Radius advances Tambor project

Vancouver — Radius Explorations (RDU-V) has tabled more impressive trench results from its Tambor gold project near Guatemala City.

The ongoing program is designed to assess the grade and geometry of the Sastre, Bridge, Lupita, Valery and TBS zones, all of which are within a 6-km-long gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly.

Beginning in May, reverse-circulation drilling will target the Sastre zone; additional holes may target the Bridge zone.

The project covers a series of low-sulphidation, epithermal gold zones hosted by highly deformed Paleozoic-aged schists. Infill and stepout trench results at Sastre confirm the continuity of the main mineralized unit. The gold-hematite mineralization found in subcrops along the northeastern face of a gentle ridge has been traced by trenches and pits for 600 metres along strike.

Trench results are as follows:

– trench 7 — 54.5 metres grading 6.41 grams gold per tonne;

– trench 8 — 40.9 metres of 10.06 grams gold;

– trench 9 — 14.2 metres of 4.83 grams gold;

– trench 10 — 12.4 metres of 4.74 grams gold.

Extensive footwall mineralization in trenches 7 and 8 has doubled the average thickness previously reported, in trenches 1, 4 and 5, and maintained an average grade of 8.6 grams gold per tonne.

Trench 10 was cut to test for mineralization in the footwall underneath trench 1. The combined average grade of these two trenches is 8.28 grams gold over 44.8 metres.

Radius has begun extending all of the trenches into the footwall zone to test for more mineralization. The excavator is currently working at the Bridge zone and will be moved to Sastre in the coming weeks.

At the TBS zone, about 1 km southeast of Sastre, reconnaissance trenching has outlined mineralized horizons over an area measuring 1,500 by 400 metres. Results to date have defined a mineralized unit over a strike length of about 150 metres.

Results from recent trenching (not reported in true width) are as follows:

– trench TBS-1A — cut 17.2 metres grading 3.25 grams gold;

– trench TBS-2 — 28.2 metres of 1.76 grams gold;

– trench TBS-4 — 23.4 metres of 2.62 grams gold.

At the Bridge zone, 3 km west of the Sastre zone, mineralization has been defined over 600 metres of strike length. Radius believes the mineralization continues south under unconsolidated ash cover.

A vertical trench, dubbed B3, starts at the river elevation and ends at a flat bench just below a previously reported Bridge West horizontal trench result (65 metres grading 2.58 grams gold). Trench B3 cut 10.7 metres grading 2.43 grams gold and remains open. Hydraulic excavator trenching is under way in an attempt to define the hangingwall of the mineralized zone.

San Pedro

Meanwhile, at the San Pedro (formerly La Lagoona) prospect, about 10 km west of Tambor, rock and stream-sediment sampling have outlined a 3-by-2.5-km area with anomalous gold values.

The gold mineralization is hosted in massive silica bodies and altered phyllites of the El Tambor formation, and seems to be associated with a low-angle structure similar to Tambor.

The strongest zone has been traced intermittently over 700 metres and has returned values of up to 7.5 grams gold per tonne over 12 metres and 8 grams gold over 10 metres.

Similar mineralization has been found 1.2 km to the southwest and 1.5 km to the northeast. Soil geochemistry surveys are planned.

Other prospects

At the Cerro Apazote prospect, 16 km west of Tambor, stream- sediment-sampling has returned strongly anomalous gold values. The streams drain a north-trending ridge of argillic and carbonate altered phillites. Follow-up work is in progress.

North of Cerro Apazote lies the Tierra Blanca property, which hosts an east-west-trending ridge that follows the trace of the Montagua fault zone (a regional break in the tectonic plates). To acquire the property, Radius has agreed to pay the vendor US$100,000 in cash over four years, as well as a 2.5% net smelter royalty.

Rock-sampling by previous owners has returned multi-gram gold values over an area that measures 1.5 by 1 km. The gold mineralization is hosted in ridge-top tectonic and karst breccias in strongly silicified limestone and phyllite. Prospecting below this unit has identified Tambor-style alteration in a 150-metre-thick section of phyllites, which, in turn, are associated with a north-dipping thrust fault. Mechanized trenching and geologic mapping are expected to delineate drill targets.

In other news, Barrick Gold (ABX-T) has dropped its option to earn an interest in the Mexican gold prospect known as Salitre, discovered by Radius in 2000. The hot-springs-style deposit hosts a series of auriferous silica sinters along a 3,500-metre portion of a 30-km-long, north-south-trending graben fault. A first-pass, 2,000-metre drill program returned only anomalous gold values. Barrick stood to earn a half-interest in the property by financing a $4.1-million, multi-tiered work program. Radius now intends to relinquish the property and focus its efforts on Guatemala.