Chile gold bet excites Lac

A gold discovery in northern Chile has been described by the president of Lac Minerals (TSE), Peter Allen, as “highly significant for the company.”

The discovery was made on Lac’s 85%-owned Apolinario property located in the Andes at an altitude of 16,000 ft, 300 miles north of Santiago.

The property is located 18 miles southwest of the El Indio mine, the St. Joe Gold property which is now in private hands as part of Dallhold Investments, which belongs to Australia’s Alan Bond. Annual production at El Indio is about 250,000 oz gold, along with silver and copper output.

Lac says geologists report mineralization at the Apolinario property occurs in a series of quartz sulphide narrow vein systems which seem to be geologically similar to the vein systems at El Indio.

Surface sampling at the property has returned values exceeding one oz gold per ton, the company says.

Three main vein structures have been sampled along a strike length of about 500 ft and the mineralized zones appear to be open, Lac says. The company plans to move two diamond drills onto the property before the winter season begins in the Andes.

Last year Lac acquired an 85% interest in a zinc-silver mine located in the southern part of Chile.

Toronto-based Lac reported total gold production of 305,817 oz for 1987 (excluding output from the Page-Williams mine at Hemlo in northern Ontario which is the subject of a legal dispute with TSE- listed International Corona Resources).