ARGENTINA The Sierra de las Minas gold project is being prepared for Phase V of the diamond drilling program outlined by GOLDEN PEAKS RESOURCES. The project is a joint venture of Golden Peaks (69.57% and operator) of Vancouver and MITSUBISHI MATERIALS CORP. (30%) of Japan. Drilling will focus on intersecting the northwest-trending Vallecito Structural Corridor and the northeast-trending range front fault of the Sierra de Las Minas Massif. The area lies at the centre of a 5-km-diameter aeromagnetic anomaly that may represent an intrusive-volcanic centre of Tertiary Age.
The JV zone within the corridor hosts gold-bearing quartz veins. Local sediments carry anomalous gold, silver, and barium in chalcedonic accumulations, possibly from formations that pre-date the deposition of the sediments. Analysis of the geochemical data from the project indicate an epithermal signature to the gold and silver mineralization. Preliminary results from petrographic and fluid inclusion studies indicate the epithermal mineralization is young and overprints an earlier mesothermal gold-bearing quartz vein system.
Golden Peaks reports that Mitsubishi is divesting itself of its junior exploration projects, and therefore will not participate in or fund the Phase V program.
Late last month Golden Peaks announced it optioned the Tanque Negro property from RIO TINTO MINING & EXPLORATION. The site lies in the Patagonian region of Argentina and covers 1,600 ha in the Los Menucos mining district. Rio Tinto's work on the property in 2001 indicated the presence of three, north- to northeast-trending mineralized structural or vein zones with anomalous gold, silver, mercury, molybdenum, and tellurium. The east and west structures are characterized by high sulphidation, epithermal-style mineralization. These structures comprise linear zones of vuggy silica up to several metres wide and tens to hundreds of metres long. Samples of dark grey facies of vuggy silica assayed up to 5.83 g/t Au. Samples collected by Golden Peaks from the site last year returned gold and silver values generally comparable to those obtained by Rio Tinto.
Golden Peaks maintains a very interesting photo gallery of its Sierra de Las Minas property at its web site, www.goldenpeaks.com.
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