Mineralization hit at Peters

Independent drilling has confirmed mineralization at the past-producing Peters gold property in the Puruni River area of Guyana, reports Guyana Goldfields (GGFI-C).

Toronto-based Roscoe Postle & Associates cited four shallow holes as part of its ongoing evaluation of the property’s open-pit resource potential. Each hole cut mineralization from surface to the their bottoms, yielding the following grades:

– 5.76 grams per tonne over 9.91 metres in hole 1;

– 3.11 grams over 8.34 metres in hole 2;

– 2.14 grams over 17.71 metres in hole 3; and

– 5.58 grams over 21.1 metres in hole 4.

Hole one was abandoned after 9.91 metres, owing to caving.

Since acquiring the 3,382-ha property in 1996, Guyana Goldfields has sunk 78 holes totalling 8,270 metres and carried out various auger and geochemical sampling programs. This follows earlier efforts by the United Nations (UN) and, in the late 1980s, by Golden Star Resources (GSC-T) and Homestake Mining (HM-N). Most of the work completed to date has focused on the Main Shaft zone, where, between 1904 and 1909, 38,800 oz. were produced from two levels branching off a 100-metre shaft. The UN’s efforts in that zone led it to peg inferred resources at 204,116 tonnes grading 32.57 grams gold down to a depth of 244 metres. Guyana Goldfields has since extended the potential strike length to 732 metres with sonic drilling.

Meanwhile, Guyana Goldfields is set to begin drill-testing and exploring several geochemical anomalies at its 5,718-ha Aurora property, also in Guyana though in the Cuyuni River Valley to the north. As at Peters, crews are searching for near-surface, bulk-leachable gold deposits.

Between 1939 and 1950, Aurora produced 114,400 oz. from just under 200,000 tonnes of the Aleck Hill deposit, making it the country’s largest past producer. In the 1980s, then-partners Dension Mines (DEN-T) and South American Goldfields (since merged with Golden Start) drill-tested that and other zones, demonstrating that several remained opened at depth.

Guyana plans initially to test the 24 North anomaly and the Mad Kiss zone, two of nine targets it has identified as drill targets. The latter was drilled by previous operators and was also the site of limited open-pit mining in the 1940s; the former has never been drill-tested.

In total, Guyana Goldfields can earn 100% interests in more than 22,000 ha of mineral concessions in the tropical country. The company is also exploring for copper-silver deposits at a 64,344-ha property in the Coppermine district of Nunavut.