Centenario Gold Corp. has completed five drill holes totaling 1,140 meters at its Los Reyes copper-gold skarn project in Chihuahua, Mexico, with core logging indicating that copper oxide mineralization extends below the historically worked Jibosa and Tueda zones. The company announced the progress on its initial drill program, noting that 344 core samples have been shipped to ALS Labs in Chihuahua. No assays have been received yet, meaning grade and economic potential remain unknown, but the spatial extent of the mineralization is the key takeaway for investors and observers of the project.
The program's most consequential finding is that drilling has confirmed copper oxides at depth beneath known surface and underground workings. Hole RYS26-02, drilled just below the Jibosa Shaft zone, reached the granodiorite-limestone contact at 75 meters and cut strongly oxidized copper zones with abundant hematite and breccia textures between 95.7 and 104.2 meters. Hole RYS26-01, positioned between the Jibosa and Tueda Shaft zones, intersected copper oxides roughly 75 meters below surface and skarn and hornfels between 125 and 175 meters. These results support the interpretation that the mineralized system continues vertically, not merely laterally, which is significant because it suggests the historical mine workings may sit atop a larger, deeper target.
The company also reported evidence of a broader sulfide system. Hole RYS26-03 intersected more than 120 meters of pyrite-dominant sulfides with chalcopyrite, plus quartz-pyrite-molybdenite veinlets in hornfels, while testing the northern extension of the Tueda zone. Hole RYS26-04 cut an iron-magnetite skarn between 171 and 187 meters about 170 meters south of Jibosa, and Hole RYS26-05, located 200 meters north of Tueda, hit the contact zone at shallow depths between 47 and 61 meters, with logging ongoing. According to the company, the drilling so far points to a large intrusion-related copper-molybdenum system with skarn mineralization along the intrusive-sediment contact. Maps and sections detailing the location and description of drill holes were released alongside the update, and the company provided a location map of drill holes and sections.
For shareholders, the announcement matters less for what it definitively proves than for what it de-risks. Los Reyes sits along the eastern contact between a granodiorite intrusive and Lower Cretaceous limestones and shales in a northwest-trending mineralized belt that hosts Santa Eulalia, Naica, La Ojuela and San Martin. The only missing piece is assay data, and the company has said results will be released once received. Until then, the reported intercepts are geological observations rather than grades. Even so, consistent copper oxide hits beneath two separate zones, combined with long sulfide intervals and a magnetite skarn, give the pending assays multiple horizons to test. Interested parties can view the cross-section and selected drill core from hole RYS26-01 and the cross-section and selected core from hole RYS26-02, which illustrate the geometry the company is interpreting.
Centenario Gold is a Vancouver-based explorer listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol CTG, focused on gold, copper and silver projects in the Americas. Further information is available at www.centenariogold.com, and the original release can be viewed through NEWMEDIAWIRE. The technical disclosure was reviewed by Derrick Strickland, an independent Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.
