Riverside links two holes at Union Norte in Sonora

Riverside Resources drilled seven holes at its Union project in northwest Sonora, Mexico, and reported the results on September 9. Two neighboring holes at the Union Norte target hit near-surface mineralization: UND26-015 returned 14.6 meters at 0.45 grams per tonne gold-equivalent, and UND26-014 returned 9.1 meters at 0.76 grams per tonne gold-equivalent. The program was small — 530.1 meters total. Three of the seven holes returned no significant assays, just anomalous pathfinder readings that hint a system is nearby.

Here’s the mechanism worth understanding. “Gold-equivalent” bundles gold with lead, zinc, and silver credits into one number. Strip those out and the actual gold in the wide intervals is only 0.19 to 0.34 grams per tonne — the base metals and silver do most of the lifting, and the calculation assumes gold at $1,700 an ounce, below where it trades now. On the gram-meter yardstick, which multiplies width by grade to size a hit, these run roughly 6 to 7 gram-meters per hole — routine-to-below-average for a gold play. The link between the two holes needs its geometry. Both were drilled from the same pad, fanning out 70 degrees apart, and their two intercepts sit only about 3 metres from each other — starting 1.0 and 1.9 metres down the hole, the deeper one bottoming out about 15 metres below surface. That is one structure hit twice from one collar, not a zone traced along strike, and the release does not say how far the structure has been extended. What the holes do establish is that the mineralization reaches surface, and grades this low only matter when the rock sits that shallow. Riverside runs as a prospect generator under John-Mark Staude, an economic geologist who founded it in 2007 and has structured partner earn-in deals rather than building mines himself. In December the company closed a C$3.7 million placement with Rick Rule and Sprott among the named participants. The stock climbed 71.2% over three months while the junior gold index GDXJ rose 36.7% and gold itself added 4.3% — a company-specific re-rating, not sector drift.

Now the honest part. True width is explicitly unknown; the reported figures are core lengths and may overstate the mineralized zone. Significant faulting limited core recovery in several holes, which can bias grades. One hole, UND26-018 at the Luis Hill target, was terminated before reaching its 150-meter goal due to complications — and Luis Hill’s flagship feature, a one-kilometer IP chargeability anomaly, remains undrilled. The qualified person, Julian Manco, is non-independent. Read this as target validation, not discovery. The company says Phase 2B drilling is slated to resume around early October at Union Norte, Union Mine, Jabali, and Luis Hill once the monsoon ends, and it depends on partner funding continuing to flow.

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