With $15 million in its treasury, Essex Resource (ESX-V) is about to start a field program aimed at delineating near-surface oxide gold deposits at the Miquela and Porvenir concessions in eastern Bolivia.
The Vancouver-based junior has eight concessions totalling 74,000 ha in the South American country. Based on results from the first phase of drilling, two different types of mineralization would seem to occur at the Miquela concession. A near-surface gold deposit occurs in highly weathered bedrock and will be the primary focus of this year’s work program. The second type is a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) target, separate from the near-surface gold target that also will be further tested this year.
Last year, the near-surface gold deposit at the Miquela A zone was tested with deep trenches and vertical auger drilling. Vertical and horizontal channel sampling across the Main zone in the trenches returned encouraging results, including 23 metres grading 31.5 grams gold per tonne. One auger hole, drilled to a depth of 5 metres from the base of a deep trench, intersected an average grade of 15.2 grams over the full 5 metres. The oxide mineralization is now thought to extend as deep as 60 metres below surface.
Other oxide gold targets have been identified using geochemistry and geophysics at the Miquela South (C) zone, El Bagre and El Porvenir. This year’s program will entail reverse-circulation drilling to test the potential for near-surface gold reserves at the Miquela A zone and at Porvenir.
The 1997 program will also include diamond drilling to investigate the extent of the VMS-style mineralization identified during the first-phase drill program at Miquela.
This program identified at least two VMS horizons (named A-1 and A-2), which underlie the near-surface gold deposit discovered at the A zone.
Hole 19 at the A-1 horizon encountered two massive sulphide zones. The upper zone returned 2 metres grading 3.4% copper and 0.27% zinc, as well as 14.3 grams silver and 0.4 gram gold per tonne, from 110.8 to 112.8 metres. The lower zone (from 120.7 to 122.3 metres) intersected 1.6 metres with grades of 0.48% copper, 3.54% zinc, 10.55 grams silver and 0.03 oz. gold.
Hole 20 encountered a sulphide zone (from 147.8 to 150.9 metres on the A-2 horizon) and returned 3.1 metres grading 1.45% copper, 0.9% zinc, 0.8% lead, 44 grams silver and 0.44 gram gold.
A work program to test the potential for VMS base and precious metal mineralization will begin in June, along with early-stage exploration to test the potential of the company’s other concessions.
Essex plans to spend $4 million exploring its Bolivian concessions this year.
Be the first to comment on "LATIN AMERICA — Essex revs up drills in eastern Bolivia"