LATIN AMERICA — MacMillan outlines gold targets in Peru

A program of geological mapping and geochemical sampling has yielded encouraging results for MacMillan Gold (MMG-T) at the Armonia epithermal gold project near Lima, Peru.

The property hosts extensive low-epithermal gold-silver-bearing quartz veins, quartz stockworks, silicified fractures and, possibly, disseminations. Mineralization occurs in an east-southeast-trending zone of silicified and clay-altered rock measuring 4 km by 800 metres. The zone was mapped and sampled in detail in two areas, GH-77 and Vino Tinto, at the southern and northern ends of the zone, respectively.

In the GH-77 area, quartz vein material was found to grade up to 56 grams gold and 230 grams silver per tonne, whereas quartz stockworks running sub-parallel to stratigraphy grade up to 0.39 gram gold and 26 grams silver over 24 metres. Also, a largely unexplained, east-southeast-trending gold anomaly (ranging from 50 to more than 350 parts per billion in soil and rock samples) stretches for more than 1.5 km and averages 200 metres in width.

At the Vino Tinto zone, where no soil sampling was done, quartz veins grade up to 6.03 grams gold and 74 grams silver within a silica-rich mineralized system that parallels a thrust fault.

MacMillan notes that the Armonia property is hosted in Calipuy volcanics — the same formation that hosts Barrick Gold’s Pierina deposit, 200 km to the north, in which reserves are estimated to exceed 6.5 million oz. gold.

Plans call for further sampling, trenching and geophysics, including an induced-polarization survey aimed at identifying near-surface stockwork zones and zones of silicification and veining. Diamond drilling will likely follow.

In 1997, MacMillan signed an option agreement allowing it to earn a 100% interest in Armonia from Westward Explorations (WWE-V) for US$250,000.

Upon completion of a feasibility study, the vendors are entitled to a royalty of US$2 per oz. gold on the first 500,000 oz. produced, and US$3 per oz. thereafter. Westward, meanwhile, can earn a 50% interest by making the option payment to the vendor and contributing US$1 million to exploration over four years. MacMillan will remain the operator.

The Armonia property consists of five concessions covering more than 2,200 ha. MacMillan has also staked 3,000 ha of ground in the vicinity of Armonia that it believes to be similarly prospective for epithermal gold deposits.