Don Indio keeps Stratabound optimistic

Junior Stratabound Minerals (SB-A) has received heartening results from preliminary exploration at its Don Indio polymetallic property in Mexico’s Coahuila state.

Don Indio is the smallest of three closely spaced properties that constitute 41,682 ha of carbonates and underlying red beds (sandstone, silt and shale) folded into anticlines. Stratabound can earn a 100% interest in the land package, which is dotted with old, shallow underground workings.

Four areas were mapped and sampled, and these cover 4 km of the 19 km of favourable stratigraphy exposed.

* San Marcos West — Here, 36 samples from three levels in brecciated limestone returned values up to and exceeding 180 grams silver per tonne, 4.71% lead and 9.75% zinc. As well, a 16-metre-thick sandstone unit exposed in the adit yielded anomalous silver and copper, including 2 metres grading 75 grams silver and 0.73% copper.

Each level is 40 metres long and 6 metres wide. The lowermost one sits 60 metres stratigraphically above the silver-copper zone, and minerlization remains open in several directions.

* Pillar Grande — This area, 2 km along strike to the northeast, reveals promising silver-copper mineralization. There, 170 samples were taken from four levels that extend 80 metres downdip and 100 metres along strike.

Mineralization occurs in the lowermost 10 metres of the carbonates and the uppermost 13 metres of the sandstone. It remains open along both strike directions and downdip.

Silver grades varied from less than 88 grams to more than 576 grams, whereas copper values ranged from less than 0.5% to greater than 5.16%. The two most impressive results were 2 metres averaging 380 grams silver and 5.16% copper, and 3 metres of 376.03 grams silver and 3.93% copper.

* La Encalmada — Here, locals mined the limestone breccia on two levels that extend for 300 metres along strike. Twenty-seven samples from the upper drift averaged 49.5 grams silver, 0.53% copper, 4.38% lead and 4.72% zinc.

The lower level, 20 metres downdip, displays a zonal pattern of mineralization. Starting from the northeastern end, 60 metres averaged 3.49% lead, followed by 50 metres of 2.22% copper and 160 metres of 3.49% lead.

Silver values of up to 717 grams were recorded along the entire level, which averaged 41.05 grams.

* El Rincon — Sampling in this area, 1.5 km farther north and near the nose of the fold, yielded an average of 42 grams silver and 1.5% copper in 22 samples. The samples were taken along a 200-by-100-metre area of the sandstone.

Mineralization at El Rincon remains open along both strike directions and downdip.

Stratabound has signed confidentiality agreements with several parties interested in the three properties.