LATIN AMERICA SPECIAL — Sonoma eyes Panamanian prospect

Vancouver-based junior Sonoma Resource (VSE) can acquire a half interest in two Panamanian projects from a unit of Cyprus Amax Minerals (NYSE).

The Quebrada Barro and Quebrada Iguana copper-gold prospects are both in the Azuero Peninsula, which is a 40-minute drive from the town of Santiago and 50 km from Cyprus’s Cerro Quemo deposit.

The deposits were discovered during a United Nations stream-sediment program in the late 1960s. Follow-up work in that decade included soil and rock chip sampling, ground magnetics, electromagnetics, trenching and diamond drilling. The results of this work were described as “encouraging” with regard to copper and molybdenum; the gold content, however, was not tested at that time. Work resumed in the 1980s when geologists from a local company began following up the United Nations data. Cyprus entered into an exploration agreement with the local company in 1989, and has been exploring in the Azuero Peninsula since that time.

Work carried out by Cyprus on Iguana included mapping, soil sampling, ground magnetics, trenching and sampling. A first-pass rock chip traverse returned 100 metres of 0.48% copper and 0.25 gram gold per tonne.

The anomalies identified on this prospect are spatially coincident with altered quartz porphyry intrusives, and it has been postulated that the prospect may comprise the upper levels of an island-arc, copper-gold porphyry system.

The Barro prospect is a porphyry copper-gold target in favorable island-arc terrane where volcanic-sedimentary rocks predominate. Trench sampling has delineated zones of highly anomalous gold mineralization within a large gold-in-soil anomaly some 800 metres long and 300 metres wide. Sonoma says the alteration assemblage at Barro is analogous to that of the nearby Cerro Quemo gold deposits being developed by Cyprus. There, gold occurs in oxide caps which overlie bodies of highly silicified pyrite-rich rocks.

Both the Barro and Iguana prospects are part of one concession issued by the government, which covers about 52 sq. km.

To earn its interest, Sonoma must spend at least $1.3 million on further exploration over the next four years. A work program, to include drilling, is scheduled to begin shortly.