St. Elias starts drilling

Vancouver — Junior St. Elias Mines (SLI-V) has launched a 1,500-metre drill program on the Gralheira-Jales gold property in northern Portugal.

Situated in the Tras-O-Montes region, the project covers 16.8 sq. km and hosts the past-producing Jales mine, as well as the Gralheira gold deposit. Before closing in 1992, the Jales operation produced 830,000 oz. gold from material grading 12.9 grams gold per tonne.

From 1985 to 1990, Rio Tinto (RTP-N) and French government-owned Bureau recherche gologiques et minires jointly drilled 50 holes on the property, of which 47 were completed on the Gralheira structure. Covering a 1.2-km strike length, 45 of the holes cut the vein structure, with more than 20% of the intersections returning more than 8 grams gold per tonne.

Based on the results, the partners drifted a 359-metre adit, exposing the vein system along the entire length. Ten crosscuts were driven into the footwall and hangingwall of the mineralized shear zone, and a 23-metre raise was completed on the vein. Channel samples collected from the raise returned an average weighted value of 12.6 grams gold and 52.7 grams silver over a width of 1.1 metres.

St Elias’s initial target is high-grade zones within the Gralheira deposit, some 700 metres north of the Jales mine. Gold mineralization occurs in a 3-km-long shear zone in subparallel veinlets and veins ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 metres in width. A review of the data identified areas of higher-grade gold mineralization in ore shoots. Each shoot appears to have a lateral extent of 60-100 metres and a vertical extent ranging from 50 to 100 metres. The gold grades in these areas range from 8 to 130 grams gold.

The aim of the current 10-hole program is to increase the drill hole density around the shoots in the eastern and central part of the deposit to 25-metre spacings.

The company can take an initial 51% interest from fellow junior Kernow Resources & Developments (KRD-V) by spending $1.5 million, issuing 500,000 shares and paying $50,000 over three years.