Peruvian Gold explores Agua Verde gold property

A copper-bearing, skarn-intrusive contact on the Agua Verde property of southern Peru is the focus of extensive sampling by Peruvian Gold (VSE).

An intrusion into host sedimentary units by an ellipsoid granodiorite plug, measuring 1,000 metres in length by 500 metres in width, created a skarn contact with a thickness ranging from 4 to 24 metres.

Historical underground mining of the skarn occurred at a rate of 200 tonnes per day over several years, with a grade believed to be in excess of 3% copper.

Underground channel sampling, along both the skarn and intrusive contacts at the 300 and 400 levels, returned the following results:

* 300 level — The skarn averaged 62 metres of 1.88% copper plus 0.11 grams gold per tonne, and the intrusive averaged 84 metres of 0.41% copper plus 0.13 grams gold;

* 400 level — The skarn graded 159 metres of 1.62% copper plus 0.12 grams gold, and the intrusive graded 194 metres of 0.41% copper plus 0.07 grams gold.

Surface sampling of a leached outcrop of intrusives revealed an average grade of 0.23% copper and 0.04 grams gold over 166 metres, whereas 30 metres of a skarn surface outcrop returned 1.79% copper, 0.2 grams gold and 16.4 grams silver.

Sampling on the surface, along the eastern edge of the contact, returned 79 metres of 1.58% copper and 0.26 grams gold for the intrusive, plus 8 metres averaging 3.54% copper and 0.3 grams gold for the skarn.

Further sampling is continuing underground at the 500 level, and preliminary work has begun on three additional intrusive plugs that lie within the company’s claim blocks.