EXPLORATION ROUNDUP — Results keep Monarch hopeful at Saladillo

New Jersey-based Monarch Resources (MRE-T) is completing its third round of drilling on the Saladillo gold-silver property near Durango in northwestern Mexico.

Since September, the company has drilled more than 29 core holes on the San Sebastian prospect. The program, which is testing the strike and downdip continuity of the Francine vein, is expected to total 5,600 metres.

Initial results have already extended the vein 200 metres to the east, and final results, expected in December, will determine a grade and tonnage estimate for the shallow resource.

Paul Rose, Monarch’s vice-president of exploration, envisages open-pit mining as a precursor to eventual underground mining.

The Francine vein is a narrow, bonanza-style deposit with high-grade gold and silver values. The altered wallrock around the vein also contains anomalous silver values.

Two other prospects on the property — Cerro Pedernanillo and Cerro Orona — are believed to be the upper portions of epithermal vein systems.

Drill results from Cerro Pedernanillo include 17 grams gold and 50 grams silver per tonne over a 2-metre interval. At Cerro Orona, gold and silver grades are lower. More drilling is planned for these prospects in 1997.

Meanwhile, in Zacatecas state, Monarch has located a significant gold-in-soil anomaly measuring 1.8 by 1.5 km. The anomaly is associated with a zone of quartz veining at the Reino Unido property, and drilling is scheduled for early next year.