Ongoing surface rock sampling is enabling
The company has so far collected 1,600 chip channel samples, the average grade of which is 2.06 grams gold per tonne. Most of the sampling targeted a 250-metre-wide, north-to-northeasterly trending mineralized structural corridor that extends over a strike length of 1,500 metres. There, 1,177 of the samples averaged 2.67 grams gold.
The corridor is related to a complex series of converging north-southerly and northeast-southwesterly trending right-lateral slip faults. The faults have produced a large fractured and brecciated zone.
Based on the structural intensity of the rock and the degree of mineralization observed from surface sampling, Pacific Rim has subdivided the zone into three areas: northeast, central and south. Most of the reported assays are from the northeast and central zones in an area covering a strike length of about 800 metres. In areas of good exposure, sections of the zone were often sampled by continuous 2-to-3-metre channels over lengths of 10 to 100 metres.
Selected results included:
- 12 samples averaging 1.35 grams gold over 24 metres (northeast);
- 45 samples averaging 2.1 grams gold over 60 metres (northeast);
- seven samples averaging 1.14 grams gold over 14 metres (northeast);
- 15 samples averaging 0.65 gram gold over 30 metres (central);
- 23 samples averaging 17.25 grams gold and 26.8 grams silver over 32 metres (central); and
- seven samples averaging 4.68 grams gold over 14 metres (central).
Seventeen channel samples taken from the walls of an old exploration tunnel 250 metres south of the central target area returned an average of 10.03 grams gold and 147.5 grams silver over a width of 27 metres. Surface sampling has been restricted in the southern area, owing to considerable overburden and shale cover.
As a summary, 486 samples in the northeast area averaged 1.05 grams gold; 672 samples in the central area averaged 3.66 grams gold; and 19 samples in the south area averaged 8.97 grams gold. Silver is a minor credit to gold, occurring at ratios of between 5-to-1 and 10-to-1.
Samples are prepared by Bondar Clegg at its plant in Lima and shipped to Vancouver for analysis. Check assays are done through Chemex Labs.
The Luicho project centres on 10 sq. km of optioned ground in the Parincochas province, 540 km southeast of Lima. Pacific Rim has made an initial payment of US$200,000 and can earn a 100% interest by paying an additional US$400,000 in year one, US$1 million in year two and US$24.2 million in year three. The vendor, a private Peruvian company, retains a sliding-scale royalty of 2.5-3.5% on the first 1 million oz. produced and 3% on production thereafter. Pacific Rim added to its holdings by staking an additional 60 sq. km adjacent to Luicho.
A finder’s fee will be payable to David Lowell’s private Chilean company, Lowell Mineral Exploration, and to an unnamed partner, pursuant to an agreement reached in February 1999.
Luicho sits in rugged terrain at an elevation of 2,700 metres. The main target is exposed over a vertical range of 350 metres. The property is accessible by foot trails, 10 km from a local gravel road. Pacific Rim is in the process of securing surface agreements with local communities so that trenching and road construction can begin.
Work on the property dates back to colonial times. These mine workings are described as superficial, and none penetrates vertical depths greater than 30 metres. The most recent work was performed by a French company in the 1950s.
Regionally, the area is underlain by a thick sequence of Tertiary-age volcanics that unconformably cover Paleozoic-to-Mesozoic terrestrial sediments. The immediate Luicho area covers a stratigraphic sequence of rocks at, or just below, the unconformity. The stratigraphy consists of local “scabs” of eroded, non-mineralized shale beds underlain by a 15-to-20-metre-thick sequence of black, siliceous quartz sandstone, 60-70 metres of clean quartz sandstone and upwards of 200 metres of dirty sandstone. The three sandstone units are anomalous in gold, though most of the samples collected to date came from the clean and black sandstone units.
Low-sulphidation epithermal gold occurs in association with a large quartz stockwork of structurally prepared, brecciated and silica-flooded sandstone. Pacific Rim believes the overlying shales may have acted as an impermeable cap to the hydrothermal solutions.
Generally, surface exposures of the sandstone units are completely oxidized, with pyrite mineralization evident at several sites.
Rock sampling, geological mapping and reconnaissance prospecting will continue at Luicho. Technical climbers will be used to scale and sample some of the more inaccessible parts of the property. Pacific Rim expects road construction will begin in January 2000, followed by 12,000 metres of reverse-circulation drilling beginning sometime in the spring.
Led by President Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Shrake and Chairman Anthony Petrina, Pacific Rim’s management team has played key roles in Arequipa Resources, Gibraltar Mines and Placer Dome. Pacific Rim currently has about $3 million in cash and 21.6 million shares outstanding, or 24.8 million fully diluted.
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