LATIN AMERICA — Corriente drills for gold in southern Peru — Company says results indicate bulk-tonnage potential at Chama

Diamond drilling has commenced on the Peruvian gold project known as Chama, in which Corriente Resources (CTQ-T) can acquire a 100% interest.

Situated near Arequipa in the country’s south-central region, the project is undergoing 5,000 metres of drilling, with initial results expected in May.

Meanwhile, in an effort to test the effect of surface leaching on gold grades, Corriente has completed six shallow pits. About 70 kg of samples have been retrieved, with results expected this month.

The presence of extensive hematite in the pits suggests that gold grades (which correlate with hematite) increase with depth. Additional work has revealed the presence of native sulphur on surface — an association also noted at the Pierina project of Barrick Gold (ABX-T). Also, regional prospecting has outlined additional quartz-alunite targets in the vicinity of Chama, and sampling of these is under way.

The 9,450-ha property contains an extensive clay-iron-silica alteration zone in volcanic host rocks over a 2-by-5-km area.

To date, a 1-sq.-km area of strongly silicified volcanics has been evaluated by geological mapping and 200 chip samples, which were taken every 50 metres along grid lines spaced 100 metres apart. The work outlined a 50,000-sq.-metre area of anomalous gold values, which average 0.6 gram per tonne. Additional anomalous values of up to 1.5 grams gold occur immediately to the north. Corriente officials say the results indicate strong potential for bulk-tonnage gold deposits at Chama.

Two large areas of tectonic and hydrothermal breccia occur in the area of anomalous gold values. Both breccia zones are exposed in outcrop over a vertical interval of 50 metres. The southwestern breccia zone lies along the southwestern margin of the volcanic vent and averages 1 gram gold. The adjacent, northeastern breccia zone averages 0.6 gram.

Given that the margins of both breccias are almost vertical, the zones are expected to have good depth potential. The breccias are uniform in appearance and are cemented by porous limonite, which indicates extensive oxidation.

This oxidation will allow for effective recovery of gold during any bulk-mining operations.

Additional areas of silicified volcanics occur elsewhere on the property.

Rock sampling undertaken at one location, 3.5 km to the east, returned anomalous gold values. Additional rock sampling is in progress, and an access road to bring heavy equipment to the property is being built.

Laurani

In separate activities, the company will launch an initial 3,000-metre drill program on the wholly owned Laurani silver-gold-copper project in Bolivia.

This program will test three quartz-alunite zones recently discovered during a series of alteration studies. The targets are 0.5 to 2 km south of the existing workings at Laurani and represent a significant expansion of the epithermal system. Given the size of the drill targets (up to 1.5 by 0.5 km), Corriente believes Laurani’s potential to be considerable. Drill results will be available in early summer.

Corriente can buy a 100% interest in the property, which is 100 km south of Bolivia’s largest city, La Paz, and only a few kilometres from the main La Paz-Oruro Highway.

Comprising 4,000 ha, the property is in a northwest-southeast-trending belt of polymetallic gold deposits, including Battle Mountain Gold’s Kori Kollo mine.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Laurani was one of the largest copper producers in Bolivia. Numerous small workings dating back to Spanish colonial times were developed on high-grade silver veins.

Previous development focused on enargite veins with high gold and silver values, whereas Corriente intends to explore the large alteration zone. This large area has intense silica and clay alteration together with disseminated gold-silver-copper values between the veins.

Corriente will initially conduct a geological review, as well as geophysical work. The great extent of laterites provides strong potential for a bulk-minable gold-silver-copper resource.