MacDonald starts drilling at Golden Hill in Cuba

While exploration continues on its Florencia concession in Cuba, MacDonald Mines Exploration (MMP.A-A) has begun drilling its nearby Golden Hill property in order to calculate a resource estimate for the Big Golden Hill zone.

The junior holds a 25% stake in the project, which it also operates, and is attempting to acquire an additional 25% through the takeover of Golden Hill Mining (GHMC-C). GeoMinera, a state-owned company, holds a 50% carried interest.

Reverse-circulation drilling at Golden Hill is attempting to prove up resource estimates for the near-surface, oxidized Quartz-Alunite and Castle Rock zones. Both zones lie in the larger Big Golden Hill zone, where recent drilling has increased the thickness of the oxidized zone to 105 from 70 metres. The Castle Rock zone is 450 metres east of the Quartz-Alunite zone, which, in turn, lies on the western side of Big Golden Hill.

At the Maclama skarn area, 12 km to the west, drilling is testing six prospects, which consist of skarn-type mineralization. The program, which is following up surface samples that yielded more than 34 grams gold per tonne, will consist of 3,100 metres of drilling. Gold mineralization is associated with quartz-rich beds in limestone.

At the Florencia concession, where MacDonald is earning a 49% interest from GeoMinera, a sampling program continues to test the oxidized Florencia South zone. Based on results received to date, the near-surface zone contains a high-grade core averaging 6.3 grams. A lower-grade envelope that surrounds that core returned an average uncut grade of 2.7 grams for samples greater than 0.2 gram. The zone remains open along strike.

The Florencia South zone is believed to represent the strike extension of the Florencia North shear-type gold deposit, situated 3 km to the north. Based on previous Cuban work, the deposit is believed to host 185,860 tonnes grading 9.1 grams.