Cacamuya takes a back seat to Mann

Vancouver — Historically low gold prices and high platinum-palladium prices have caused First Point Minerals (FPX-V) to shift its focus from the Cacamuya epithermal prospect in Honduras to the Mann complex in Ontario.

The Peter Bradshaw-led junior holds 8,031 ha, some 40 km northeast of Timmins. The recently acquired Devonshire property covers the southeastern extension of the Mann mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex, where previous drilling tested for nickel. On the Frederick House property, the company is running an induced-polarization geophysical survey in an area of previously announced strong platinum and palladium results.

First Point is compiling the existing geological and geophysical data, including the re-logging of available old drill core stored at the Ontario Geological Survey core library. Detailed mapping and sampling will be used with the geophysical surveys to define drill targets.

First Point holds all of the 3,450-ha Hall, Garnet and Devonshire claims. It has an option to earn up to 70% in the Frederick House property.

In Honduras, Breakwater Resources (BWR-T) has decided not to participate in the next exploration program on the Cacamuya low-sulphidation gold property. This paves the way for First Point to take a 75% stake in the prospect.

Last year, the junior drill-tested the Cerro Chachagua structure, where previous drilling yielded up to 104.7 grams gold and 743 grams silver per tonne over 6.2 metres. Three of the six holes returned values greater than 1 gram gold.

First Point initially acquired a 60% stake in the Cacamuya property from Battle Mountain Gold (BMG-N) by issuing 700,000 shares and agreeing to spend US$1 million on exploration over five years. Battle Mountain retains a 0.6% net smelter royalty on the property.

Measuring 140 sq. km, Cacamuya occupies the northern extension of the large graben feature known as the Nicaraguan Depression.

In the mid-1990s, the Battle Mountain-Breakwater joint venture drilled 14 holes over the anomaly, which was 1.2 km long and ranged in width from 60 to 250 metres. The company hoped to outline a deposit that was minable by open-pit methods, but failed to outline a bulk-minable zone. However, five of the holes cut a high-grade, gold-bearing structure over a 600-metre strike length to a vertical depth of 75 metres at Cerro Chachagua.

Southwest of Cerro Chachagua, mapping and sampling has outlined a 650-by-350-metre-wide gold-silver-lead-arsenic-in-soil anomaly. Subsequent rock-chip sampling has defined a northeast-trending zone that measures 250 metres long by 10-50 metres wide and averages 0.67 gram gold per tonne using a 0.5-gram cutoff.

The zone is open to the northeast, where it is covered by talus. First Point feels that the potentially bulk-minable area represents the near-surface impression of the mineralizing system that emplaced the deeper-seated epithermal veins at Cerro Chachagua.

Due to low gold prices, the company plans to limit exploration to a modest program of mapping and trenching over Filo Lapa.