Pacific Rim packs it in at La Calera

Vancouver Pacific Rim Mining (PMU-T) has terminated its option on the La Calera gold project after over half of the 39 holes drilled in the second phase turned out to be duds. And the ones that came up with any hint of gold were spotty and discontinuous at best.

The project is situated some 15 km from ithe company’s El Dorado project in El Salvador.Pacific Rim released the complete set of drill results from the second drill phase, nearly five months from the beginning of the reverse circulation program. The company says it was testing the bulk mineable gold potential of the La Calera property following a 2003 Phase 1 core drilling program.

After the first phase of core drilling which comprised over 6,500 metres, the company noted that much of the mineralization at La Calera was within about 100 metres of the surface, which suggested potential for an open pit bulk mining operation. An independent report stated that “Calera contains gold and silver mineralization whose grades, if present in a sufficient volume of rock with a configuration amenable to mining, might be exploited profitably.”

The company’s second phase drill program appeared to be testing some fairly deep targets however.

The Rosa North Extension was tested by five holes and only one hole came up with a slight hint of gold. Hole PLC-04 returned 1.5 metres of 0.66 gram gold and 0.9 silver at a depth of 291 metres. Calichal South returned one hole that averaged 0.69 gram gold and 2.16 grams silver from a depth of 204 metres in hole PLC04-43B.

At Rosa South, four holes came up with only one intercept with any gold — the one intercept was from a depth of 88.5 metres and graded 1.5 metres of 0.62 gram gold and 0.10 gram silver.

For the record, the best intercept from the second phase was from hole PLC04-58 which intersected 1.24 grams gold and 2.17 grams silver over 45 metres from a downhole depth of 112.5 metres.

Not many would argue that the company’s decision to walk away from this project was warranted. A few years ago the company was involved in its highly promoted Luicho project in Peru which too was finally put to rest after much more than enough drilling.