Vancouver — Having optioned its Tambor property to South African major
Last year, Gold Fields became a significant shareholder of Radius and optioned 55% of the Tambor properties in return for agreeing to spend US$5 million over 3.5 years. The deal allows Radius to focus its efforts on other properties while Gold Fields acts as operator and advances the Tambor project.
Through prospecting and stream sediment-sampling over the past two years, Radius has discovered numerous gold deposits. The area hosts a plate tectonic boundary between the Caribbean and North American Plates, which forms a major suture zone known as Montagua. The crustal shear zone bisects central Guatemala, separating a younger volcanic belt to the south from older basement rocks in the north. Radius controls more than 3,000 sq. km of ground within this suture zone and retains a 100% interest in 2,700 sq. km.
The junior explorer is expected to release a summary of its exploration results shortly. Most of the activity has been centred on the Bella Vista, Tambor and Tierra Blanca prospects.
– Bella Vista — At the Bella Vista project, 15 km north of Guatemala City and 8 km west of the Tambor project, Radius completed 100 line-km of grid and soil sampling. Gold Fields evaluated the Bella Vista soil database and delineated nine gold-in-soil anomalies. These anomalies were delineated from 3,958 samples collected over an area measuring 11 sq. km.
The grid area was also geologically mapped and over 1,400 rock samples were collected along the 7-km-long Bella Vista gold trend. Radius reports that reconnaissance rock sampling tied the soil anomalies to bedrock sources. A number of visible gold occurrences were discovered in quartz veins and quartz stockworks. A total of 15 hand trenches were excavated on 6 of the 9 known soil anomalies. The best trench returned 44 metres grading 6.15 grams gold per tonne.
– Tambor — At the Tambor project, Radius carried out surface exploration and outlined a series of gold anomalies along a 6-km trend hosted in metamorphic schists. Hand trenching outlined some drill-worthy targets, and a 30 reverse-circulation and diamond drill holes were completed on three zones: Sastre, Bridge and Lupita. Drilling of Sastre and Bridge proved disappointing, though Radius believes the former was not sufficiently tested. Drilling of the Lupita zone cut mineralized intervals in three holes, including 1.22 grams gold over 135.6 metres, 2.1 grams gold over 25.9 metres, and 1.91 grams gold over 29 metres. The gold mineralization is structurally complex, and Radius says Gold Fields is re-evaluating the data.
– Tierra Blanca — Situated 20 km north of Guatemala City, Tierra Blanca encompasses a strong gold-in-rock anomaly hosted in limestones and phyllites. The zone has been traced for 3 km in an east-west direction. The mineralization is reportedly epithermal and differs from the mesothermal mineralization found at Bella Vista and Tambor. Gold Fields has hired additional staff to advance Tierra Blanca to the drill stage.
Radius has 24.6 million shares fully diluted and $5 million in its coffers. Gold Fields holds a 12% equity stake in Radius.
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