Minera Andes (MAI-T, MNEAF-O) continues to get a better grasp of the system of gold and silver bearing veins that spread through its San Jose mine in Argentina even as the mine generates cashflows for the company.
The latest round of results from the underground mine were highlighted by 2.76 metres grading 20.43 grams gold and 412.5 grams silver and 1.48 metres grading 10.48 grams gold and 1021.53 grams silver.
That drilling was made up of both infill and of step-out drilling on known veins in and around the mine area and five of the infill holes returned high-grade intercepts. The vein system remains open at depth and laterally.
Minera has a 49% stake in San Jose which sits in Argentina’s Santa Cruz Province. Hochschild Mining (HOCM-L) has the remaining 51% stake.
It was an active first quarter at the property as 24 diamond core holes were drilled for 5,411 meters and extensive surface magnetic work was done over the southeast portion of the mine area.
The geophysical data collected will be used to define new drill targets outside of the main mine area in the second half of the year.
New drill targets will likely also come out of an ongoing re-interpretation of previous drill results. Such a re-interpretation was made necessary by last year’s discovery of the east-west trending Micaela-Sofia vein system.
San Jose sits roughly 20-km north of Goldcorp’s (G-T, GG-N) recently acquired Cerro Negro project.
Last year the mine produced 5.3 million oz. of silver and 84,000 oz. of gold with average operating cash costs of US$9.08 per oz. of silver and $592 per ounce of gold.
Minera also has full ownership of the Los Azules copper deposit in Argentina’s San Juan Province. The project has an inferred resource of 10.3 billion lbs of copper and an indicated resource of 2.2 billion lbs of copper. It is currently doing exploration and infill drilling is currently underway at the Los Azules project.
Minera is guided by its Chairman and chief executive Rob McEwen. McEwen is well known for having a strong voice on the importance of management holding significant stock in the company’s they manage. He personally holds a 31% of Minera Andes’ shares.
In Toronto on June 10, the company’s shares were up 3¢ to $2.30 on 5445,000 shares traded.
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