Linear jumps on Campamento drilling

Shares in Halifax-based Linear Gold (LRR-V, LGCFF-O) were $1, or more than 17%, higher at $6.80 in afternoon trading in Toronto on Feb. 20, after the company reported that a pair of holes have extended the Campamento zone on the Ixhuatan project in northern Chiapas state, Mexico.

Hole no. 86 was sunk from the southeastern portion of the core of the deposit, and yielded a core interval of 58 metres (beginning 2 metres down hole) running 6 grams gold and 9 grams silver, including a 24-metre section of 13.1 grams gold and 17.7 grams silver. The hole has extended the zone some 45 metres into an undrilled area.

Meanwhile, hole no. 89, drilled from the northeastern end of the drill pattern, encountered 128 metres (from 12 metres) of 1.8 grams gold and 9.7 grams silver. That includes 24 metres (from 46 m) averaging 2.5 grams gold and 4.8 grams silver, and 14 metres (from 126 m) of 9.5 grams gold and 70.4 grams silver.

The hole was designed to test what Linear believes is a tabular zone of high-grade mineralization cut by several other holes on the northeast end of the deposit. The company believes the zone may represent an extension of the main porphyritic core, 50 metres to the south. Linear says the hole extends previously encountered high-grade mineralization by 35 metres to the northeast.

Infill drilling on the zone generally returned lower grades over smaller intervals.

Campamento was first identified as a 400-metyre-by-1,4-km gold-in-soil anomaly, with gold grades of 100-9,700 parts per billion. The discovery hole, no. 9, cut 11.5 grams gold over 30 metres at the northern end of the anomaly. A highly fractured, sub-vertical fault zone hosts the deposit.

Drilling continues with two drill rigs focussed on testing for further extensions to the northeast of hole no. 89, and a depth beneath Campamento’s core. Two other drills are running on the newly recognized Caracol discovery, 2.1 km to the northeast.

Caracol represents a high-grade, gold-silver-copper zone with skarn and porphyry style mineralization. The skarn mineralization is located at the contact of calcareous volcanics and a diorite, and is characterized as multiple zones along the contact.

Trenching along the contact has traced the skarn for around 180 metres; it remains open along both directions of strike. Mapping indicates the contact runs at least 1.5 km.