The first round of drilling at Minera IRL’s (IRL-T, MIRL-L) Escondida project in Argentina yielded some stellar results.
The company says it has hit upon a new gold and silver discovery at the Patagonian project with highlight intercepts from three separate holes returning 100 metres grading 1.19 grams gold and 7.77 grams silver; 120.4 metres grading 0.65 grams gold and 5.7 grams silver; and 25.38 metres grading 1.45 grams gold and 9.62 grams silver.
“This indicates the potential for a bulk tonnage development opportunity,” Courtney Chamberlain, the company’s chairman said in a statement.
And the market seemed to agree. In Toronto on Sept. 15 the news had the company’s shares up 14% or 15¢ to $1.25 on 19,000 shares traded.
The latest results come from a zone which could be the extension of Minera’s neighbor Mariana Resource’s (MARL-L) Calandria Sur discovery.
Mariana itself raised eyebrows earlier this year when its assays returned highlight intercepts from four separate holes of: 69.5 metres grading 2.1 grams gold and 39 grams silver; 102 metres grading 1.4 grams gold and 21 grams silver; 68 metres grading 2.4 grams gold and 24 grams silver; and 106 metres grading 1.6 grams gold and 27 grams silver.
Both Mariana and Minera describe mineralization on their respective properties as wide zones of epithermal gold-silver mineralization, hosted in a brecciated rhyolite dome.
As for Minera, it says it has mapped outcropping breccia with gold and silver anomalies over 700 metres and that the zone is generally over 100 meters wide.
The combined strike length of the Escondido and Calandria Sur mineralized breccia system controlled by the two companies is now said to be over 1 km.
The positive results come early on in Minera’s exploration of the project, as it only began a program there six months ago. But with 10 of its first 11 holes in the target area intersecting zones of mineralized breccia, it would appear the company is off to an enviable start.
Minera says it plans to launch an expanded drilling program before the end of the year with metallurgical test work getting underway shortly.
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