Vancouver — Aurelian Resources (ARU-V) has tabled encouraging trenching results from its Bonza and Las Penas targets on its wholly-owned Condor project in southeastern Ecuador.
The Bonza and Las Penas zones are areas of artisanal mine workings, situated about 2 km north of the Aguas Mesas Norte site, where Aurelian recently completed a first-phase drill program.
The Bonza target was drilled in 1997 to 1998 by Australian-based Climax Mining. The best drill interval Climax reported cut 115 metres averaging 1.58 grams gold per tonne. Aurelian states that it has significantly extended this zone of mineralization and believes that the Bonza and Las Penas zones represent one continuous zone of bedrock mineralization. The Las Penas represents an area of active mine workings where artisanal miners are extracting gold via shallow shafts and adits. This zone was not known to Climax.
Aurelian extended and resampled one of Climax’s old trenches at Bonza. The trench trends in and east-west direction and cuts across the apparent strike of the zone. It returned an average grade of 4.08 grams gold per tonne (uncut) over 94 metres. This includes a two-metre section that averaged 123 grams gold in quartz stockwork. If this assay is cut to 10 grams gold per tonne, then the interval averages 1.67 grams gold.
Mineralization is hosted in argillically altered and silicified andesite volcanics, with variable disseminated pyrite that is cut by quartz stockwork veining and breccias. The zone remains open to the east and west and Aurelian plans to drill test it in early February.
The junior also dug a number of short trenches in the area close to active and abandoned mine workings at La Penas. A chalcedonic quartz and rhodochrosite vein that is being mined was sampled in a shallow pit. It averaged 21.91 grams gold and 77.98 grams silver from five adjacent one-metre chip samples.
Two other trenches yielded 1.65 grams gold over 20 metres and 0.97 gram per tonne over 28 metres. Both trenches ended in mineralization. These trenches are situated west and northwest of a previous drill hole, just north of a half-km gap that never was drill tested. The trenches lie about 475 metres south of the trench at the Bonza zone.
Soil sampling and pitting carried out in 1997 to 1998 defined a 2-km-long gold anomaly that surrounds the Las Penas and Bonza site. Aurelian plans to systematically test this zone for grade and continuity.
Be the first to comment on "Aurelian advances Bonza and Las Penas"