St. Elias Mines Ltd. Intersects 0.74g/t Au over 37.85 metres in DDH TE-11-06 at Tesoro Stories You Might Like 5 money moves Mark Mobius is making now Stocks to watch Monday: RIM, Apache, TransDigm Sponsored: DailyFX How to Avoid Taking Profits Too Quickly and…
0 Comments Share NEW Portfolio Relevance LEARN MORE Jan 23, 2012 (ACCESSWIRE-TNW via COMTEX) -- Vancouver, B.C. January 23, 2012: Lori McClenahan, President, St. Elias Mines Ltd. (sli - tsx:V), is pleased to provide further details with respect to assay results previously announced on January 10, 2012 and the ongoing drill program at the Tesoro Gold Property located in southwestern Peru.
Phase I Drill Program
The previously announced assay results (reproduced below) are initial results from 11 diamond drill holes (4,375 metres of a planned 5,500-metre Phase IA Drill Program at the Tesoro Gold Project.) These assay results represent the initial and ongoing systematic evaluation of high-priority targets identified by the 2009/2010 Titan 24 Geophysical Survey at the Tesoro Gold Property. The anomalies being tested by drilling include IP chargeability highs, resistivity lows and highs, and MT derivatives, as well as various combinations of these anomalies. Summary drilling results will be announced upon completion of the Phase IA Drill Program and compilation/interpretation of all data.
Drilling to date has focused on testing the Quantec Titan 24 geophysical targets primarily surrounding and within the large "ovoid" chargeability anomaly at Zona Central. Drill Hole TE-11-06 is located along the main Tesoro structural trend on the northern flank of this anomaly.
Drill Hole TE-11-06 returned compelling initial results and, while additional drill testing is required, the Company is in the process of completely sampling Drill Hole TE-11-06 from 60m to 170m on minimum 1.5-metre intervals to more accurately define a potential, bulk-tonnage mineralized target. The interval from 90.6m to 128.5m in Drill Hole TE-11-06 assayed 0.74g/t Au over 37.85m, and includes 0.74m of 23.5g/t Au at 112.26m and 0.35m of 9.6g/t Au at 113.32m. These mineralized intersections have been interpreted to be related to widespread resistivity lows identified from the 2009/2010 Titan 24 Survey. This correlation has led management to utilize these Quantec resistivity lows zones associated with the known mineralized corridors to fine tune additional exploration targets for drilling.
The large "ovoid" geophysical (chargeability) anomaly identified by the Quantec Titan 24 Survey at depth on the Property has been limitedly tested by diamond drilling on this round of drilling. The Quantec survey data is currently being re-evaluated and re-interpreted to take into account the latest drill results in correlation with the geophysical targets.
Several sampled (halved core) intervals were noted to contain sulphide mineralization. Sulphide mineralization is directly associated with quartz/carbonate veins and/or veinlets and the restricted areas of alteration surrounding these veins. A review of the assay data compiled to date indicates a correlation between these visible sulphides and gold mineralization.
The Company is in the midst of a systematic program of re-sampling and drill core analysis with a focus on increasing the sampling intervals both above and below any noted quartz/sulphide intersections, and where areas of multiple sulphide mineralization were noted, continuous sampling through these zones to combine one single sampled interval. In this capacity, potentially mineralized wall rock between close spaced mineralized veins can be tested, towards bulk tonnage mineral potential.
Lori McClenahan states "While it is still early days for our flagship project (the "Tesoro"), we are very excited as initial drilling at Tesoro has confirmed gold mineralization at depth. We are using logical and systematic exploration steps and techniques to guide us in our exploration efforts. Much more exploration/drilling is warranted at the Tesoro. This is just the beginning."
The second drill rig, capable of drilling >=1,000m holes, is onsite and turning. The addition of this second drill rig will result in increased productivity and quicker turnaround time for geological information and chemical analyses. Additional infrastructure, including expansion of camp facilities, additional water trucks and personnel (including two additional on-site geologists has been completed. There are currently four fulltime geologists working on the project under the guidance of James Thom, M.Sc. and Paul D. Gray, P.Geo.
Initial Drill Results
Summary table of >1g/t Au assay results from the first 11 drill holes of the 2011 Tesoro Gold Property
(1)Highest gold value obtained in these drill holes
(2)The gold grades are uncut and the intercept reported drill core intercept widths do not necessarily reflect the true width of the mineralization encountered.
The Company utilizes an industry-standard quality assurance/quality control program. HQ and NTW diamond drill core is sawn in half with one-half shipped to the ISO-certified Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Peru SA assay laboratory in Lima, Peru, for chemical analysis. Blanks, duplicates and certified reference standards are inserted into the sample stream to monitor laboratory performance.
