Andean American expands in Peru (July 24, 2002)

Vancouver — Andean American Mining (AAG-V) reports that exploration is in full swing at its recently expanded Santa Rosa property in southern Peru.

An L-shaped trench was recently dug 650 metres northeast of the first trench sampled, on the eastern flanks of the Virundo zone.

The first trench returned 25 metres averaging 2.33 grams gold and 29.5 grams silver per tonne. The new trench, dug to a depth of 1.5 metres and with a total length of 10.5 metres, returned a weighted average of 4.19 grams gold per tonne. (Each sample is a maximum of 2 metres and is a composite taken from both walls of the trench, as well as the floor. Therefore, each 2-metre sample actually contains 6 metres of material.)

In addition to the trenches, the company dug a 2-metre-deep exploration pit 25 metres to the north. The pit averaged 12.6 grams gold and 22.65 grams silver. Two-metre samples were taken from all four walls of the pit, as well from the floor.

Both the trench and the pit host clay-rich material with fragments of recrystalized and locally decalcified limestone.

Another pit, dug 25 metres to the west, averaged 0.12 gram gold, and a third, 175 metres to the west, assayed 0.98 gram gold. Two other pits, south of this last one, averaged 0.11 gram gold and 0.06 gram gold.

The Santa Rosa project is in the Andes, 550 km southeast of Lima. Andean American is currently mining the Open Pit zone, a structurally controlled epithermal deposit.

The Virundo zone is 8.5 km from the Open Pit zone and is defined by outcrops of altered limestone in an area measuring 2 by 1.1 km. The zone remains open in all directions.

The company recently added to its land package at Santa Rosa by staking 23 sq. km adjoining the eastern edge. There is currently one known mineralized target in this new land package: the Mamara zone. The expansion has increased the size of the property to 157 sq. km.

Santa Rosa is in the centre of a 200-km-long structural trend that strikes northeast. This trend hosts more than 22 gold-silver-copper deposits, including nine past or present producers.

Early reconnaissance work in the newly acquired Mamara target area has identified local zones of intensely silicified volcanics and calcedonic breccias. The target area measures about 1 by 1.5 km in size and contains at least 10 old workings. One 2-metre sample taken from within these workings averaged 0.85 gram gold.