Cerro Crespo pans out

Early-stage reverse-circulation drilling by Patagonia Gold (PGD-L) at the Cerro Crespo property in Chubut province, Argentina, has intersected gold along a 200-metre-long vein.

Six shallow holes in the 62-hole program intersected “significant gold intersections” on the Cabana drill target in the southeastern part of the property. Cerro Crespo is about 150 km southeast of the Esquel gold deposit, held by Meridian Gold (mng-t).

The better-mineralized intersections were 4-8 metres long with gold and subsidiary silver values. Grades ranged from 4 to 9 grams per tonne.

The best intersection came in hole CR-02: 8 metres grading 8.7 grams gold and 4.8 grams silver per tonne, including a 2-metre interval of 27.4 grams gold and 11.6 grams silver.

In hole CR-33, a 7-metre intersection graded 8.2 grams gold and 2.9 grams silver per tonne, including an interval 1 metre long grading 41.4 grams gold and 12.4 grams silver. The mineralization is of the low-sulphide epithermal type in volcanic rocks.

Patagonia also took channel samples from trenches on the same structure at surface, confirming grades updip from the drill intersections. One sample graded 12.5 grams gold and 9.5 grams silver per tonne across a surface width of 3.5 metres; a second ran 9 grams gold and 4.5 grams silver over 10.3 metres.

Earlier trenching had returned channel samples of 15.2 grams gold and 13.5 grams silver across a 2.1-metre width and 6.6 grams gold and 5.1 grams silver across 10.6 metres.

Diamond drilling will test the structure at deeper levels. Indications, from reverse-circulation drilling, are that both grade and width increase with depth.

Patagonia has finished an 81-hole, 5,299-metre drill program at the Coyhaique project in Chile, which hugs the Argentine border across from southwestern Chubut province. The drilling at Coyhaique tested downdip on vein-type gold and silver mineralization exposed in surface showings.

Thirty-one holes tested the central part of the 1.5-km Adriana vein, and of those, nine returned significant gold grades over drilled lengths of 3-9 metres. Gold grades were mainly in the 3-to-4-gram range, whereas silver values ranged from 20 to 30 grams. However, two holes intersected slightly higher grades: a 3-metre intersection carrying 5.6 grams gold and 73.6 grams silver per tonne and another carrying 8.1 grams gold and 35.6 grams silver, also over 3 metres.

Five holes on another prospect, Violeta, returned gold and silver mineralization over drilled lengths of 3-9 metres grading 2.4-3.9 grams gold and 16-35 grams silver. A third prospect, Ridge, returned lower-grade vein mineralization at a depth of 118 metres.

Patagonia has a reconnaissance-level exploration program under way near Gastre in northern Chubut province, where it holds a 550-sq.-km land package between the Navidad property of IMA Exploration (IMR-V) and the Calcatreu property of Aquiline Resources (AQI-V). Surface sampling of altered volcanic rocks has returned up to 2.1 grams gold per tonne. Plans call for resistivity and induced-polarization surveys.