St. Elias targets Prospecto Lado

An ongoing channel-sampling program on the Cueva Blanca gold property in Peru is allowing St. Elias Minerals (SLI-V) to enhance a promising new gold zone.

Situated south of the Zona Verde prospect, which has been outlined over a 1.3-km-by-300-metre area, the junior has encountered higher-grade gold mineralization at the Prospecto Lado target. Trench results from the southeastern portion of the target have returned 1.22 grams gold per tonne over 9 metres, 1.47 grams over 6 metres, 2.15 grams over 15 metres and 0.58 gram over 6 metres.

According to St. Elias, gold mineralization is hosted in a friable rock unit comprising limonite and clay-altered feldspar and controlled by a northwest-striking fault known as the Quebrada Falla. All of the trenches straddle the unconformity between a Cretaceous tonalite to the north and Tertiary volcanics to the south.

A program of auger-sampling over a 300-by-200-metre area at Prospecto Lado is currently under way. It will be followed by a reverse-circulation drill program of 3,000 to 5,000 metres.

The 123-sq.-km property covers a large epithermal alteration system in the Yanacocha-Pierina belt of western Peru. Inca Pacific Resources (ip-v) worked the property in 1997 and drill-tested a zone of sheeted quartz-carbonate veins known as the Cruz system. The best intercepts included 9.5 metres grading 8.1 grams gold per tonne and 10.8 metres grading 2.4 grams.

St. Elias can earn a 49% interest in the property from Inca Pacific by paying US$50,000 in cash, issuing 500,000 shares and spending US$1.5 million on exploration by November 2001. The company can then earn a further 21% interest by paying US$250,000, spending an additional US$2 million and completing a bankable feasibility study.