Gitennes advances Virgen exploration

An exploratory tunneling program on the southern end of the Rio Suro gold zone at the Virgen property in north-central Peru is now complete.

Gitennes Resources (GIT-T) is using the tunnel to develop a comprehensive geological picture of the deposit, determine gold grades and acquire metallurgical samples.

Situated 455 km north of the Peruvian capital, Lima, and 158 km (by road) east of Trujillo, the third-largest city in Peru, the Virgen property consists of nine concessions totalling 2,800 ha. The property straddles the Continental Divide, and varies from 3,600 to 4,180 metres in altitude.

The Rio Suro gold zone is traced on surface over a strike length of 700 metres, with widths up to 200 metres. The zone comprises a

north-northeasterly-trending auriferous oxide zone of fractured and brecciated hematite-goethite-cemented quartzite that is bisected into north and south segments by the Rio El Suro river. Gitennes is now finding small pods and pieces within the zone, where the original protolith mineralization is evident.

The Rio Suro zone occurs immediately west of the north-striking, subvertical Alumbre fault, which separates the fractured and brecciated Chimu formation from black carbonaceous mudstones.

Gold mineralization is hosted by both Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Chimu formation and Tertiary volcanic rocks. In the Cretaceous sediments, gold mineralization is best developed adjacent to the Alumbre fault in semi-tabular zones of hydrothermal and tectonic breccia that are subvertical and north-striking, or exhibit parallel bedding and dip to the east.

A 168-metre-long access tunnel was driven through a hill across the southern portion of the zone in an east-west direction. The tunnel was collared in a lower-grade section of the zone, where rock competency was judged to be good, but where drill recovery was poor and the geology poorly understood.

“We’re fairly intrigued by what we’re seeing,” said Gitennes President Jerry Blackwell. “The main tunnel went through an area of a lot of uncertainty. We saw rocks in the chips from the reverse-circulation (RC) drilling that we hadn’t seen anywhere else, plus it was rather low grade in the three holes that fell along the section, right at the elevation of the tunnel.” Material from the tunnel averaged 0.71 gram gold per tonne over the first 30 metres, 0.18 gram between a distance of 30 and 75 metres, and 0.43 gram from 75 to 128 metres. The tunnel results are a composite average of three separate sets of sample data, collected from two sets of face samples and muck.

Blackwell says the tunnel shows there is a unit of low-grade mudstone that has been folded into the zone. The tunnel was drifted almost parallel to the axis of the fold. “It is a source of potential dilution,” he noted.

Underground development also included two drifts, dubbed North and South, one east-west crosscut in the North drift and the slashing of four drill stations in preparation for an upcoming 1,200-metre drilling program. The 75-metre-long North drift was driven along strike to the north from a point 25 metres inside the collar. The North drift averaged 0.47 gram over the first 19.49 metres, before picking up the edge of a strong zone of breccia mineralization that averaged 4.53 grams over a strike length of 46.75 metres.

The North drift results are a composite average of five separate sets of sample data, collected from the east and west walls, two sets of face samples and muck.

The North drift was driven along the contact between the leached breccia and the surrounding low-grade country rock (a highly fractured quartzite).

Blackwell notes that evidence in the drift suggests the breccia zone has been downfaulted to the south. He believes the high-grade zone sits about 25 metres below the access tunnel.

The breccia zone is similar to that encountered in diamond drill holes V97-8, 10, 14 and 16 and RC holes VRC97-16 and 17, which tested a 30-metre section of the Rio Suro zone along strike. The high-grade zone has been intersected down to 70 metres below surface.

Selected highlights of the previously reported holes include 149.3 metres averaging 1.52 grams (including a 23.2-metre interval averaging 5.72 grams, starting at 3.05 metres) in diamond drill hole V97-8 and 103 metres averaging 4.53 grams (including 39 metres averaging 11.08 grams, starting at 4 metres) in RC hole VRC97-17.

The remaining assay results for the North crosscut and South drift are expected in the next two weeks. The North crosscut was driven across a 35-metre (true width) section of the higher-grade breccia, and will be important in confirming the results of hole V97-10. That hole intersected 41.14 metres averaging 14.88 grams within a 192.5-metre interval averaging 3.3 grams, starting at a depth of 6.1 metres.

The 37.4-metre long South drift was driven to the south from a point 120 metres into the access tunnel. This drift will be used as a drill station.

Blackwell explained that the underground tunneling is showing how complexly faulted the zone is. More importantly, from an exploration point of view, there are clear signs in the drifts of hydrothermal, or hypogene, leaching of the rocks.

“We can see that portions of this zone probably had a larger enargite-bearing copper system that has been upgraded by leaching and silicification, much like Pierina (a major Peruvian gold deposit). We can actually walk through these leach fronts; they’re very dramatic.” Blackwell says this becomes very important in terms of the property’s overall exploration potential. Gitennes has encountered a large quartz arenite zone to the north that shows evidence of leaching.

“We think that the potential to find more Rio Suros that are blind is quite good,” he said.

Currently, Gitennes has two drill rigs turning on targets outside of the original Rio Suro discovery. One rig is working on the Alumbre gold showing, while the other is testing a zone of sulphide-hosted copper-gold mineralization on Rio Suro Norte. A comprehensive update of drill results is expected shortly.

Preliminary metallurgical testwork on the higher-grade breccia at Rio Suro indicates leached gold recoveries in the order of 94% to 96.5% on quarter-inch grind, in less than four hours.

In related news, Gitennes has staked a significant land package at the Azul property in east-central Peru. The property consists of 38 contiguous claims held in a 50-50 joint venture with Navigator Exploration (NVR-A). A total of 38,000 ha has been staked to date.

The Azul property covers an isolated area of uplift. Streams draining this area are reported to carry alluvial gold. Reconnaissance stream sediment sampling has yielded numerous high-contrast gold, silver and copper values.

A follow-up program of rock sampling, geological mapping and prospecting is in progress.

Gitennes has approximately $6.2 million in cash, and 23.8 million shares outstanding, or 28.5 million fully diluted.