Pacific Rim hits high-grade Gold at El Dorado

Vancouver — Pacific Rim Mining (PMU-T) has released the first drill results from its diamond drill program on the El Dorado gold project in El Salvador.

The company is in the midst of a drill program that is expected to consist of about 7,000 metres of drilling in 20 drill holes on a variety of vein targets within the El Dorado project.

Hole P02-203 intersected 2.3 metres (1.89 metres true width) grading 6.81 grams gold and 6.6 grams silver starting 34.5 metres down-hole. This was followed by 1.96 metres (true width) averaging 31.93 grams gold and 257 grams silver starting 96.15 metres down-hole. Another interval intersected 0.94 metres (true width) averaging 24.84 grams gold and 163 rams silver starting at a down-hole depth of 104.8 metres.

“This is a great start to an extensive 20 hole exploration program specifically designed to get a sense of the high-grade gold potential in the central part of the district before following up with definition drilling of the best hits," said Tom Shrake, Pacific Rim’s CEO. "The targeting work is progressing smoothly and we recently commenced the fifth drill hole (207). I’m especially pleased with the efficiency being achieved as each hole has tested at least two targets, multiplying the chances of discovery.”

Pacific Rim reports that hole 203 intersected several veins within the Rosario Vein system. The hole was drilled towards the east at a dip of minus 54 degrees and was designed to cross the Rosario and Veta Grande veins perpendicular to their strike. The Rosario Vein has a strike length of 500 metres, and trends in a north-northwest direction subparallel to the Minita resource. It is interpreted to be the extensional fault direction. The Veta Grande vein was intersected further down hole but grades did not reach the 6 gram gold cutoff grade.

Pacific Rim states that the first 319 metres of the second drill hole (P02-204) was assayed but failed to hit mineralization above the cutoff grade. This hole was designed to cross the southern Moreno and Varicose Veins in a westerly direction. Assays are still pending on the lower 80 metres of the hole.

The company has accelerated its drill program through the addition of a second diamond rig. This rig will scout drill other targets in the central part of the El Dorado property. Results for holes 205, 206 and 207 are expected next month. Hole 205 is designed to test the El Dorado vein as well as the down-rake extension of the Minita resource. Hole 206 will test the south Minita, Zancudo and El Dorado Veins and hole 207 will test the Veta Grande, the Varicose and the Rosario veins about 300 metres north of hole 203.

By utilizing trenching, sampling and detailed geologic mapping, Pacific rim has identified a number of new targets in the central part of the property. Two trenches were dug to north of the Minita resource. Samples from these trenches returned 12.67 grams gold and 10.00 grams gold, respectively. The Minita vein is narrow at the surface (less than 0.5 metres) but averages 3.3 metres in width at depth in the resource area.

Trenching and sampling from five trenches that cut across the northern Moreno vein returned values between 0.19-to-11.37 grams gold. Two other veins have been discovered to the east of Moreno. These have been dubbed the DVDA and the Montecristo veins. Initial sampling returned 8.84 and 8.40 grams gold, respectively.

The El Dorado District is an adularia-sericite type epithermal gold system located in El Salvador that hosts bonanza gold. In excess of 35 known quartz veins have been identified and these veins have a total strike length of over 18 km. Previous drilling determined that the highest grade gold was encountered in a “Productive Interval” that occurs in the elevation range of approximately 100-to-250 meters above sea level. To date only two veins have been systematically drill-tested in the productive interval.

The Minita vein system was mined in the mid-1900’s and currently hosts an indicated source of 799,200 tonnes with an average grade of 13.7 grams gold per tonne and 97.9 grams silver per tonne below the old stopes.