Teck Cominco hits bonanza gold grades

Vancouver — An ongoing drill program by Teck Cominco (TEK-T) has cut impressive gold-bearing skarn mineralization on its 72%-held Morelos North Reserve property in Mexico’s Guerrero state.

So far, 36 reverse circulation holes and four diamond drill holes have been complete cutting a zone of gold-bearing skarn mineralization over a strike length of 1 km and a width of 300 metres. Mineralization is associated with magnetite occurring as pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and pyrite at the contact of a granodiorite intrusion and limestone unit. The northern part of the zone lies near surface while the southern portion occurs at some 100 metres depth.

Drilling is being competed on 100-metre line spacings with the results in for the first 29 holes. Highlights from north to south include:

• Hole 15, which cut 22.82 grams gold over 6.1 metres from surface,
• Hole 28, which cut 15.24 grams gold over 3.1 metres from 184.4 metres,
• Hole 11, which cut 5.08 grams gold over 41.2 metres from 12.2 metres,
• Hole 7, which cut 13.02 grams gold over 3.1 metres from 27.4 metres,
• Hole 1, which cut 5.02 grams gold over 30.4 metres from surface,
• Hole 6, which cut 35.96 grams gold over 3 metres from 4.6 metres,
• Hole 4, which cut 5.69 grams gold over 22.8 metres from surface,
• Hole 19, which cut 16.13 grams gold over 12.2 metres from 125 metres,
• Hole 18, which cut 8.66 grams gold over 7.6 metres from 190.5 metres,
• Hole 23, which cut 42.6 grams gold over 6.1 metres from 180 metres, and
• Hole 15, which cut 24.27 grams gold over 6.1 metres from 137.4 metres.

Based on the results, the company has earmarked more funds to a planned $2-million budget. The mineralization remains open to the south and the favourable contact zone extends to the east and west and await drill testing.

Located several km north of its Nukay project some 150-km southwest of Mexico city, Teck picked up the 26,000 hectare property when the Mexican government auctioned off unclaimed parts of the 500-sq.-km Morelos National Mining Reserve in 1998. Bidding US$3.12 million, Teck, now part of Teck Cominco, considered the area prospective for Skarn-style gold mineralization similar to its nearby Nukay property, which hosts a reported resource of 4.4 million tonnes grading 4.47 grams gold in three separate zones, plus a drill indicated resource of 28.4 million tonnes averaging 1.64 grams gold at the Los Filos zone.