Bonanza grades at Mariana’s Calandria Norte in Argentina (June 07, 2010)

After somewhat disappointing 2009 drill intersections, two scout drill holes this year have produced bonanza grades at the Calandrias Norte prospect of Mariana Resources’ (MARL-L) Las Calandrias gold project in southern Argentina’s Deseado Massif district.

Hole 45 ret urned 5 metres grading 81 grams gold per tonne and 76 grams silver per tonne from 92.5 metres.

Hole 46 cut 4.5 metres grading 98 grams gold and 72 grams silver from 81.5 metres.

The two drill holes were collared 70 metres apart along strike and the intersections are believed to be the downdip extension of the Calandria Norte vein-breccia zone, which strikes for at least 450 metres at surface and dips moderately to the north.

Mariana’s geologists believe the shallow 2009 holes may have intersected the structure above the top level of an inferred epithermal gold zone, which these two holes have now penetrated, cutting bonanza gold grades in both cases.

Last year seven shallow scout holes (572 metres) were drilled at Calandria Norte. Thin vein breccia and disseminated sulphide zones were intersected with assays including 0.5 metre at 4.9 grams gold (hole 5) and 10.2 metres at 0.6 gram gold (hole 7).

“The Calandria Norte intersections are truly astounding and underscore the bonanza grade gold potential at Las Calandrias,” John Sutcliffe, Mariana’s managing director, said in a statement. “As work advances, Las Calandrias continues to expand and it is becoming evident that the 10.5-sq.-km area of rhyolite domes contains multiple mineralized zones which include both bonanza and bulk-mining gold targets.”

Scout holes 45 (134 metres) and 46 (164 metres), were drilled in an untested area in the core of the Calandria Norte dome, coinciding with the centre of a chargeability anomaly. Both holes intersected wide zones of marcasite-pyrite veining and stockworks up to 125 metres downhole.

In 2009, an initial drill program of 16 shallow holes totaling 1,763 metres tested two targets: Calandria Norte vein breccia and Calandria Sur dome breccia.

The 2010 diamond drill program consisted of 4,400 metres in 37 holes and tested four main targets: Calandria Sur (28 holes); Calandria Norte (2 holes), together with the recently discovered targets, El Nido Este (2 holes) and Nido Norte (5 holes).

Assay results are still pending for the remaining 19 holes drilled at the Calandria Sur prospect and last seven holes at El Nido. Calandria Norte is about 700 metres north of the Calandria Sur discovery at Las Calandrias.

In addition to Las Calandrias, the company owns the Sierra Blanca silver prospect in Argentina and has a joint venture with Hochschild Mining (HOC-L).

Mariana also owns exploration rights to a 1,600-sq.-km area in the Deseado Massif district in Santa Cruz province, which hosts four gold/silver mines and a handful of precious metal prospects.

In north-central Chile, meanwhile, Mariana is completing a joint-venture agreement with Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF-N) to explore for iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits.

The 92,000-sq.-km area includes two IOCG exploration projects in the Atacama fault zone, about 100 km from Freeport-Mc-MoRan Copper & Gold’s (FCX-N) Candelaria copper mine.

At presstime, Mariana Resources was trading in London at 31.5 pence per share. The company has 129 million shares outstanding.