Northair targets Venturina for bulk-tonnage potential (April 13, 1998)

A first phase of exploration has begun on the Venturina property in Mexico’s Chihuahua state.

A wholly owned Mexican subsidiary of International Northair Mines (INM-V) can acquire a 100% interest in the property by making payments totalling US$138,000 and issuing 100,000 shares to the vendor, with an arranged buy-out of US$650,000 within four years.

The property is accessed by a 9-km dirt road off the Chihuahua-Hermosillo highway, about 345 km by road from the city of Chihuahua.

Northair is targeting a large, bulk-tonnage gold-silver prospect, based on initial mapping and sampling. The property contains veins, stockworking and massive silicification that is controlled by a complex, northwesterly striking fault system in andesitic tuff. The zone is mapped over a strike length of 500 metres and a width of 75 metres, and is open to the southeast.

A total of 67 samples averaged 2 grams gold and more than 30 grams silver per tonne. A detailed geological mapping and sampling program is under way in preparation for a drill program scheduled for later this year.

In related news, Northair recently received the final results from a 12-hole diamond drilling program on the joint-ventured Lachatao gold property in the state of Oaxaca. Teck (TEK-T) is the operator of the project and can earn up to a 70% interest by making payments to Northair, funding the project through to feasibility and arranging all production financing.

The drilling program was designed to test four target areas identified during the 1997 exploration season. Three of the areas — Benitez, La Colorado and Corazon de Oro — yielded drill intercepts of a gram or better. These areas occur within a curvilinear zone of alteration that is about 3 km wide and 8 km long, paralleling the northern contacts of a large dacitic-andesitic porphyry.

Highlights of the drilling include: 12 metres averaging 1.02 grams gold and 4.1 grams silver, starting at a depth of 42 metres, and 40.5 metres averaging 0.53 gram gold and 5.3 grams silver, starting at 63 metres, in hole 10 in the Benitez area; 35.5 metres averaging 1.55 grams gold and 18.3 grams silver, starting at a depth of 20 metres in hole 14 at La Colorada; 27 metres averaging 1.67 grams gold and 77 grams silver starting at a depth of 90 metres in hole 17, and 13.5 metres averaging 0.74 gram gold and 96.7 grams silver, starting at a depth of 141 metres in hole 20 at Corazon de Oro.