LATIN AMERICA — Early work on Sonora project returns interesting values for Miranda

In early January, Vancouver-based Miranda Industries (MAD-V) announced it had acquired a 20-sq.-km land package in the northern Mexican state of Sonora through staking.

The claim block covers an area with a history of small-scale, high-grade gold and silver mining, with limited production taking place as recently as eight years ago. Nevertheless, Miranda says the property has never been drilled.

Miranda, explained President Dennis Higgs, uses a Mexican agent who receives submittals for various projects throughout Mexico. Twice a year, Miranda sends its geologist down to meet with the agent and examine the proposals.

Higgs told The Northern Miner that it took three trips to this particular project before its potential was well understood. The terrain is very low lying, with limited bedrock exposure. As a result, “You drive over it a hundred times without even realizing there is stuff of interest,” said geologist Steven Ristorcelli, a director of Miranda. “All the prospects are grown over.”

Miranda recently staked a further 18 sq. km of surrounding ground, bringing its total land package to 38 sq. km.

The precise location of the property has yet to be disclosed, but it is said to lie within 5 km of a paved road.

During an early-stage evaluation of the property, preliminary soil sampling revealed gold-in-soil anomalies in excess of 50 parts per billion (ppb) extending for 500 metres along strike. Grab and chip-channel samples returned peak values of up to 30 grams gold and more than 500 grams silver per tonne.

Miranda recently completed a first phase of exploration, focusing on a 7-sq.-km portion of the property. Some reconnaissance work was also carried out in other areas.

According to Ristorcelli, the property is underlain by granodiorite basement rocks, probably of Cretaceous or Jurassic age, that have been intruded by a porphyritic quartz monzonite, with a later latite porphyry phase. It is overlain by two distinct phases of younger, Tertiary-age volcanics.

The area of interest is described as a 15-sq.-km window. According to Ristorcelli, a northwest structural trend within this window appears to control much of the mineralization. The structural zone is a deep-seated, sheeted shear zone, with well-defined circular features that some of the mineralized trends follow.

The north end of the property has a slightly different geochemical signature than the south end. The north end is richer in base metals, whereas the south end

has higher-temperature quartz and an amethyst-quartz-breccia stockwork.

The 30-day field program consisted of detailed grid geological mapping and geochemical sampling, plus an 80-line-km ground magnetometer geophysical survey. More than 1,500 soil and rock samples were collected. Partial results from that program defined four significant gold soil anomalies.

Using data from the field work, Miranda has outlined a large circular feature measuring 3 km by

2 km, surrounding two smaller semi-circular features.

Corresponding with the circular feature is the Amethyst zone, traced over a strike length of 1.5 km. A set of 54 samples from a coincident soil anomaly measuring 450 by 150 metres average 100 ppb gold, with a high of 228 ppb.

Surface rock-chip samples of amethyst-quartz-breccia returned values of up to 3 grams gold and 254 grams silver.

The Lucy zone occurs along the same circular feature and trends north-northwesterly. Seven samples from a soil anomaly extending over an area of 450 by 50 metres averaged 407 ppb, with a high of 1,102 ppb gold (or 1.1 grams per tonne). Some samples assayed better than 28 grams gold and 500 grams silver.

Miranda believes the Lucy zone may have the potential to host a high-grade vein structure, while the other three zones are regarded as having bulk-tonnage potential. A flooded adit provides evidence of previous work on the Lucy structure.

The Chaos zone is one of the smaller semi-circular features and is defined by the largest soil anomaly, which measures 800 by 350 metres. Fifty-four samples returned an average value of 200 ppb; the peak value was 1,110 ppb gold (1.11 grams). Select quartz vein rock samples exceeded 10 grams gold and more than 500 grams silver.

A fourth anomaly, 350 by 60 metres in size, averaged 290 ppb gold in six soil samples, with a high of 1,173 ppb (1.17 grams).

A follow-up program of detailed mapping and sampling is expected to begin shortly, focusing on one target at a time. Some hand trenching is planned, while the company begins permitting for earth-moving work. Regional work will continue to access the surrounding properties.

Miranda has close to 8.3 million shares outstanding, or approximately 10.5 million shares fully diluted; management and their families own about 31% of the stock. Cash on hand is just under $1 million.