Pacific Rim aims to expand El Dorado

With the Denton-Rawhide gold-silver mine slated for closure next year, Pacific Rim Mining (PMU-T) is forging ahead with plans to advance its wholly owned El Dorado gold project in El Salvador.

The company’s flagship project is 65 km from the capital, San Salvador.

Vancouver-based Pacific Rim has a two-prong strategy at El Dorado: a preliminary feasibility study, to begin in the coming months, plus drilling to expand resources and test new targets.

Drill crews will test strike extensions north and south of the Minita vein deposit, which contains a measured and indicated resource of 1.6 million tonnes grading 11.4 grams gold and 70.3 grams silver per tonne, or about 585,000 contained ounces gold and 3.6 million contained ounces silver. Other targets include veins parallel and related to Minita.

The Gonso vein area target was moved down the priority list after erratic results were encountered in scout drilling. Several of the holes returned intervals below the 5-gram cutoff grade while others failed to encounter significant mineralization. The target was also found to be “geologically and structurally complex,” and therefore of less interest than other targets on the property.

Pacific Rim is also testing an epithermal vein system at its La Calera project, 8 km west of El Dorado. The company’s goal here is to outline resources within parallel mineralized structures dubbed Rosa and Rosa West. Both structures are thought to continue under post-mineral cover that obscures their surface expression to the north.

A ground magnetic survey is attempting to delineate the vein systems through the post-mineral cover along strike and to find new drill targets. Next, reverse-circulation drilling will test newly identified targets and try to expand previously known mineralized areas.

The width and continuity of the mineralization found in the Rosa and Rosa West structures would seem to indicate a potentially bulk-minable deposit at La Calera, though, as Pacific Rim notes, “the project’s viability will depend on increasing the size of the mineralized bodies.”

Pacific Rim is also carrying out grassroots exploration programs at two gold projects in Nevada where the Denton-Rawhide gold-silver mine is situated.

The newly staked Surefire property is on the Northern Nevada Rift, whereas the newly optioned Aurora project is within the Walker Lane mineral belt.

The company also holds a 49% interest in the Denton-Rawhide mine near Fallon, now in the residual leach phase. The company’s share of production in the latest fiscal quarter ended Jan. 31, 2004, was 7,184 oz. gold and 53,455 oz. silver. Cash costs were US$131 per oz., while the average realized gold price was US$401 per oz.

Gold and silver sales totalled US$3.3 million. However, Pacific Rim realized a net loss of US$1.3 million (0.02 per share) for the quarter, compared with a net loss of US$300,000 in the corresponding period a year earlier.

Denton-Rawhide will continue to produce gold through this year and into 2005, albeit at reduced levels as inventories decline.

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