Eaglecrest hits bonanza gold grades

Vancouver — While conducting a $4-million underground bulk-sampling program, Eaglecrest Explorations (EEL-V) has discovered a new zone of sulphide veining at the San Simon gold project in northeastern Boliva.

A total of five grab samples from the veins yielded values of up to 92.4 grams gold and 71 grams silver per tonne. Mineralization is associated with steeply dipping quartz veins hosting 1-3% pyrite, with lesser amounts of galena and arsenopyrite.

The junior believes that this zone may mark a feeder system to the previously identified sheeted quartz veining stockwork system over the 20-by-40-km San Simon plateau.

“The high-grade gold and silver values seen in the hand samples are extremely encouraging and may indicate that we have encountered the top of a larger mineralized system,” says Gary Cope, Eaglecrest’s president.

Flooding has temporarily stopped the underground development. When it is brought under control, Eaglecrest plans to collect additional samples and run a new induced-polarization geophysical survey to better define the potential feeder system.

“At the moment, we are planning to advance approximately 100 metres beyond the 12-17 zone, and complete a series of crosscuts and raises to provide a three dimensional view of the mineralized horizons,” says Cope.

San Simon lies over a broad highland plateau in the province of Itenez, 50 km southwest of Remanso, which is close to the border with Brazil. Eaglecrest can acquire a 100% interest in the core San Simon project area 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.

Eaglecrest’s primary area of interest is Paititi, where local miners have worked an area measuring 650 metres long by 125 metres wide to a depth of 10-15 metres. Gold mining in the region dates back to the 17th century.

In recent years, local miners have used rudimentary methods to extract the gold, such as hand-crushing, or hammer milling, and then panning. They have concentrated their efforts on the Trinidad, Buriti and Paititi showings.

The junior has been looking at the bulk-minable potential of Paititi, where a series of stacked, sheeted stockwork quartz vein systems, hosted by green-and-tan-coloured quartzite units, occur within an east-west-trending structural corridor.

In 1996, a 10-hole diamond drill program tested a 250-metre strike length of the Paititi pit, producing lower-than-expected results. Some of the better results included:

• 23.4 metres of 1.42 grams, starting from 28.6 metres of depth, in hole 96-5;
• 32 metres of 1.8 grams, beginning at surface, in hole 96-7; and
• 25.6 metres of 1.2 grams, starting at 40.9 metres of depth, in hole 96-9.

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. The better holes yielded 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. The company resumed exploration in February 1999.

Initial work focused on gaining a better understanding of the structural controls of the mineralization and resolving the sampling difficulties caused by the erratic distribution of coarse gold within the stockwork.

In 1999, drilling consisted of 21 HQ-sized holes (with a 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 scissored holes, which cut: 12 metres of 6.55 grams starting at a down-hole depth of 86.5 metres in hole 99-12; and 4.63 metres of 16.26 grams at 86.9 metres of depth in hole 99-17.

Eaglecrest began collecting 1-to-2-tonne surface bulk samples from within the Paititi pit and the surrounding grid area. The samples were processed on-site through 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.

The bulk-sampling program continued through 2000 under the direction of consulting engineer Gary Hawthorn of Westcoast Mineral Testing.

Last year, 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.

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 last November and is being driven at an 8 slope to a depth of 80 metres below surface.

Each round of the mineralized zone will be removed by load-haul-dump machine and brought to surface, where it will be crushed to minus-1-inch size in a 20-tonne-per-hour crushing plant on-site.