La Patria returns more gold and silver

Vancouver — La Patria drilling continues to deliver good gold and silver values for Palmarejo Silver and Gold (PJO-V, PJOFF-O) on its 121-sq.-km Palmarejo-Trogan project in Chihuahua state, Mexico.

Results from the four latest reverse-circulation (RC) holes include the following:

* hole LPDH-003 intersected 4.6 metres (from 51.8 metres down-hole depth) grading 2.1 grams gold and 101 grams silver per tonne in quartz vein breccias and oxidized andesites;

* hole LPDH-004 cut 10.7 metres (from 26 metres) averaging 7.1 grams gold and 156 grams silver in the quartz vein breccia immediately above historic workings — beneath which, a number of additional mineralized intercepts were encountered (0.8 to 1.9 grams gold and 18 to 46 grams silver) associated with the breccia and fault zones near the La Patria structure footwall contact;

* hole LPDH-005 returned several mineralized intercepts averaging just over 1 gram gold over widths of 1.5 to 7 metres within the fault zone, and the quartz breccias and andesites; and

* hole LPDH-006 intersected 4.6 metres (from 102 metres) of 6.3 grams gold and 46 grams silver in the quartz breccia and andesites, followed by a couple of 1.5-metre sections of 1.1 and 1.4 grams gold per tonne, respectively.

The RC drill program is testing known structures at the old La Patria mine where Palmarejo is targeting a major left lateral flexure in a section of the La Patria-Virginia fault.

Palmarejo’s project is situated in the Sierra Madre Occidental volcanic belt, which hosts many major mineral deposits in Mexico. Gold and silver mineralization at Palmarejo-Trogan is primarily associated with structurally controlled, low-sulphidation polymetallic-carbonate veins within the Lower Volcanic Sequence andesites. Locally, the veins show overprinting of high-level, high-grade, gold-silver veins. A regional north-northwest-trending fault structure controls the veins, with west-northwest dilatant zones that form the high-grade shoots (or “clavos”).

The project area has undergone extensive historic underground silver and gold mining as far back as the early 1800s, most of which is relatively shallow (less than 100 metres).