Almaden adds ground in B.C.

Vancouver — Encouraging drill results from the Siwash gold project has prompted owner Almaden Minerals (AMM-T) to complete a new resource calculation for the project some 45 km southeast of Merritt in the Okanogan area of British Columbia.

The historic property is known for its bonanza gold grades and hosts an underground probable reserve of 29,838 tonnes grading 28.6 grams gold per tonne, along with an open pit indicated resource of 10,565 tonnes grading 47.05 grams gold and an underground inferred resource of 73,311 tonnes averaging 43 grams gold.

In the 1990s, Siwash North produced 51,750 oz. from 18,400 tons of quartz vein material from the B vein system in combined open pit and underground operations. The current resource includes both the WD and B vein systems, as well as the Deep B shoot, which is located immediately below the existing mine workings.

In total, four vein systems have been identified and drilled in the Siwash area, namely the B vein with a strike length of 900 metres extending to depths of 320 metres; the WD zone with a strike length of 650 metres extending down to depths of 370 metres; the GCW zone with a strike length of 300 metres extending to depths of 130 metres and the Bullion Creek zone, which has been tested with two holes down to a depth of only 75 metres.

The latest drill program, which tallied 6,570 metres in 30 holes, extended the WD zone, while confirming the high-grade values in the B vein. Highlights from the drilling include:

• Hole 37 – 1 metre grading 28.25 grams gold and 125.1 grams silver in the WD zone;
• Hole 47 – 1 metre grading 27.8 grams gold and 50 grams silver in the WD zone;
• Hole 54 – 0.5 metre grading 220 grams gold and 354.4 grams silver in the WD zone;
• Hole 41 – 0.5 metre grading 78.6 grams gold and 35.1 grams silver in the B zone and
• Hole 43 – 1 metre grading 33.18 grams gold and 73.1 grams silver in the B zone.

All the holes, except for one, cut the targeted WD vein.

Along with a new resource calculation, the junior has hired consulting firm Knight Piesold to review options for tailings and mill sites in the Siwash area, as well as carrying out dilution studies to determine pump rates and a time frame for dewatering the Siwash open pit and underground workings.

The vein systems lie on the Elk property, which is underlain by Upper Triassic volcanics and sediments of the Nicola Group and by Middle Jurassic granites and granodiorites of the Osprey Lake batholith. The contact between these units trends northeasterly across the property and are frequently cut by Early Tertiary feldspar porphyry stocks and dykes.

Mineralization is mainly restricted to pyritic quartz veins and stringers in altered pyritic granitic and on occasion volcanic rocks. The veins are believed to be Tertiary in age and may be related to Tertiary Otter intrusive events.

In the Siwash North area, 5-to-70 cm gold-bearing veins occur in a zone of strongly sericitic altered granite and, to the west in volcanic rocks. The mineralized zone trends east-northeast and dips 20-to-80 degrees to the south.Quartz veining occurs in a number of parallel to subparallel zones, each consisting of one or more veins with the gold occurring primarily in its native form.

Almaden has also been busy evaluating new prospects in Southwestern British Columbia following a 2-year regional survey that defined three new low-sulphidation epithermal gold-silver targets.

The company through staking has acquired all three prospects, dubbed the PV, Nic and Sam.

The 1,650 ha PV property covers an area of quartz vein float occurrences. In 2001 and 2002 samples of float comprising banded quartz-adularia veins and vein breccia yielded values up to 43.34 grams gold with anomalous silver, arsenic, antimony, and mercury values. In 2001 and 2002 a total of 117 grab samples of vein and mineralized float were collected returning an average of 0.98 grams gold. In 2003 a further area of vein float was discovered where 15 float samples returned 0.12-to-3.95 grams gold.

At the 300-ha Nic property a total of 40 grab and chip samples were collected from float and outcrop. These samples averaged 1.63 grams gold. An outcropping quartz vein and breccia system exposed over a 20 metre area yielded up to 6.15 grams gold over 0.5 metre.

The 1,075 ha Sam property returned an average of 0.82 gram gold from 20 grab samples, with the highest value ringing in at 8.68 grams gold.

More work is required by the junior in order to define drill targets on the newly acquired projects.