El Zapote drilling set to start in June

Vancouver — Partners Intrepid Minerals (iau-v) and Apex Silver Mines (sil-x) are gearing up for a 2,000-metre drill program targeting the Aldea El Zapote silver-zinc-lead property in El Salvador.

“The potential for discovery of significant manto-style mineralization associated with the limestone-intrusive contact is excellent,” says Laurence Curtis, Intrepid’s president. “Our geologists have traced this horizon for a distance of over 1 km; the target is shallow and open-pittable.”

The companies plan to test three targets. The program will be funded by ASC Central America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Apex Silver, which is earning a 60% interest by spending at least US$400,000 on exploration and completing two staged private placements totalling $300,000. It can increase its ownership to 75% by completing a bankable feasibility study. Intrepid retains a royalty on proven and probable reserves of 20 per oz. silver, up to a maximum of US$10 million. The royalty will be paid at a minimum rate of US$1 million per year, once production begins.

Drill targets include the Cerro Colorado III bonanza breccia zone, where Intrepid has already outlined a silver-zinc system measuring 700 by 100 metres. The zone is a silicified ridge. It contains stockwork quartz veins and quartz-barite veins, which were exposed by trenching. Results from the previous drilling program (April 2000) include 53 metres grading 285 grams silver and 1.6% zinc. Assays from the core hole confirmed mineralization that was cut in a nearby hole in 1999.

The partners also plan to test the San Carolina skarn target, which measures 1,000 by 200 metres and hosts anomalous silver, lead, zinc and gold values associated with a limestone-intrusive contact. Although this target was known during Spanish Colonial times, modern exploration began in 1996.

The property contains extensive skarn-style silver-zinc-lead breccia complexes with similar characteristics to the Mexican manto systems. Mineralization occurs over a 6-km area as a variety of skarn, manto and chimney systems related to a Tertiary intrusive complex, which has intruded Cretaceous limestones and clastic sediments. The limestones are locally altered to skarns.

Meanwhile, Intrepid has inked an option agreement with a private company to purchase a 1.5% royalty on this and other properties in El Salvador, for the sum of US$1 million. Intrepid has issued 20,000 shares to the company.