Mercado Minerals: Surface mapping and sampling at Campanillas Vein extends strike length to 300 meters – Richard Mills

2026.09.09

An initial reconnaissance surface sampling program at the Zamora Project in Sinaloa State, Mexico is getting high-grade silver results, according to operator Mercado Minerals (CSE:MERC).

The company’s Sept. 2 news release states the ongoing program is focused on verifying historic high-grade results reported by previous operators at the Campanillas Vein and expanding the known zone of mineralization along strike.

Surface chip sampling returned multiple high-grade intervals, including 1 meter of 828 g/t silver (760 g/t AgEq) and 1 meter of 410 g/t silver with 1.66 g/t gold (497 g/t AgEq).

“These initial surface results are highly encouraging and confirm the high-grade nature of the Campanillas Vein. Grades as high as 828 g/t silver confirm the exceptional grade potential we identified at Zamora, and our sampling extends mineralization beyond the historic underground workings, pointing to a larger high-grade mineralizing system along the broader vein trend,” says CEO Daniel Rodriguez.

MERC highlights the fact that a 300-meter strike length of the Campanillas Vein has been mapped and sampled at surface.

2026 surface sampling has returned 2.40 meters (true width) of 528 g/t silver and 0.75 g/t gold, including 1 meter of 828 g/t silver (760 g/t AgEq) — the highest-grade surface composite result returned to date at the Campanillas Vein.

Surface prospecting and mapping has doubled the vein’s known strike length and encountered wider true widths of mineralized vein and wall rock compared to the underground workings.

Zamora features 14 known high-grade silver-gold vein occurrences and past small-scale workings that cover 8 km of undrilled strike length.

Historic surface sampling has returned grades of 14,561 g/t silver and 15.53 g/t gold at the Campanillas workings, and 1 meter grading 286 g/t silver and 2.54 g/t gold at El Triunfo.

When Mercado Minerals acquired rights to the property, a large portion of the land package — about 3,000 hectares — required bureaucratic and administrative work to bring lapsed claims back into official government good standing.

Mercado’s technical team is on the ground at Zamora prospecting, building camp infrastructure and advancing logistics, mapping and sampling. This work is focused on preparing a portion of the company’s concessions for reinstatement to good standing; and sampling and mapping several of the concessions already in good standing ahead of a future drill program.

Part of the claims reinstatement process is forging good relationships with local communities. On Aug. 26 MERC announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Concordia Silver Company S.A. de C.V., has entered into a community access and exploration agreement with the Ejido Rincon de Ibonia (the Ejido) in Zamora and the surrounding area.

According to Mercado, the agreement, which covers a portion of the Zamora property, allows it to commence the drill permit on the Campanillas area. The company continues to advance its community relations with the other Ejido groups in the region to conclude access agreements for the remainder of the Zamora Project. 

“One of our key commitments as we advance our projects in the region is building strong, lasting community relations. We have an excellent team on the ground in Mexico working through logistics, mapping and sampling at Zamora, both to help bring our concessions back into good standing and to begin testing the concessions we already hold in good standing,” says CEO Daniel Rodriguez. “Having the support of the Ejidos from the outset speaks to the strength of that relationship, and it positions us well as we advance toward drill permitting. I look forward to the next phases at Zamora and to ultimately testing this exciting silver-gold system with the drill bit.”

Copalito drill program

Meanwhile, at its other Mexican project, Copalito, Mercado in August

announced the completion of its inaugural diamond drill program. The 25-hole program successfully confirmed and expanded mineralization on the project’s three principal veins — 5 Señores, El Agua and El Pilar.

It also delivered initial drill tests of several newly discovered and previously undrilled vein structures. A concurrent surface exploration program successfully identified and delineated extensions to four veins (El Medio, SE 5 Senores, La Cobriza Norte and SE El Pilar), and discovered two new significant veins: El Pilar Sur and La Renata.

The Copalito Project is approximately 123 km northeast of Culiacan, Sinaloa state. 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.

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.

Drilling was completed across seven vein structures: 5 Señores, SE 5 Senores, El Agua, El Pilar, El Pilar Sur, El Medio and Chente. 

Work in 2026 has advanced the Copalito Project from six principal veins with 8 kilometers of cumulative vein strike length to 8 principal veins with 11 kilometers of cumulative vein strike length. 

Drilling highlights include:

• El Pilar Vein. Diamond drilling has defined the vein over 1,250 meters of strike, with a higher-grade area of approximately 400m strike by 200m down-dip and remains open in all directions. Step-out drilling returned the two best intercepts on the vein to date:
  
  COP-26-019 intersected 3.40m of 11 g/t silver, 3.53 g/t gold, 1.45% lead and 4.41% zinc (403 g/t AgEq) from 118m, including 0.80m of 9 g/t silver, 5.37 g/t gold, 1.65% lead and 10.05% zinc (675 g/t AgEq).
  
  COP-26-018 intersected 4.05m of 9 g/t silver, 1.86 g/t gold, 1.19% lead and 4.08% zinc (264 g/t AgEq) from 117.40m, including 0.65m of 18 g/t silver, 3.80 g/t gold, 3.14% lead and 11.85% zinc (635 g/t AgEq).
  
• El Agua Vein. Step-out drilling returned the 2026 drill program’s highest-grade intercept:
  
  COP-26-012 intersected 3.50 meters of 30 g/t silver, 1.94 g/t gold, 9.47% lead and 14.61% zinc (686 g/t AgEq) from 124.75m, including 1.20m of 34 g/t silver, 3.40 g/t gold, 19% lead and 21% zinc (1,120 g/t AgEq).
  
  COP-26-023 intersected 8m of 103 g/t silver, 1.11 g/t gold, 0.18% lead and 0.86% zinc (200 g/t AgEq) within a broader 48.40m interval, helping define a higher-grade corridor of roughly 500m strike by 200m down-dip within the vein’s 950-meter strike length
  .
• 5 Señores Vein. The mineralized strike length was expanded to approximately 800 meters and to about 125 meters vertical depth, with an approximately 250-meter southeast fault-offset strike length segment identified and tested (SE 5 Señores). Best intercepts include:
  
  COP-26-014 intersected 7.60m of 340 g/t silver, 1.22 g/t gold, 0.34% lead and 1.18% zinc (434 g/t AgEq) from 22.50m within a broader interval of 24.20m of 114 g/t silver, 0.50 g/t gold, 0.13% lead and 0.47% zinc (154 g/t AgEq).
  
  COP-26-001 intersected 6.50m of 256 g/t silver, 1.45 g/t gold, 0.32% lead, and 1.06% zinc (372 g/t AgEq) from 43.60m, including 1.20m of 848 g/t silver, 4.83 g/t gold, 0.20% lead and 0.47% zinc (1,146 g/t AgEq).
  
• New vein and vein extension targets. First-pass drilling has confirmed the presence of the SE 5 Señores, Chente, El Pilar Sur and El Medio structures at depth, which have a cumulative mapped strike length of over 1,900 meters and have only collectively been tested by seven holes to date, representing a small fraction of this overall strike length. All holes intersected the targeted structures and vein mineralization at depth in previously undrilled areas. Hole COP-26-024 intersected an 8.80-meter-wide vein and fault breccia at El Pilar Sur, and COP-26-022 returned 0.60 meters of 88 g/t AgEq at El Medio.

“The goal of this program was to define productive segments of the known mineralized veins in drilling, to expand the extent of the known veins and the discovery of new veins at Copalito. I believe we achieved that and we are extremely pleased with the results,” says CEO Daniel Rodriguez.

“In a single campaign we confirmed and grew three principal veins along strike and at depth, returned high-grade intercepts at 5 Señores, El Agua and El Pilar, and made successful first-pass tests on several new structures that were never previously drilled. In addition, we also discovered and delineated a new 1,150-meter strike length vein at Renata which has never been drilled. The results from our drilling and field program across multiple veins reinforces our conviction that Copalito hosts a critical mass of productive vein structures. With this new dataset in hand, we are now prioritizing follow-up drilling and exploration aimed at expanding the higher-grade areas of drilled veins and the new areas of interest we have defined across the project.”

The company intends to complete a Phase 2 program at Copalito, which will concentrate on four goals:

• Drill expansion of the higher-grade areas of the El Agua and El Pilar veins.

• Exploration drilling of vein extensions including SE 5 Senores, SE El Pilar, La Cobriza Norte and El Pilar Sur.

• Initial drill testing of the 1,150-meter strike length Renata Vein.

• Surface mapping and prospecting work following up on unexplained soil anomalies and vein trends in the northwestern portion of the Copalito Project.

Surface program and prospecting highlights

A comprehensive surface exploration program comprised of drone LiDAR, drone magnetics, detailed mapping, prospecting and soil sampling was undertaken across the Copalito Project in 2026. The goals were to better define the surface strike extent of known veins and their extensions, identify geochemically anomalous corridors that could represent vein extensions or undetected veins, and direct prospecting mapping discoveries of new veins on the project.

According to Mercado, the surface exploration program was a resounding success in identifying and delineating extensions to four known veins (El Medio, SE 5 Senores, La Cobriza Norte and SE El Pilar),and led to the discovery of two new veins at El Pilar Sur and La Renata (Figure 1, Table 2).

At the Renata Vein, sparse and discontinuous historical grab samples were forensically prospected and mapped, resulting in the reinterpretation that they are part of a continuous vein. The vein has a strike length of 1,150m and an average width of 1.90m, with widths up to 5m (Table 2). Results at Renata range up to 233 g/t silver, 0.52 g/t gold, 2.67% lead and 1.51% zinc. This vein will be the focus for initial exploration drill testing in the Phase 2 exploration program. Surface sampling highlights from 2026 from vein extensions are provided in Table 2.

Soil sampling during the Phase 1 program successfully defined the known vein corridors and their extensions including subtle anomalies that extend into areas mapped as upper succession rhyolites which are commonly viewed as less prospective for hosting vein mineralization than the lower sequence andesites below them. The presence of even subtle geochemical soil anomalies within the rhyolites is viewed as positive for potential areas of new mineralization. Some of these anomalies aided in focusing efforts that subsequently defined several of the vein extensions and the definition of the Renata Vein. Two soil anomalies remain unexplained and will be a focus for follow-up mapping and prospecting work (Figure 1).

Mercado Minerals Ltd.
CSE:MERC
2026.09.08 Share Price: Cdn$0.17
Shares Outstanding: 75.8m
Market Cap: Cdn$12.5m
MERC website  

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com

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Richard owns shares of Mercado Minerals (CSE:MERC). MERC is a paid advertiser on his site aheadoftheherd.com This article is issued on behalf of MERC