San Andreas plans to continue step-out drilling at Prairie

Step-out drilling at the Prairie Creek project, 300 miles east of Yellowknife, N.W.T., intersected 29.5 ft. grading 8.72% lead, 18.66% zinc and 4.23 oz. silver per ton in hole PC-92-23.

San Andreas Resources (VSE), which is earning a 60% interest in the project, reports that the stratabound, flat-lying deposit has been identified over a 650×330-ft. area and that widths range from 6 ft. to more than 80 ft., averaging about 12 ft.

The company discovered the deposit last year while drilling off an existing vertical vein deposit.

Previous operators planned to place the project in production in the early 1980s but were forced into bankruptcy after completing all required infrastructure, including a 1,200-ton-per-day mill.

The estimate, completed in 1980 on the vein above the stratabound deposit, was about two million tons grading 11.75% zinc, 10.8% lead, 0.42% copper and 5.3 oz. silver.

San Andreas President Peter Tsaparas said a new estimate, incorporating the new discovery and including drilling to the end of 1992, should be ready by month’s end.

Drilling will continue through the summer using step-out holes up to 330 ft. to delineate the deposit further. The company may add a second drill rig. Following the recent exercise of 1.8 million warrants at $1.25, San Andreas is well-funded with more than $2 million in working capital. With a mine and mill already in place, permitting could be completed within a few months of a positive production decision, Tsaparas said.