EXPLORATION 1997 — Gen. Minerals hits high grade in Chile

General Minerals (GNM-T) has intersected high-grade, secondary-enrichment copper mineralization over significant widths at its Vizcachitas property in central Chile.

Hole 16 returned (from 96.68 to 148.53 metres) 51.85 metres of 0.94% copper and 0.009% molybdenum, including 12.2 metres of 1.31% copper and 0.01% moly.

Hole 18 returned (from 48.74 to 114.98 metres) 66.24 metres of 1.1% copper and 0.013% moly, including 39.79 metres of 1.43% copper and 0.009% moly.

The company also reported results for a third hole, 17, which returned 41.7 metres grading 0.51% copper and 0.002% moly, including 8.15 metres of 0.83% copper and 0.002% moly.

The three holes represent

a 330-metre-long, east-west fence of holes drilled to test for a southern extension of shallow, chalcocite-bearing, secondary-enrichment copper mineralization previously discovered in the central portion of the property.

General Minerals says ongoing drilling will be used to determine the extent of that mineralization, which is the same type that was observed some 230 metres west of hole 18 during recent trenching. Drilling at the latter showing is in progress.

Drilling elsewhere on the property will involve systematic stepouts in areas of known mineralization, along with scout holes in areas where surface sulphide oxidation indicate potential for secondary enrichment at depth.

Denver-based General Minerals has a portfolio of exploration projects in Chile, Peru, Bolivia and China. The company is currently drilling the Cascabamba project, in a region of northern Peru that hosts the Yanacocha, Cerro Corona and Michiquillay gold mines.

A 15-hole program there is aimed at testing the property’s potential to host porphyry deposits, extensions of known vein systems and base and precious metals mineralization in the hydrothermal breccias, and vein swarms within newly discovered mineralized, structural zones.

Drilling follows a recent program of surface exploration that suggested potential for sub-surface, porphyry-style copper-molybdenum-gold-silver mineralization and copper-gold-silver-lead-zinc mineralization associated with veins or breccias.

Limited mining at the Cascabamba property in the early 1920s focused on the Pozos Ricos copper-gold-silver vein system. Historical reports show that 100 tonnes mined from the vein graded 12% copper, 6.2 kg silver, 47 grams gold and 4% combined lead-zinc. Prior to the current program, no modern exploration had been conducted on the property.