With silver prices showing signs of gradual improvement, Toronto-based Intrepid Minerals (IAU-A) is intensifying its exploration efforts in Central America.
* El Salvador — Drilling at the company’s Salvadoran projects is now under way. At the Divisadero mine property, Intrepid is exploring a silver-gold stockwork system with a minimum strike length of 3 km. The mine was last active in the early part of the century; its average grade was reported to be 195 grams silver and 3.4 grams gold per tonne. Resampling of the mine in 1979-80 indicated that the stockwork zone averaged 115 grams silver and 1.5 grams gold over a true width of 30 metres.
Included in the stockwork zones are veins that, when sampled in 1980, averaged more than 2,500 grams silver. Sixteen surface grab samples taken by Intrepid geologists revealed grades of between 100 and 700 grams silver and 1 to 7.4 grams gold.
Intrepid will carry out cross-sectional drilling on the Divisadero target in an attempt to confirm the deposit’s bulk-tonnage potential along a strike length of 3 km.
At another target, dubbed Loma, the company will explore the main shaft area, where a drill-indicated resource of 2.49 million tonnes grading 40 grams silver and 1.45 grams gold had previously been calculated.
Situated near the main shaft is the Caballo adit, which, after being sampled in 1997, returned 153 grams silver and 1.82 grams gold over a 10-metre minimum true width.
* Honduras — The 55-sq.-km Labor property, which includes several colonial silver-lead-zinc workings, is hosted by Tertiary felsic volcanics and intrusive breccias.
Intrepid geologists discovered a colonial-era smelter on site, and proceeded to take four grab samples totalling 15 kg from stockpiles around the smelter. The samples assayed 265 to 3,427 grams silver and up to 10.1% lead and 29% zinc. The company also collected 30 kg of channel samples; assays on these averaged 180 grams silver, with lead and zinc values ranging up to 9.7% and 16%, respectively.
Nine grab samples with an aggregate weight of 20 kg were taken from the West mine dumpsite.
These assayed from 125 to 2,280 grams silver (averaging 660 grams) and up to 9.4% zinc and 23.6% lead.
The company is currently conducting geological baseline studies on the Labor project.
* Guatemala — Intrepid’s Guatemalan program is focused on the Mataquesquintla property — a historic source of silver for the country’s mint. Geological and geophysical data from this concession are currently being evaluated.
As of Jan. 1, Intrepid had $1.1 million in working capital.
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