La Bodega keeps on giving to Ventana

Ventana Gold’s (VEN-T) La Bodega project continues to impress with seemingly every hole the country punches into the Colombian mountainside.

The last round of results come from six holes at the gold rich project and was highlighted by the first hole drilled into the La Baja tenement – which sits between the La Bodega and El Cuatro. The hole returned 15.2 metres grading 13.48 grams per tonne gold.

Drilling was done 200 metres along strike to the southwest of the La Mascota zone and, Ventana says, it indicates that the structure continues on over into the La Baja area.

Another new area tested was within the Aserradero zone, which is southeast of La Mascota. That hole, however, was the most disappointing in terms of length and grade as it struck just 5.56 grams gold and 4.38 grams silver rover 4.97 metres. While such an intercept would be the envy of most juniors it was hardly eye-popping in the context of some of La Bodega’s past results.

As for the better defined La Mascota zone, the company put four infill drill holes into the ground. The holes were drilled on 25 metre spacing and their results indicate that mineralization remains “robust” at depth.

Highlights from the zone included 14 metres grading 6.85 grams per tonne gold and 8.2 metres grading 22.36 grams per tonne gold in one hole; 27.4 metres grading 13.66 grams gold in another and 37.3 metres grading 5.76 grams per tonne gold in a third hole.

And while such results are stellar, plenty more should be on their way. That’s because Ventana is currently engaged in one of the more aggressive drilling programs of any active junior. It currently has 10 rigs turning at the site trying to define multiple areas of gold rich mineralization.

The program breaks down as: infill drilling at the main La Mascota zone, infill and deep drilling in the La Bodega zone, infill and step-out drilling in the El Cuatro tenement, Las Mercedes zone and Aserradero zone and initial exploration drilling at the La Baja tenement.

On top of all the drilling Ventana is also getting set to start digging an exploration tunnel that will give it underground access to the La Mascota mineralization from the surface.

The tunnel will be for the dual purpose of getting exploration drilling done at depth and acquiring material for metallurgical testing.

Work on the tunnel is slated to beg in November and the company says it will take one year to finish the 3,900 metres project. That said, the company wants to start exploration drilling from the underground by the second quarter of 2011.

The company is also gearing up to start upgrading the La Baja process plant it acquired as part of its purchase of the La Baja tenement.

Ventana has already acquired a ball mill and gravity circuit and is in the process of buying more of the components it needs to replicate the metallurgical process circuit it would need for a full scale process plant.

A pilot process plant is expected to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2011.

In Toronto on Sept. 30 the company’s shares were off 23¢ or 2% to $10.45 on 794,000 shares traded.