Vancouver — By summer’s end, Minera Andes (MAI-V) expects to have a completed feasibility study in hand for the San Jose silver-gold project in Santa Cruz province, Argentina.
The Spokane-based junior holds a 49% interest in the project, with partner Mauricio Hochschild holding 51%. The partners recently completed a 25-hole, 5,600-metre program of infill drilling to test the main target of interest, the high-grade Huevos Verdes vein.
The vein was previously tested by 56 drill holes, and has already been developed with more than 3.5 km of underground workings through two inclined shafts.
Drilling has focused on the North, Central, and South shoots, which collectively cover 2.2 km of strike length to a depth of 250 metres. Assay results from these areas will be added to the feasibility study, which is examining a 750-tonne-per-day operation with a conventional flotation mill.
A recent hole that tested the North shoot returned 50.12 grams gold and 5,149 grams silver per tonne over 0.55 metre, within a broader intercept of 3.7 metres averaging 9.42 grams gold and 954 grams silver.
A hole from the Central shoot returned 19.23 grams gold and 598 grams silver over 0.41 metre, within a broader interval of 2.15 metres averaging 8.59 grams gold and 388 grams silver.
The best result from the South Shoot was a 0.36-metre interval of 46.78 grams gold and 2,093 grams silver, within a broader intercept of 1.28 metres averaging 14.1 grams gold and 617 grams silver.
Once the feasibility study is in hand, Minera Andes and its partner will determine if the project warrants production. Development work to date has been done on a “pay-as-you-go” basis; however, the owners are now seeking non-recourse project financing on the expectation of a positive production decision.
On its own, Minera Andes is drilling other wholly owned gold-silver projects in southern Argentina, as well as a newly discovered copper zone at its Los Azules property.
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