Lalo adds gold prospect to Baja holdings

Vancouver — Lalo Ventures (LAL-V) is exploring a past-producing gold property on the eastern coast of Baja California Norte, Mexico.

The Vancouver-based junior has an option to acquire the 203-sq.-km property, which includes the former San Juan mine, a small-scale gold producer in the early 1900s.

San Juan is one of several properties recently acquired by the company in Baja. The combined land package covers 2,400 sq. km and includes four epithermal gold properties and seven large iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) prospects.

Some of Lalo’s IOCG properties are adjacent to the Main Alisitos property, which is being explored by Cardero Resource (CDU-V) and a unit of Anglo American (AAUK-Q). Anglo is earning 70% of Main Alisitos and searching for large IOCG deposits similar to those found in the Central Andean coastal belts of Chile and Peru.

Although IOCG deposits are Lalo’s focus, the junior is also preparing to explore the San Juan gold-silver property. The underground mine was developed on 11 levels, though its ultimate potential is unknown, as the property has never been tested by modern methods.

Paul Metcalfe of Coast Mountain Geological will supervise the work program at San Juan. The effort will attempt to expand known gold mineralization beyond the existing workings, along strike and at depth, as well as test an alteration halo (measuring 1 by 2 km) that surrounds the mine workings.

The company also plans to explore several mineralized outcrops and an extensive silificified and brecciated shear zone north of the mine. The 7-km-long prominent ridge was identified by satellite imagery.

The company’s consultants have already tested a random sample from the historic tailings, which returned 3.78 grams gold and 34 grams silver per tonne. Samples were also taken from inside the mine workings. These ranged from 0.58 gram gold and 3.8 grams silver up to 23.25 grams gold and over-the-detection limit (plus-100 grams) for silver.