Cacamuya back on First Point’s radar screen (March 28, 2002)

Vancouver – The emerging gold rally has prompted First Point Minerals (FPX-V) to shift focus from platinum-palladium exploration in Ontario back to the Cacamuya epithermal prospect in Honduras.

The Peter Bradshaw led junior recently completed a 1.2 km mechanical trenching program over the gold-silver property. The most impressive results came from the D5 target, where a 19.4 metre section averaged 8.1 grams gold and 23 grams silver per tonne.

Located 200 metres north of the previously drilled Cerro Chachagua structure, the D5 zone comprises strongly altered volcanics with localized quartz veining over a strike length of 400 metres. At the southern end of the target trenches returned 0.73 gram gold over 22 metres and 0.36 gram gold over 69.4 metres. A 1996 drill hole on the southeast margin of the prospect returned 1.2 grams gold over 7.6 meters.

Moving 80 metres northeast at the D5 prospect, a 64 metre long trench hit a quartz vein that returned 15.7 grams gold over 0.5 metres.

At the East zone, some 200 metres east of the D4 target, 166 metres of trenching failed to exposed any significant mineralization.

A total of 644 meters of mechanical and 88 metres of hand trenching were completed on the Filo Lapa bulk tonnage target. Using a 0.5 gram gold cut off, the northeast trending zone is now defined with an average grade of 0.9 gram gold over a length of 300 metre with widths ranging from 20-to-80 metres.

Three samples collected northeast of the northern end of the Filo Lapa target returned values of up to 3.4 grams gold.

Moving 1.8 km north-northeast of Filo Lapa at the Hilo Libre zone, hand trenching returned up to 8.5 grams gold over 1.3 metres.

First Point initially acquired 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. Last year, Breakwater Resources (BWR-T) decided not to participate in the exploration program on the property paving the way for First Point to take a 75% stake in the southern Honduran prospect.

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 measured 1.2 km long and ranged in width from 60 to 250 metres, hoping to outline a deposit minable by open-pit methods. The program 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.

In 2000, First Point drill tested the Cerro Chachagua structure, where previous drilling yielded up to 104.7 grams gold and 743 grams silver over 6.2 metres. Three of the six holes drilled returned values greater than 1 gram gold.