Vancouver — Now that dewatering of the underground decline is complete,
The junior expects to hit the target zone by the end of November, and then will drive a series of crosscuts and raises to the surface.
Erratic drill results from 1996 through 2000 prompted the company to explore the area by underground methods. Eaglecrest’s primary area of interest is the 12/17 gold zone, discovered in 1999.
The decline is expected to hit 600 metres in length and is currently 80 metres from the drill intercepts. Each blast round produces about 30 tonnes of material, which is removed by load-haul-dump machines and brought to surface, where it will be crushed to minus 1 inch in a 20-tonne-per-hour crushing plant. The material is then coned and quartered to a 2-tonne sample for processing through an on-site gravity mill. Recovered gold is tested and weighed for each blast round.
The underground contractor has agreed to take 3.5 million shares in exchange for its US$348,352 bill. The shares are subject to a 4-month holding period.
San Simon is in a broad highland plateau in the province of Itenez, 50 km southwest of Remanso, close to the border with Brazil. Eaglecrest can acquire the project by making a series of staged payments totalling US$600,000 over three years. The concessions are subject to a 3% net smelter return royalty.
The junior’s primary area of interest is Paititi, where local artisanal miners have worked a 650-metre-long-by-125-metre-wide area to a depth of 10-15 metres. Gold mining in the region dates back to the 17th century. In recent years, local miners, using rudimentary methods such as hand-crushing and panning, have concentrated their efforts on the Trinidad, Buriti and Paititi showings.
Eaglecrest has been looking at the bulk-minable potential of Paititi, where a series of stacked, sheeted stockwork quartz veins hosted by green-and-tan-coloured quartzite units occur in an east-west-trending structural corridor.
A 10-hole diamond drill program, conducted in 1996, tested a 250-metre strike length of the Paititi pit, producing lower-than-expected results. Some of the better results included:
q 23.4 metres of 1.42 grams gold per tonne, starting at a down-hole depth of 28.6 metres, in hole 5;
q 32 metres of 1.8 grams gold, beginning at surface, in hole 7; and
q 25.6 metres of 1.2 grams gold, starting at 40.9 metres of depth, in hole 9.
During the 1996 program, 22 shallow holes tested a 400-metre strike length of the Trinidad vein and La Rosa stockwork on the Trinidad concession. Again, results were lower than expected, with the better holes yielding intercepts of 9.45 grams across 5.1 metres, 5.16 grams over 13.2 metres, and 8.16 grams across 7.9 metres.
Following a takeover by new management in June 1998, Eaglecrest refocused its efforts at San Simon and resumed exploration in February 1999. Initial work focused on gaining a better understanding of the structural controls on the mineralization and resolving the sampling difficulties caused by the erratic distribution of coarse gold within the stockwork.
Drilling in 1999 consisted of 21 HQ-sized holes (63.5 mm core diameter) totalling 2,370 metres. Most of the holes tested the Paititi system along a strike length of 1,140 metres. The best results came from a pair of scissor holes, which cut 12 metres of 6.55 grams starting at a down-hole depth of 86.5 metres in hole 12, and 4.63 metres of 16.26 grams at 86.9 metres of depth in hole 17.
Eaglecrest began collecting 1-to-2-tonne surface bulk samples from within the Paititi pit and surrounding grid area. The samples were processed in a small, 1-tonne-per-hour gravity mill. Results from 22 tonnes of bulk samples collected in 1999 yielded an average grade of 1.61 grams gold per tonne.
The bulk-sampling program continued through 2000 under the direction of consulting engineer Gary Hawthorn of Westcoast Mineral Testing. The company collected 106 individual bulk samples from the property for a total of 197 tonnes of material. Fifty-six of those samples, representing 112 tonnes of altered and mineralized quartzite, were taken from within the Paititi pit area and averaged a grade of 1.64 grams gold per tonne.
In April 2000, Eaglecrest completed 11 additional holes at San Simon. Part of the program was designed to test the scissored intercepts, known as the 12/17 zone. Four holes (21, 22, 24 and 31) were drilled at 25-metre centres, both east and west of the 12/17 zone. An additional 11 holes were completed in the Paititi pit area during a second round of drilling last summer. The program uncovered two new stacked quartz vein zones below the 12/17 zone. In addition, visible gold mineralization was confirmed to a depth of 161 metres below surface.
The underground program got under way a year ago and is being driven at an 8 slope to a depth of 80 metres below surface.
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