Arizona Star cuts new gold at Agua de la Piedra

Vancouver — Partners Arizona Star Resource (AZS-V) and Aur Resources (AUR-T) have discovered a new gold zone on the Agua de la Piedra property in northern Chile.

The property represents a recently expanded 264-sq.-km land package that is part of a joint venture between Arizona Star (49%) and Aur (51%). Aur has earned its interest in the property by completing the first phase of exploration. Bema Gold (BGO-V) holds a 32% interest in Arizona Star.

The property is situated about 250 km southeast of the city of Antofagasta and lies along the western margin of the West Fissure Fault Zone, which hosts most of Chile’s largest porphyry copper deposits. The Agua de la Piedra property is thought to be a low-sulphidation, gold-bearing epithermal system.

To date, Aur has drilled 12 holes, representing 2,220 metres of reverse-circulation drilling. Anomalous gold values were intersected in 9 of the holes.

The most significant intercepts were encountered on a section below a mineralized outcrop. Arizona Star says further drilling is required to determine the geometry and true width of the mineralization. Highlights of the three holes are as follows;

• Hole AP-1 — 65 metres grading 1.59 grams gold per tonne, starting from a depth of 4 metres down-hole, including a 22-metre section that averaged 3.15 grams gold;
• Hole AP-2 — 60 metres grading 2.02 grams gold, starting 59 metres down-hole, including a 45-metre section that ran 2.39 grams gold; and
• Hole AP-10 — 18 metres grading 0.95 gram gold, starting 36 metres down-hole, followed by a 24-metre interval that averaged 1.22 grams gold, starting 94 metres down-hole — included in this second section was a 13-metre interval that assayed 1.57 grams gold.

The exploration work to date has focused along the contact between a thick sequence of andesitic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The partners say the surface exposure is limited, but work to date indicates that there may be multiple zones of multi-stage epithermal quartz veining hosted within a structural corridor measuring 400 metres by 1,500 metres.

Initial petrographic studies of the mineralization indicate that the gold occurs as fine-grained native gold particles associated with quartz and iron oxides. A total of eight preliminary bottle-role leach tests yielded favourable recoveries, varying from 83% to 96%.

The partners are planning the next phase of exploration. This will include additional drilling on known mineralization, as well as the initial drill-testing of other geochemical and rock-chip anomalies.