IMA tests Navidad Hill

Ongoing drilling on the Navidad silver project in the Patagonia region of Argentina continues to suggest the presence of a large bulk-tonnage silver deposit for IMA Exploration (IMR-V).

Results from latest batch of six holes on the main zone at Navidad Hill are highlighted by 59.2-metre (true width beginning 3 metres below surface) section running 247 grams silver per tonne in hole no. 7. The interval also included 1.7 metres (from 30.9 metres) grading 2,129.6 grams silver.

Hole 8 yielded 101.5 metres (from 2.5 m) averaging 146 grams silver, including a 1.24-metre stretch (from 35.5 m) of 3,042.6 grams.

Results form the remaining holes are listed below:

• Hole 6 – 42.6 metres (from 3 m) grading 161.6 grams silver, including 4 metres (from 23.3 m) of 424.7 grams;
• Hole 9 — 57.8 metres (from 2.5 m) 124 grams silver, including 0.67 of a metre (from 65.25 m) grading 1,440.7 grams; and
• Hole 10 – 54 metres (from 3.5 m) of 111.1 grams silver, including 4.2 metres (from 3.5 m) at 669.7 grams.

Holes 6-8 also returned between 0.2-0.3% copper and 0.1-0.3% lead over the wider intervals. Copper and lead values are still pending for the remaining holes.

Meanwhile hole 11, which tested the northwestern extremity of the Navidad Hill area cut 10.6 metres (from 1.5 m) of 98.3 grams silver.

IMA says that drilling at Navidad so far has cut several brecciated structures contained within a 50-100-metre wide zone of disseminated mineralization. The steeply dipping-vertical zone trends to the northwest.

Previously, hole 1 at Navidad Hill encountered 58.4 metres of 111.1 grams silver, 0.22% copper and 0.06% lead from 3.05-61.45 metres down-hole. Hole 2 returned 48 metres of 97.8 grams silver, 0.15% copper and 0.06% lead.

So far, IMA has drill tested just 80 metres of the 475-metre-long zone. The holes have encountered both oxides and sulphide mineralization from surface to a depth of around 70 metres.

Recent drilling at Galena Hill, 1.2 km away, was highlighted by hole 5, which returned an 83-metre section (from 43.3 m) averaging 229.2 grams silver and 4.2% lead, including 18.3 metres (from 89 m) of 503 grams silver and 11.2% lead.

At Galena Hill, Quantec will carry out additional induced polarization surveying in anticipation of further drilling aimed at testing some existing large anomalies.

Shares in IMA were 24, or about 11%, higher in early trade in Vancouver following the news on Jan. 22. By early afternoon the shares had subsided to $2.25, a penny off their previous close.