Mercado Minerals: High discovery potential at Copalito with three new veins already discovered – Richard Mills

2026.02.26

Mercado Minerals’ (CSE:MERC) flagship Copalito Project presents a district-scale opportunity with known and drilled silver — gold-low-sulfidation vein mineralization that is open for expansion. 

Historical third-party high-grade silver and significant gold and base metal drill intercepts include 347 g/t silver, 0.22 g/t gold, 0.18% lead and 0.38% zinc over 13.10 meters at the 5 Senores Vein; and 125 g/t silver, 2 g/t gold, 0.34% lead and 0.58% zinc over 23m at the El Agua Vein. 

Mercado has acquired an option to purchase seven concessions covering 2,820 hectares. The option is to earn 100% over five years, with staged cash payments totaling $3.5 million. Six known veins on the project have a cumulative strike length of 8 km.

The Copalito Project is located approximately 123 km northeast of Culiacan, Sinaloa. The property has good access, moderate topography and infrastructure nearby. The neighboring property to Copalito is McEwen Inc’s (NYSE:MUX) El Gallo mine complex, located 35 km to the west. Kootenay Silver (TSXV:KTN) was the most recent operator.

Kootenay drilled 81 holes over six veins. This historical drilling has only tested approximately 60% of the veins’ strike and only to an average depth of 100m. Several productive veins and vein segments delineated in the drilling are ready for follow-up deeper drilling.

Mercado has also acquired the existing drill data, which provides an excellent base for future exploration drill targeting of higher and thicker-grade portions of veins along strike and to depth.

In talking with CEO Daniel Rodriguez, he said the technical team, including Senior Technical Advisor Robert Duncan, believes they are at, or near, the top of the mineralizing system as evidenced by vein textures including chalcedonic quartz, geochemical signatures and precious-to-base-metal ratios.

Rodriguez noted the veins pictured in the above image present ample opportunities for expansion. After Kootenay Silver had finished drilling, they uncovered new veins to the northwest of 5 Señores, north of La Chiva, and also found 300 meters strike length of vein to the southeast.

These areas remain untouched by exploration.

Copalito has four high-priority targets at 5 Señores, El Agua, Pilar and La Chivas.

In January Mercado Minerals announced the start of its inaugural field program at Copalito. 

Mercado Minerals: Boots on the ground at Copalito, drilling in Q1 — Richard Mills

Program highlights include a comprehensive mapping and prospecting program across all of the Copalito Project areas that remain unexplored. 

The field crew is re-sampling silver, gold, lead and zinc vein mineralization in select historical drill core from the six known veins.

The company also plans to re-log historical core to refine geological understanding; advance logistics for the upcoming first-phase drill program, including securing drill pad access, water, power, drill and equipment contractors, and other necessary operational infrastructure for the planned drill campaign; and further refine drill targets.

‘Boots on the ground’ finds three new veins

Mercado Minerals announced an update to the program on Feb. 19.  

The first piece of news is that the technical team in Mexico has been actively mapping, sampling and advancing preparations for Mercado’s inaugural 3,000-meter diamond drill program.

The second, more important news is the company has identified three new veins just by walking the property and taking surface samples. 

The news release states that newly discovered veins have been identified in outcrop across three previously unexplored regions, with considerable areas yet to be assessed.

Three areas of vein mineralization occur as quartz to quartz-carbonate veins, vein breccias and stockworks that range in width from 0.5 to 1.5 meters.

One of the new vein discoveries, currently interpreted to be the extension of the 5 Señores Vein, occurs approximately 1 kilometer to the northwest of the last known location of the vein. This vein segment can be traced intermittently in two large outcrops over approximately 100 meters of strike length.

The second vein discovery, located near a historical surface float sample that returned 460 g/t silver, 0.31 g/t gold, 0.17% lead and 0.16% zinc, appears to be an extension of either the Cobriza or El Pilar veins. This new vein can be traced intermittently in four outcrops over 200 meters of strike length. 

The third discovery is located about 500 meters southwest of the 5 Señores Vein, in an area with no previously documented mineralization. This area is intriguing as it is potentially located outside of the Copalito Graben, within which all previous known mineralization has been discovered.

All newly identified veins and mineralization have been sampled and are ready for shipment and analysis, including assaying. 

“Our team is firing on all cylinders as we advance Copalito toward our first drill program. Prospecting in underexplored areas is already proving highly rewarding, and I’m eager to see the assay results from the newly discovered veins,” said CEO Daniel Rodriguez. “Our technical team in Mexico continues to demonstrate exceptional expertise in the Sierra Madre, and with drilling on the horizon, I look forward to being on the ground with them as we take this next major step.”

In my opinion, the discovery of three new veins is significant, especially since Mercado did it without the benefit of geochemical and geophysical survey results. It was “boots on the ground” prospecting — walking the property with pickaxes and hand lenses, hunting for new sources of mineralization. 

Still to come 

The news release states that mapping and prospecting, designed to comprehensively cover all areas of the Copalito Project yet to be mapped and explored, is now 40% complete. 

The high-resolution drone based magnetic survey has been completed, with data now being compiled for detailed interpretation. Early integration of magnetic results with existing geological and geochemical datasets is yielding encouraging correlations. 

Processing of the completed drone LiDAR survey is underway. Initial interpretation is expected to enhance understanding of surface expressions, identify subtle topographic features associated with veining, reveal areas with historical mine workings, and highlight new areas of interest for sampling and mapping.

A systematic soil grid covering the know vein system and un-explored portions of Copalito is now 25% complete. The program is designed to fingerprint the soil geochemical signature over the known veins and expand the grid towards the northwest to help further define the extension of existing veins or identify new target areas.

Conclusion 

There is no substitute for having a geological team do the hand-on work required to find new discoveries. Sampling, mapping, geochemical and geophysical surveys also add intelligence, obviously, but until prospective areas are seen by the human eye, they are just data points on a computer screen. 

Mercado Minerals has wasted no time since acquiring the Copalito Project in putting boots on the ground in Mexico. CEO Daniel Rogdriguez has assembled a great team including two experienced technical advisors, raised funds, and secured a strategic investor for financial and technical backing.

The next step is to take all the data that has been collected so far and match it up. Historical workings are important, because the old-time prospectors were only chasing high-grade material; lower-grade ore wasn’t worth chasing with silver and gold’s price back then. LiDAR surveys are incredibly detailed. They not only show old mine workings, but historical footpaths, adits and tailings piles, for example. 

The mag survey shows magnetic anomalies that indicate potential mineralization. MERC can compare them to areas already mag-surveyed and see what the similarities are. Soil and rock samples show what exists on surface. When layered with the mag and the LIDAR survey results, a complete picture will emerge of areas that lie outside the known mineralization parameters.  

And given how MERC is comprehensively mapping, surveying and walking the 2,820-hectare property, I think the prospects for further discovery on top of the three new veins are high.

Mercado Minerals Ltd.
CSE:MERC
2026.02.23 Share Price: Cdn$0.285
Shares Outstanding: 41.9m
Market Cap: Cdn$21.4m
MERC website  

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com

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Richard does not own shares of Mercado Minerals Ltd. (CSE:MERC). MERC is a paid advertiser on his site aheadoftheherd.com This article is issued on behalf of MERC