Rugby Sampling Results Establishing Targets at the El Zanjon Gold-Silver Project, Argentina

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rugby Mining Limited (“Rugby” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: RUG) reports that further follow-up soil sampling at the El Zanjon Gold Silver Project (“El Zanjon”) is defining specific sites for more detailed work and later drilling. El Zanjon is one of the first projects in Santa Cruz Province designed to discover a fully intact epithermal gold-silver system beneath sedimentary cover. The follow-up program is being scheduled to start within 60 days.

Highlights

• Ultra-low level Ionic Leach geochemistry is “seeing” through gravel cover for leakage from the underlying bedrock, particularly in areas of interpreted fault flexures.
• Gold values that range from 0.02 to 1.72 ppb (Figure 2) and silver values range from 0.9 to 27.1ppb (Figure 3).
• An area of highly anomalous arsenic (max 1,195 ppb), molybdenum (max 967 ppb) and mercury (max 2.2 ppb) with coincident anomalous gold and silver assays was defined near the centre of the property (Figure 4).
• Follow-up in-fill geochemical sampling and detailed ground magnetics is planned.

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Mr. Yale Simpson, Chairman of the Company, commented, “Rugby’s approach at El Zanjon is designed to find an entire gold system, not just the odd vein. The current soil sampling is designed to put us on top of specific sites where we can apply a similar exploration approach to that successfully employed for drill targeting at the multi-million-ounce Cerro Moro discovery that is so familiar to us. Undoubtedly, the El Zanjon area has been ignored in the past due to the absence of outcropping veins.”

Rugby is targeting major flexures within fault structures extending south from the Cerro Vanguardia mine to El Zanjon (Figure 1). Host rocks are the prospective Chon Aike formation which host the major high-grade gold-silver epithermal orebodies in Santa Cruz Province. The favorable host rocks are extensively gravel covered within this tenement, and low-level geochemical techniques are utilized to see leakage from potential orebodies at depth. Samples were assayed for 61 multi-elements using ultra-sensitive Ionic Leach by ALS (Vancouver).

Our earlier geochemical programs defined 10 zones of anomalous gold-silver geochemistry ranging from 320m to 2,800m in length along these structures. A number of these anomalies have coincident lower pH readings suggesting an acidic environment which can indicate oxidizing sulfides at depth, an association common to other epithermal projects in the region.

Anomalous results from the 366 geochemical samples collected over 35 kilometres of strike are very encouraging and have better delineated specific zones requiring more detailed work prior to drill testing. Follow-up work is planned to commence early in Q2 prior to the onset of the southern winter. We plan to reduce the geochemical sample spacing from 320m to 160m and include ground magnetic surveying at 80m spacing over the anomalous zones to more accurately define flexures along the structures prospective for high grade mineralization for drill testing.

Sampling Methodology

• The soils were sampled following ALS laboratories sampling instructions.
• All site locations were recorded as WGS84, UTM Easting and Northing coordinates Zone 19 using a hand-held Garmin eTrex® 20.
• Samples were collected from 10 cm to 20 cm below the surface.
• A 120 gram sample was collected and placed in a Ziplock plastic bag with the sample number permanently marked on the bag.
• The bag was folded over to remove most of the air and sealed, then placed in another plastic bag again removing as much air prior to sealing.
• Jewelry was removed and only plastic and wooden implements were used.
• All 258 samples were placed in plastic boxes and dispatched to ALS (Vancouver) for Ionic Leach analysis by ME-MS23™ method.
• Fifteen laboratory duplicate samples were included in the analysis.

Data Analysis

• The geochemical data were imported into the project’s database for geostatistical analysis, determination of correlation and geochemical mapping.
• The dataset of 366 assays was filtered by soil type and grouped in Sand and Gravel (SG) or Tertiary (TR) to analyse them independently.
• Geostatistics were calculated using Discover software for the sub-dataset Ag, As, Au, Cd, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mo, Pb and Sr.
• The percentiles were then used to prepare accurate geochemical thematic maps with the objective of distinguishing anomalies.

Paul Joyce, Rugby’s Chief Operating Officer, Director and a “qualified person” (“QP”) within the definition of that term in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has verified the technical information that forms the basis for this news release.

About Rugby
Rugby is an exploration company conducting “discovery stage” exploration on targets in Colombia, Argentina, the Philippines and Australia. The Company controls a portfolio of gold projects in Colombia that do not require the Department of Forestry approval that stalled the Cobrasco copper project in Choco Province. These gold projects have considerable potential for gold, silver and copper discoveries, and the Company is hopeful that The Department of Mines will move to grant titles this year as COVID restrictions ease in Colombia.

The Company benefits from the experience of its directors and management, a team that has either been directly responsible for world-class mineral discoveries or have been part of the management teams responsible for such discoveries. Prior companies under their management included Exeter Resource Corporation and Extorre Gold Mines Limited, which held significant projects in South America. These companies were taken over by Goldcorp (Newmont) and Yamana respectively.

For additional information you are invited to visit the Rugby Mining Limited website at www.rugbymining.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is “forward-looking information” within the meaning of the British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario Securities Acts. This includes statements concerning the Company’s plans at its projects including progress on obtaining approval for its exploration concession applications in Colombia, the expected timing of drilling and/or geophysics programs, prospectivity, high grade potential and potential for mineral discoveries, the style or occurrence of the mineralization and drilling costs which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. In addition, the Company holds certain of its projects under option agreements, which require expenditure and/ or drilling requirements in order to maintain its interest. Should the Company not be able to meet its obligations or renegotiate the agreements it will lose its rights under the option agreement. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, the effect on prices of major mineral commodities such as copper and gold by factors beyond the control of the Company; events which cannot be accurately predicted such as political and economic instability, terrorism, environmental factors and changes in government regulations and taxes; the shortage of personnel with the requisite knowledge and skills to design and execute exploration programs; difficulties in arranging contracts for drilling and other exploration services; the Company’s dependency on equity market financings to fund its exploration programs and maintain its mineral exploration properties in good standing; political risk that a government will change, interpret or enforce mineral tenure, environmental regulations, taxes or mineral royalties in a manner that could have an adverse effect on the Company’s assets or financial condition and impair its ability to advance its mineral exploration projects or raise further funds for exploration; risks associated with title to resource properties due to the difficulties of determining the validity of certain claims as well as the potential for problems arising from the interpretation of laws regarding ownership or exploration of mineral properties in the Philippines and Colombia and in the sometimes ambiguous conveyancing characteristic of many resource properties, currency risks associated with foreign operations, the timing of obtaining permits to conduct exploration activities, the ability to conclude agreements with local communities and other risks and uncertainties, the ongoing effects of the COVID 19 virus and including those described in each of the Company’s management discussion and analysis and those contained in its financial statements for the year ended February 29, 2020 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. In addition, forward-looking information is based on various assumptions including, without limitation, assumptions associated with exploration results and costs and the availability of materials and skilled labour. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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