La Chicharra returning gold for Geomaque

The latest round of drilling on the Chicharra gold target in Mexico’s Sonora state has returned encouraging results for Geomaque Exploration (GEO-T).

The Chicharra lies 2.5 km northwest of the company’s San Francisco mine, where reserves stand at 24.5 million tonnes grading 0.92 gram gold per tonne.

The grades encountered at Chicharra are reported to be similar to those encountered at the mine. The Chicharra and the mine occur in the same rock formation, and on the same northwestern trend as other known gold occurrences on the property. To date, 40 holes have been drilled, some of which intersected several mineralized zones.

The best results from the recent program include: 18 metres grading 3.72 grams gold and 2 metres grading 2.47 grams gold in hole CH528; 20 metres of 1.16 grams and 4 metres of 1.37 grams in hole S541; and 8 metres of 2.34 grams and 4 metres of 3.57 grams in hole CH534.

To date, the target has been drilled over 400 metres along strike. The zone’s southeastern extension will soon be tested with a 1,000-metre drill program.

That program will also attempt to locate the source of a gold placer deposit, which lies between the target and the San Francisco mine. Drilling of an additional 1,000 metres will begin in April.

Drilling also continues to test mineralization to the east, west and north of the main pit of the San Francisco mine, as well as gold anomalies at its joint-ventured Intiedougou property in Burkina Faso. A 2,500-metre, reverse-circulation drill program is concentrating on geochemical anomalies lying within a 2-by-6-km mineralized zone there. Previous grab samples taken from the zone returned up to 5 grams gold.

Also in Burkina Faso, on the 500-sq.-km Diapaga concession, a 1,500-2,000-metre, reverse-circulation drill program will soon test geochemical gold anomalies and gold-bearing quartz vein systems.