Oroco Announces Registration of Xochipala Concessions Within the Guerrero Gold Belt
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 08/14/12 -- Oroco Resource Corp. (TSX VENTURE: OCO) ("Oroco" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that its ownership of a 100% interest in the Celia Gene (100 ha) and Celia Generosa (93 ha) concessions (the "Xochipala Property") has now been registered with the Mexican Public Registry of Mining (the "PRM"). The Xochipala Property is located in the highly prospective Guerrero Gold Belt in the Morelos region of Guerrero State, in central Mexico.
The Xochipala Property was acquired in 2007 by the Company's wholly owned Mexican subsidiary, Minera Xochipala, S.A. de C.V. ("MX"), which filed for registration of its ownership in early 2008. The PRM initially rejected MX's application for registration on grounds which, in the opinion of the Company's Mexican legal counsel, were incorrect at law. After two court challenges and a lengthy process of legal submissions by MX, the PRM agreed with MX's entitlement and has now completed registration of MX's ownership of the Xochipala Property.
The Xochipala Property and the Guerrero Gold Belt
The Xochipala Property, which is surrounded by concessions owned by Goldcorp., lies approximately 170 kilometers southwest of Mexico City and approximately 4 kilometers southeast of Goldcorp.'s Los Filos Mine. The property lies within the area of the former Morelos National Mining Reserve but was held under private ownership and not included in the reserve. The Morelos National Mining Reserve, which was a consolidation of an area of abundant historic artisanal and small scale mining, was privatized in the early 1990s and is the productive core of the area now known as the Guerrero Gold Belt.
The Guerrero Gold Belt hosts a series of gold-bearing iron skarn and disseminated intrusion-hosted deposits which contain a current inventory of over 16 million NI 43-101 compliant ounces of gold in all categories. These include Los Filos (Goldcorp Inc.: 11.3 million measured, indicated and inferred ounces as at February, 2010), El Limon and Los Guajes (Torex Gold Resources Inc.: 5.4 million measured, indicated and inferred ounces), and Ana Paula (Newstrike Capital Inc.: currently estimating the resource). The discovery of these deposits, beginning in the late 1980s, has led to the development of a predictable exploration model along the trend of the Guerrero Gold Belt. Each of these areas of mineralization has a geophysical signature consisting of a strong high magnetic anomaly caused by iron mineralization produced in the mineralizing process. The Xochipala Property is underlain by such a magnetic anomaly, which is also the last in the Guerrero Gold Belt remaining untested by modern exploration methods.
As cited in a report prepared for Britannia Gold Corporation in 1997 by Tawn Albinson, M.Sc., the Xochipala Property was the site of historic, shallow mining, likely going back to the Spanish explorers, and a limited amount of surface bulldozing and geophysical surveys in the 1980s and 90s. Historical workings have exposed highly oxidized mineralized zones which were sampled by Oroco geologists in a preliminary evaluation of the claims soon after the property was acquired by Oroco. Highlights of those results are presented in the following table. Preliminary mapping and assay results indicate that gold mineralization exists at Xochipala along the contact zone between intrusive and sedimentary rocks.
Select Assay Results From Xochipala Surface Sampling:
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SAMPLE GRADE
HISTORICAL LENGTH AU
SHOWING DESCRIPTION (m) (g/t)
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LOMA DEL TIGRE intrusive with abundant clay and iron oxide 1.0 11.75
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LOMA DEL TIGRE intrusive with abundant clay and iron oxide 0.9 54.50
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LOMA DEL TIGRE intrusive with abundant clay and iron oxide 1.0 0.44
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MINA DEL PUENTE marbleized with clay, hematite, magnetite 1.0 3.79
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MINA DEL PUENTE highly oxidized, clay, hematite, magnetite 1.2 1.29
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MINA DEL PUENTE white to yellow shale horizon 0.9 1.42
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MINA DEL PUENTE abundant hematite and magnetite 1.0 2.42
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MINAS TEPEC marbleized with abundant calcite and 1.2 0.59
hematite
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MINAS TEPEC limestone with abundant hematite, magnetite 1.2 2.05
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MINAS TEPEC limestone with abundant hematite, magnetite 1.1 6.10
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Oroco will commence exploration on the Xochipala Property before the end of the third quarter of 2012. A program of detailed surface sampling and mapping will initiate the program followed by diamond drilling.
Qualified Person
Kenneth R. Thorsen, B.Sc., P. Eng., is a director of the company and is a 'qualified person' for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties of the Canadian Securities Administrators. He has verified the data (including sampling, analytical and test data) and prepared or supervised the preparation of the information contained in this news release.
About Oroco
Oroco is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with its primary focus on the accelerated development of the gold-bearing oxide zones of its Cerro Prieto Project in northern Sonora State, Mexico. The Cerro Prieto Project consists of a group of 100% owned concessions comprising over 7,000 ha. Oroco also owns a 100% interest in the 193 ha Xochipala Property, contained within the original Morelos National Mining Reserve in Guerrero State, Mexico.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Oroco Resource Corp.
Mr. Craig Dalziel
President and CEO
604-688-6200
604-688-6260 (FAX)
www.orocoresourcecorp.com