Mirasol jumps on strong silver intercepts

The first seven holes into Mirasol Resources’ (mrz-v) grassroots Virginia silver project in Argentina returned enough silver to add 22% to the company’s share price in a day.
Mirasol is working through a 28-hole drill program at Virginia, the first drilling the project has ever seen. The company staked the ground in 2004; in late 2009 geologists discovered the Virginia vein zone while following up on alteration and structural targets on the property.
Over the next 12 months Mirasol undertook an extensive surface ­exploration program at Virginia ­including rock-chip and channel sampling, mapping, and ground magnetic and induced-polarization surveys. The work outlined almost 10 km of outcropping and subcropping silver-bearing quartz veins in eight distinct areas, all within an area 4.8 km long by 3.4 km wide.
Of the eight veins within the Virginia area, the Julia vein produced the best results, returning an average of 805 grams silver per tonne over 1.8 metres width from 58 channel samples. Some of the strongest individual channel sampling results from Julia include 1,592 grams silver over 3.7 metres and 4,070 grams silver over 0.7 metre.
Now Mirasol’s team is being rewarded for their efforts. The first seven holes into the Julia vein all returned significant silver intercepts, with three producing hits greater than 1,000 grams silver and all intersecting mineralization within 40 metres of surface.
Mirasol has divided the 2.2-km long, north-northwest striking Julia vein into three segments. The best results came from Julia North, where the zone comprises hard quartz that has been fractured and faulted, and is surrounded by a broad zone of altered, faulted rock. Holes 5 to 7 tested Julia North. Hole 6 cut 22.7 metres of 474 grams silver, starting 9 metres downhole and including 5.7 metres of 1,403 grams silver. Hole 7 returned 14.6 metres averaging 483 grams silver, starting 5 metres downhole and including 6.5 metres of 937 grams silver. And hole 5 cut 18.5 metres carrying 277 grams silver, starting 22 metres downhole and including 2.7 metres of 1,436 grams silver.
Hole 4 probed Julia Central and produced a short, high-grade hit: 3.3 metres of 1,101 grams silver, starting 29 metres downhole and including 1.9 metres of 1,841 grams silver.
And the first three holes of the program tested Julia South. Of those, hole 3 returned the best result: 4 metres at 420 grams silver from 40 metres depth. Hole 1 cut 3.6 metres of 228 grams silver from 34 metres and hole 2 hit 1.5 metres of 2.05 grams silver from the same depth.
The results were enough to push Mirasol’s share price up $1 to $5.55. In intraday trading the stock hit a new all-time high of $5.86; in 2009 Mirasol shares were trading at $1.28. The company has 37 million shares outstanding.
The Virginia project, which is also known as the Santa Rita project, is located in western Santa Cruz province, 100 km southwest of the town of Las Heras. Geologically, it is within the Deseado Massif province of southern Patagonia and the Virginia vein set occurs at the intersection of a 3-km wide, east-northeast oriented structural corridor with a northwest-trending regional structure.
Mirasol is also advancing another project in Santa Cruz province, known as the Joaquin silver project. Joaquin is 80 km north of two mines: Coeur d’Alene Mines’ (cdm-t) Martha silver mine and Pan American Silver’s (paa-t, paas-q) Manantial Espejo silver-gold operation. Mirasol’s work at Joaquin is being funded by Coeur d’Alene, which inked a deal to earn a 61% interest in the property in 2006.
Mirasol’s four rounds of drilling at Joaquin have started to delineate two zones of mineralization, and the partners are now working to calculate an initial resource estimate.
Mirasol has enough funds to continue advancing both Virginia and Joaquin, as the company raised $9.3 million in December. The private placement saw Mirasol sell 3 million units at $3.10 apiece, with each unit comprising a share and half a warrant exercisable at $4 for one year.