Tenke targets showings

Junior Tenke Mining (TNK-T) will drill four large targets on its Vicuna gold exploration project, in central Argentina.

All four targets are known to feature strongly anomalous gold-in-soil concentrations, with samples grading as much as 7.1 grams per tonne.

– Filo del Sol — Field work at this target indicates a phreatomagmatic breccia system developed in Tertiary-aged volcanics. Multi-stage breccias in this target have clasts of hypabyssal Vicuna porphyry, as well as clasts of silicified breccia and vuggy silica. The entire target area is altered to leach-silica and some opaline-chalcedonic silica.

The alteration and breccia textures are similar to the Filo Federico outcrops at the nearby Veladero deposit, held by Homestake Mining (HM-N).

The breccias at Filo del Sol are bounded on their eastern side by a fault structure that is believed to have a vertical displacement in the order of 300-400 metres. Just east of the fault is a series of silicified and partially pyritized tuffs and incipient breccias with anomalous gold. The soil geochemical anomaly in the target area measures 500 metres in diameter and averages 0.16 parts per million gold. Chip samples returned values of up to 0.14 ppm gold.

– Vicuna — A second target, the Vicuna, is a silicified porphyry comprising 1.6 sq. km. Tenke’s initial work has confirmed the soil anomaly discovered by the previous operator, Cyprus-Amax, and extended it to the southeast by 0.75 km. A significant portion of the target consists of multi-stage vuggy silica and silicified porphyry. A silicified magmatic breccia has also been discovered, on the southeastern side of the target.

– North Anomaly — Another target, the North Anomaly, features an alteration zone measuring 4 by 1.5-2 km. The alteration is dominantly steam-leached silica with anomalous mercury and sulphur. Here, Tenke has discovered locally anomalous zones of gold, silver, lead and molybdenum mineralization. Rock samples have returned up to 0.22 ppm gold and up to 93 ppm silver. The target could represent the top of a large epithermal system. An induced-polarization survey is planned.

– Marancelas Breccia — This 2-sq.-km target hosts strong quartz-alunite alteration and silicification associated with a complex mixture of phreatic and hydrothermal breccias. Soil and chip sampling has revealed anomalous gold on the eastern side of the target. Sampling by Cyprus-Amax returned gold values of up to 3.7 ppm, hosted in vein structures.