Orion starting out strong for Nayarit (October 08, 2007)

Vancouver — Initial results from Nayarit Gold’s (NYG-V, NYRTF-O) Orion project in Nayarit state, Mexico, are showing good gold and silver grades from a historically productive area.

Nayarit started its first-phase drilling program at Orion in July, targeting the Minas de Animas silver-gold vein system lying beneath historic shallow underground mine workings. Assay results from the second hole of the 7-hole drill campaign returned 3.03 grams gold per tonne and 350.2 grams silver per tonne over a 6.32-metre (true width) section, including 1 metre grading 11.35 grams gold and 924 grams silver.

In August, the company released results from the first hole at Minas de Animas. From 177 metres depth, nine intervals of 1 to 1.5 metres returned grades in excess of 100 grams silver. The best results came from the top metre, which returned 18 grams gold and 1,420 grams silver per tonne.

The system, composed of two sub-parallel quartz-breccia veins, has been traced over a strike length of more than 850 metres. Four adits have been located and sampled; of 500 samples taken since 2005, 16 returned more than 10 grams gold and 25 exceeded 500 grams silver.

A second diamond drill is turning on the Lazaro Cardenas system, 2.5 km southwest of Animas, and also within the Orion land package. The silver-rich veins of the Lazaro system have been traced for 8 km, intermittently dotted with historic pits and trenches.

The Orion project is 100 km northwest of Tepic, the capital of Nayarit, and encompasses three contiguous mineral exploration concessions totalling 83 sq. km held by Nayarit’s Mexican subsidiary, Nayarit Gold de Mexico.

Between 1993 and 1994, Lac Minerals worked the project, conducting sampling, surveys, and 2,500 metres of reverse-circulation drilling. When Lac merged with American Barrick — now Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N) — in late 1994, the project was terminated.

Situated on the western edge of the Sierra Madre Occidental, the Orion project area consists of volcaniclastic andesitic tuffs lying over basement rocks, with felsic ignimbrites on top. Two types of intrusive rocks are present: light grey andesitic porphyry and dark grey basaltic andesitic dykes.

Low-sulphidation epithermal mineralization in northeast-trending pyritized and silicified breccia zones occurs associated with the andesitic porphyry, as do mineralized quartz veins. The oxide zone, bearing native gold associated with remnant pyrite, extends 10 to 30 metres. In the lower sulphide zone, gold occurs as native gold and gold-bearing telluride. Nayarit’s main target is the sulphide ore.