Mirasol forges ahead in Argentina

Vancouver – An initial round of drilling at the Joaquin project in Argentina returned results interesting enough to prompt owner Mirasol Resources (MRZ-V) and joint-venture partner Coeur d’Alene Mines (CDM-T) into a second drill program.

Mirasol discovered mineralization at Joaquin and staked the area in 2004. The company soon identified three discrete zones of gold-silver mineralization on the 8,000-hecatre property. In late 2006 Coeur d’Alene signed on to earn up to 71% of Joaquin by investing US$4 million in exploration over four years and making staged payment to Mirasol. The project is 80 km north of Coeur’s Martha silver mine, in Argentina’s Santa Cruz province.

The partners have concentrated their efforts on the three mineralized zones Mirasol originally identified, which are known as La Morocha, La Negra, and La Morena.

At La Morocha, drills intersected a shallowly-dipping zone of breccias, veinlets, and disseminated mineralization with encouraging silver grades. Five holes into the structure all returned mineralized intercepts ranging from 16 to 42 metres. All widths are true widths.

Hole 15 returned two intercepts: the drill hit 23 metres grading 72.2 grams silver per tonne essentially from surface and then encountered 20.1 metres of 55.5 grams silver and 0.08 gram gold per tonne a few metres later.

Hole 16 returned the longest intercept: 42 metres averaging 57.2 grams silver and 0.05 gram gold from 20 metres downhole. And hole 19 returned the best silver grades, cutting 30.1 metres grading 104.7 grams silver and 0.06 gram gold from 46 metres depth.

The phase I program confirmed the La Morocha structure is continuously mineralized over 300 metres strike and to 110 metres depth. The phase II program will test another 550 metres of strike.

At La Negra, the first drilling attempt started to delineate a 1- to 3-metre wide, steeply dipping banded epithermal vein and its lower grade halo of brecciated and veined wall rock stretching across up to 12 metres. Drilling to date has traced the mineralized structure along 150 metres of strike and to 100 metres depth.

The partners punched just three holes into La Negra but all three hit prospective silver-gold grades. Hole 21 returned 18 metres grading 105.4 grams silver and 0.34 gram gold from 30 metres downhole, hole 22 cut 11.4 metres averaging 142.6 grams silver and 0.63 gram gold from 55 metres depth, and hole 23 intercepted 1.1 metres of 337 grams silver and 2.06 grams gold from 118 metres downhole.

The vein remains open at depth and along strike to the north. In the next round of drilling Mirasol and Coeur will probe the next 500 metres of strike. Phase II drilling at La Negra will also focus on improving core recovery, which has been poor.

And at the third Joaquin project target, La Morena, phase I drilling encountered near vertical zones of silicified breccias and veins carrying significantly higher gold grades than found at La Morocha or La Negra. Some of the better results include 13.7 metres of 1.06 grams gold and 2 grams silver from 67 metres down hole 10 and 16.5 metres of 1.04 grams gold and 3.8 grams silver from 23 metres down hole 14.

Drilling has tested only 200 metres of strike at La Morena but evidence of the breccia system is traceable on surface for 2.5 km.

Mirasol is focused on early stage projects in Santa Cruz province, Argentina, and has more than a few on the go. To start, Coeur d’Alene is also earning in to Mirasol’s Nico project, which is close to Joaquin in the Deseado Massif district. At Nico Coeur is spending US$2.3 million to earn 55% ownership. Nico is another of Mirasol’s grassroots discoveries and to date the partners have identified five strong targets on the 198-sq. km property.

Coeur is not the only company interested in Mirasol’s discoveries. London-based major Hochschild Mining (HOC-L, HCHDF-O) is investing US$6 million over four years, and making payments to Mirasol, to earn a 51% interest in the Claudia project. Claudia covers 1,200 sq. km of land adjacent to AngloGold Ashanti’s (AU-N, ANGJ-J) 5-million oz. Vanguardia gold mine, also in Argentina’s Santa Cruz province. The partners have identified gold-silver mineralization in rock chip and soil samples from five prospects at Claudia. In 2009 Hochschild plans to complete 4,000 metres of drilling at the property.

And Mirasol is also advancing projects independently. At the Libanesa project the company is exploring silver-gold-lead breccias and in 2008 completed soil and rock chip sampling, induced polarization surveys, and mapping. The results indicate mineralization at Libanesa falls along two northeast-trending corridors up to 1.4-km long. And at La Curva, which Mirasol staked in 2006, the company has identified two gold targets that are almost drill-ready.

Mirasol’s share price stayed unchanged on the latest Joaquin drill results, closing at 18¢. The company has a 52-week trading range of 4¢ to 45¢ and has 30 million shares outstanding.