Queenstake outlines drill targets at five Latin American properties

With money in the bank and a stable of ready-to-drill properties, President James Mancuso sees a good year ahead for Queenstake Resources (TSE).

Mancuso joined Queenstake late last year after he and Robert Miller vended 130 mineral properties into the company in return for treasury stock.

The property package includes ground in Peru, Mexico and Chile totalling some 174,000 hectares.

Queenstake has been working to prioritize the prospects and has already outlined drill targets on five of the properties.

The Mata Mata property, at the northern edge of the Ancash structural trend in Peru, will be drilled within the next month.

A series of five parallel sedimentary mineralized beds has been traced over a strike length of 1.5 km at Mata Mata, returning sampling grades of up to 7.5 grams gold per tonne, 300 grams silver and up to 4% zinc.

Upon completion of an initial drill program, the rig will be moved to the company’s Chupaca property, 80 km to the southeast.

About 3 km south of Chupaca lies the Pierina discovery of Arequipa Resources(VSE).

Tunneling on the Pierina is returning encouraging gold values over significant lengths, helping propel Arequipa’s share price above the $20 mark from a 52-week low of $1.50.

Queenstake recently hit a high of $3.80, up from a low last fall of about 40 cents.

Rock chip sampling on Queenstake’s Chupaca property has outlined a gold anomaly averaging 0.5 gram over an area measuring at least 700 by 300 metres.

Queenstake also conducted sampling in old workings within structures below the anomaly, returning grades of up to 8.2 grams gold.

Mancuso expects to move the drill down from the Mata Mata property to drill Chupaca in June or early July.

Queenstake has $7 million in working capital following the recent closing of a private placement of 3.85 million shares at $1.30. (Also included are warrants to purchase 1.9 million shares.) As a result, the company’s outstanding capital has risen to 24 million shares (34.8 million fully diluted).