Vancouver – Ventana Gold (VEN-T) has recouped some of its share price loss after releasing new drill results and announcing the final completion of a land deal at its La Bodega project in Colombia.
The company’s stock price had declined from $10.19 in mid-June, when it released a batch of drill results, to as low as $6.44 on July 21. Ventana went so far as to issue a press release in early July stating it could not account for its share volatility.
The latest round of news, however, helped boost the stock up 99¢ or 14.3% to close at $7.89 on 1.6 million shares traded.
First, the final settlement of full ownership of the La Bodega and La Baja properties marks the end of a chapter of uncertainty on Ventana’s project. The company had become embroiled in a legal dispute with the original landholders but reached a deal in May. The compromised had Ventana paying more for the La Bodega property but also acquiring the adjacent La Baja property.
With the deal finally closed, Ventana can now start exploring on the newly acquired 16.5-ha La Baja tenements. The property sits on strike with the La Mascota zone and gives Ventana contiguous mineral rights for 2.1 km. The company plans to mobilize two drill rigs to the property.
Meanwhile, the the latest round of drill results includes step-out drilling on the El Cuatro property, southwest extension drilling on the La Bodega zone and infill drilling on the La Mascota zone.
On El Cuatro, hole 255 intercepted 13.1 metres grading 4.44 grams gold per tonne and 841.99 grams silver per tonne from 56 metres depth, as well as several other good grade intersections down to 488 metres. Hole 237, drilled 100 metres southwest, cut 23.5 metres grading 5.07 grams gold and 45.54 grams silver from 447 metres, and then ended in mineralization before reaching its target depth.
The company renewed exploration earlier this year on La Bodega zone where it made initial high grade discoveries in 2006. Drill results released in late June on La Bodega included a very high-grade intercept of 1.9 metres grading 541.81 grams gold from 288 metres depth.
The latest extension drilling on the zone pushed southwest into steep terrain, pulling respectable intercepts from three drill holes. Hole 241 cut 14.6 metres carrying 2.59 grams gold and 9.6 grams silver from 410 metres depth, hole 246 hit 12.1 metres averaging 2.27 grams gold and 15.9 grams silver from 437 metres, and hole 256 intersected 32 metres grading 2.18 grams gold and 9.18 grams silver from 162 metres depth.
The company plans to acquire a larger drill with directional drilling capacity to better explore the southwest potential of La Bodega as well as the down-dip extensions of La Mascota. La Bodega remains open to the southwest and at depth.
Infill drilling on La Mascota returned more significant grades. Hole 261 hit 49 metres grading 6.69 grams gold from 377 metres depth and then 13.1 metres grading 18.2 grams gold slightly deeper downhole. Hole 248 hit 28 metres grading 5.75 grams gold, hole 249 hit a similar intersect of 28.9 metres averaging 5.16 grams gold and hole 246 cut 14.1 metres grading 4.25 grams gold.
Drill intercepts throughout the property also show low levels of copper.
The company plans to release both an initial resource for the project and a scoping study by the fourth quarter of this year.
The company has a 52-week trading range between $4.60 and $12.91 and 102 million shares outstanding.
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