MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA — Santa Catalina explores Pilar project

A second-phase drill program is planned by Santa Catalina Mining ((SLM-V) for its Pilar gold project, 145 km southeast of Hermosillo in Mexico’s Sonora state.

Through a 3-year purchase option, the junior is acquiring a 100% interest in the property.

Comprising 5,930 acres, the property lies in a mineralized belt that includes Eldorado’s producing Colorada gold mine and Placer Dome’s Mulatos gold project. Mulatos has a gold resource of several million ounces.

Gold mineralization at Pilar is hosted by Cretaceous andesites of the Tarahumara formation and by Triassic-Jurassic siltstones and sandstones of the Barrancas formation.

Geochemical sampling, mapping and trenching have outlined a mineralized zone that extends 1,000 metres along strike and is 440 metres wide.

The company’s main target area covers a series of northwest-trending shears that dip both to the southwest and intersect at depth. The shears are separated by stockwork mineralization and are exposed in trenches and open cuts.

The mineralized area surrounds two old mines where limited, high-grade gold mining took place early this century. The mines are situated along the main system of mineralized shears, which have been offset by a perpendicular fault and divided into two blocks.

Santa Catalina has collected more than 660 channel samples (each 3 metres in length) from trenches on the property. Results from this work include 28 grams gold per tonne over 6 metres, 7.72 grams over 9 metres and 4.4 grams over 12 metres.

More than 2,900 metres were drilled in 41 holes as part of the first-phase program. The company says this drilling detected the presence of at least eight parallel shears in the main system and proved their continuity for more than 500 metres along strike.

Selected results from this drilling include: 16.5 metres of 53.47 grams gold and 53.4 grams silver from 52.5 to 69 metres; 13.5 metres of 9.64 grams gold and 7.2 grams silver from 18.8 to 31.5 metres; 7.5 metres of 3.33 grams gold and 54.8 grams silver from 66 to 73.5 metres; and 15 metres of 1.06 grams gold and 6.6 grams silver from 10.5 to 25.5 metres.

More trenching is under way and will be followed by a second phase of drilling, which will consist of at least 3,000 metres (including a few deep holes).

Santa Catalina says the property is well-situated, with good road access and moderate topography. The company’s goal is to outline a bulk-tonnage, open-pit, heap-leach mine, and it notes that the friable, weathered nature of the material should allow for a run-of-mine operation, at least for the upper horizon.