WESTERN METALLICA RESOURCES CORP. ANNOUNCES PROGRAM AT THE NUEVA CELTI COPPER PROJECT AND UPDATE TO PENEDELA DRILLING

Figure 1: Penedela Project Target Regions

Figure 2: Nueva Celti historical drilling sites (Asturiana de Zinc, Glencore) with location of the self-potential stations. Mise-A-La-Masse anomalies (1975 survey) on background and position of mag anomalies (1975 survey)

WESTERN METALLICA RESOURCES CORP. (TSXV:WMS) ANNOUNCES PROGRAM AT THE NUEVA CELTI COPPER PROJECT AND UPDATE TO PENEDELA DRILLING

Western Metallica Resources Corp. (TSXV:WMS)

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, January 12, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Western Metallica¹ Resources Corp. (TSXV: WMS²) (“Western Metallica” or the “Company”) is pleased to report on updates from the Company’s various mineral projects in Spain, primarily results from the recently completed Penedela Project drill program and plans for the launch of a preliminary exploration program at the Company’s 100% owned copper project, Nueva Celti. Nueva Celti is a strategic and priority exploration project due to the amount of regional and historic data, as well as past production at commercial grades of 5% copper with infrastructure on and adjacent to the property, making it a prime long-term project and key asset which has the potential to be advanced towards a significant copper and base metal resource for the Company.

The recently completed Penedela drill program involved a step out along trend from previous targets with the aim of testing underexplored regions of the property, and incorporated detailed mapping, rock sampling and the drilling. The Penedela Project underwent a cumulative total of 2,236 metres drilled across 12 holes from period 2020-2022, to a maximum depth of 335.6 metres, with the Penedela zone drilled approximately 130 metres vertical from surface and a total of ~500 metres on-strike. The program was generally aimed at testing the control on mineralization by the NS structure, with the exception of IB029 located on the southern edge of the project, that was drilled with a 350 azimuth. The ongoing modelling is focused on wireframing two different mineralized bodies that run parallel, constituting the Penedela zone: one hanging wall skarnoid, continuous, and lower grade body, and another footwall one represented by a zone of quartz-galena-arsenopyrite veining.

The four main targets of the Penedela program re-start underwent a cumulative 1,411 metres of drilling which confirmed the mineralization within the Penedela system, still open toward South and North as well as the width of the main Penedela zone that still remains to be defined as summarized below (refer to Figure 1):

• Target 1 - Penedela Structure: drill holes IB025 and IB026 to verify the Penedela body extension. Hole IB030 twinned an historical hole aimed at better defining two mineralized domains being currently wireframed, and confirmed a wider mineralized zone expanding inside the quartzite far from the contact with the slates. The on going relogging and resampling exercise of hole IB019 (2020 program hole) and IB026 seems to point out that the mineralization remains open at-depth. IB019, that returned significant results of 11 metres at 0.7 g/t Au and 3 metres at 1.8 g/t Au, was drilled down to 115.7 metres ending in Qz-As veining, and exhibits a wider zone of potential mineralization ~100 metres below surface.

• Target 2 - Saddle-Reef: drill holes IB024 and IB028 targeted the possible control by the anticline hinge. Hole IB028 was drilled to a total depth of 197.1 metres, aimed to potentially intersect the hinge of the regional San Martin anticline approaching the eastern limb of the fold, as this sector of the Penedela property remained untested and recent field work indicated a folding style characterized by a ‘short wave-length’ chevron structure similar to other similar systems worldwide.

• Target 3 - NS feeding zone: drill hole IB027 targeted a possible feeder of the Penedela system, as pointed out by high Au-grade returned from surface rock samples. 3D interpretation inferred the presence of a NS fault as a possible structure feeding the system which assumes a conceptual massive quartz vein traditionally coined ‘saddle reef structure’. Hole IB027 was drilled to a total depth of 150.2 metres and intercepted a couple of silicified zones with fine-disseminated arsenopyrite and pyrite prospectively indicating NS Fault systems dipping eastward.

• Target 4 - San Martin Anticline Extension: drill hole IB029 targeted the southern extension of the San Martin anticline hinge as well as the EW-trending vein system observed, on the northern side of the river, to crosscut the Penedela structure. The possibility of saddle-reef mineralization was initially tested by IB029 (on the southern sector of the property), which indicated results of 0.75 metres at 5.53 g/t Au, 0.45 metres at 0.37 g/t Au and 0.55 metres at 0.50 g/t Au, within a wide interval between 71.2 and 87.4 metres, returned from EW-trending veining. Here the gold grades resulted more erratic than the NS-trending veining characterizing the Penedela zone. A sulphide-matrix hydrothermal breccia intercepted at 222.35 metres returned 3.30 metres at 0.36 g/t Au, 0.2% Cu as well as quartz-arsenopyrite-pyrite veining, located at the breccia footwall, returned 0.95 metres at 5.21 g/t Au from 231.5 metres. Hole IB029 reached a total depth of 335.6 metres proving the presence of a skarnoid-type alteration, also marked by 20-30 metres wide pyrrhotite-in envelop, resulted from the metasomatism of felspathic sandstone layers interbedded within the Los Cabos quartzite.

Penedela remains a project of importance for the Company, being positioned in the prolific Iberian Peninsula, formed by multiple gold mineralizing events and hosting two of the largest currently known deposits in the area.
As previously announced, the Company’s Sierra Alta Project, in the same region, will undergo a targeted drill program aimed to validate historical work and specifically intended to validate a jasperoidal breccia that returned encouraging results. The Company has launched a first stage 1,000 metre, 5-hole, diamond drilling program in Q1-2023 at Sierra Alta, where land access has been granted, refer to press release dated December 6, 2022. The Company expects initial channel sampling results conducted across a 4-kilometre strike length testing the Montefurado-La Freita trend, with drilling at Sierra Alta to commence Q1-2023.

Gregory Duras, CEO and Director of Western Metallica Resources commented, “The Company is satisfied having demonstrated the extension of mineralization at Penedela and intends as next steps to further understand the potential of its other assets, in order to prioritize the allocation of its capital to continue its goal of developing a maiden resource. The Company has approximately CAD$5.3 million in cash as at the end of December 2022, to continue to advance its projects.”

Read the full press release at: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/01/12/2587722/0/en/Western-Metallica-Resources-Corp-Announces-Program-at-the-Nueva-Celti-Copper-Project-and-Update-to-Penedela-Drilling.html

Or on Western Metallica's website: https://www.westernmetallicacorp.com/2023

Tara Asfour
Western Metallica Resources Corp.
info@westernmetallica.com
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¹ https://www.westernmetallicacorp.com
² https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/wms.v/