Abacus steps out on La Manchuria

A second round of drilling at the La Manchuria gold-silver property in Argentina’s Santa Cruz province has returned variable results for Vancouver-based Abacus Minerals (AMC-V).

Five of the six holes completed were stepouts on hole 2, which, as previously reported, intersected 58.5 metres averaging 6.53 grams gold and 22.3 grams silver, starting at a downhole depth of 45 metres. The hole ended in a favorable felsic volcanic host unit, with quartz stockwork veining still present.

In the second phase of drilling, Abacus stepped back from hole 2 and undercut the hole 45 metres vertically with hole 8. That hole intersected 3.5 metres grading 0.73 gram gold and 137.07 grams silver in the felsics, starting at a downhole depth of 33 metres.

President Steve Todoruk says hole 8 crossed a relatively flat-lying fault at the contact between the felsics and underlying andesites. Once in the andesites, the hole intersected 1.5 metres of 7.5 grams gold and 70.5 grams silver. Where the zone in hole 2 is projected down to hole 8, the andesite rocks are altered with strong clay alteration and contain anomalous stockwork veining.

“It’s pretty hard to say what’s going on, but there is a fair chance there is some kind of offset along the fault,” Todoruk tells The Northern Miner.

A 50-metre stepout on the northwestern side of hole 2 encountered 54.6 metres of 4.46 grams gold and 12.14 grams silver (including an 8.7-metre interval of 24.88 grams gold and 11.3 grams silver), beginning at a downhole depth of 34 metres in hole 9.

A further 40 metres to the northwest, hole 10 was drilled as a “scissor” to previously reported hole 1, which encountered 11.5 metres of 1.22 grams gold and 136.6 metres silver. Hole 10 averaged 0.74 gram gold and 104.56 grams silver over 94.46 metres, starting at depth of 3 metres. Todoruk says the hole encountered the underlying andesite, ending in veined and altered andesite grading 0.81 gram gold and 374.3 grams silver over 1.03 metres.

Stepping out 50 metres to the southeast of hole 2, hole 11 hit 14.5 metres averaging 5.1 grams gold and 56.67 grams silver at a downhole depth of 106 metres. A further 150 metres to the southeast, hole 12 encountered a 43.5-metre interval averaging 1.27 grams gold and 22.75 grams silver.

Drilling to date has tested a 250-metre strike length of this system to a depth of 100 metres.

The final hole in the second round of drilling tested a target 500 metres east of hole 2. Hole 13 intersected 3 metres averaging 4.8 grams gold and 1.45 grams silver.

The reported intersections contain high-grade values of up to 160 grams gold over 1.3 metres and 5,282 grams silver over 0.65 metre. Abacus states that the results have been averaged over widths indicated by geological interpretation. The higher-grade numbers have not been cut.

Drilling has been suspended at La Manchuria because of Argentine winter conditions. The company is currently evaluating the drilling data in conjunction with recent geophysics in preparation for future work.

Abacus must spend US$2.7 million on exploration to earn a 100% interest in the property from Barrick Gold (ABX-T), which retains a back-in right to a half interest.