A 4-hole, 2,000-ft. program of diamond drilling will test the downdip extension of the underground Lone Pine mine, a past producer south of Prescott, Ariz.
Atna initially carried out limited underground sampling along adit-level crosscuts to evaluate the mineralized and altered rocks adjacent to the old stope. Forty-nine channel samples yielded values of up to 7% copper, 6.5% zinc, 7.4 oz. silver and 0.8 oz. gold. Twenty-six of the samples assayed greater than 0.029 oz. gold.
The Lone Pine mineralization is hosted in a steeply dipping, schistose, felsic tuffaceous unit that is stratigraphically overlain by a siliclastic metasedimentary sequence and underlain by a thick package of mafic volcanic rocks. The mineralized horizon and its extensions are marked by a siliceous iron formation that forms a resistant topographical feature between the northern and southern shafts.
Alteration of the wall rock is intense and marked by pervasive silicification, quartz veins, iron carbonate and chlorite. Atna is convinced that the geological setting, rock alteration and mineralization are typical of a precious-metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit, such as the nearby Iron King and Jerome mines.
In related news, Atna says it intends to drop the Monterde op tion agreement, based on 13 reverse-circulation holes in a first round of drilling.
Monterde is an open-pit, heap-leach gold-silver prospect in Mexico’s Chihuahua state. Atna optioned the project from privately owned Kimber Resources last fall.
Based on drill results and preliminary metallurgical studies, the project came up short of Atna’s economic target. Kimber had estimated a potential resource of 11.6 million tons grading 0.06 oz. gold and 1.9 oz. silver.
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