Project, Tocvan’s next priority target
Photo 1. Reviewing the latest trench results from Pilar Project.