Ballad Gold wins right to advanced work at Penascudo
2006-01-20 20:10 ET - News Release
Mr. Anthony Beruschi reports
PENASCUDO UPDATE
Ballad Gold & Silver Ltd. is providing information on its progress on the Penascudo gold and silver project in Chubut province, Argentina.
Ballad's Argentinean representatives continue to work with local authorities to resolve considerations raised by two of 12 interested parties with surface rights to Ballad's Penascudo gold and silver project. Ballad's Argentinean subsidiary, San Antonio, now holds the minas granted by the Argentinean government. These minas, transferred from Golden Arrow Resources Corp., provide Ballad with the rights to carry out advanced exploration and mining on the Penascudo project.
Ballad's crews are standing by. Upon receival of the resolution of the surface-rights holders' considerations by the authorities, an environmental study focused on project development, including further surface sampling, mapping, trenching, drilling and bulk sampling will begin.
Ballad continues to develop and build contacts with the local community and landowners in Argentina in connection with its planned exploration and development at Penascudo.
The Penascudo gold and silver project is defined by its high-grade gold and silver values at the El Rey vein.
The El Rey vein has returned chip samples as high as 1,365 grams per tonnne (39.81 ounces per ton) gold and 1,730 grams per tonne (50.46 ounces per ton) silver within a 35-centimetre-wide vein (true width). Sampling within this vein has ranged from 0.083 gram per tonne gold to 1,365 grams per tonne gold, while silver has ranged from 1.5 grams per tonne to 1,730 grams per tonne.
The presence of visible high-grade gold within the El Rey vein confirms the system's potential to host high-grade gold and silver mineralization within a low-suphidation epithermal system.
During previous exploration Ballad's geologists focused on discovering surface evidence of an extension of the El Rey vein. The area is believed to be covered by thin overburden. Additional gold and silver mineralization was discovered approximately 200 metres along strike northeast of the El Rey vein. This apparent extension of the El Rey vein outcropped for a strike length of over 21 metres and measured between 0.15 to 0.30 metre in width on surface. Preliminary chip samples of this vein returned anomalous gold values between 0.278 and 0.438 gram per tonne.
This apparent extension of the El Rey vein suggests the vein may be more than 255 metres in strike length along surface alone. Most of the El Rey vein remains covered by overburden and Ballad plans to expose this vein and any possible extensions along strike through trenching when exploration resumes.
Ballad's geologists discovered a second, high-grade vein located 60 metres to the north of the El Rey vein.
Named the La Reina (the Queen) vein, this second high-grade vein outcrops briefly through the overburden for six metres along strike. Three chip samples collected from this 10-centimetre-wide vein, returned 0.203, 7.92 and 15.60 grams per tonne gold and 3.5, 203 and 201 grams per tonne silver, respectively.
This second gold vein runs parallel to the El Rey vein and is open on both ends along strike as it dips under overburden to the northeast and southwest and is also an excellent target for trenching to extend known mineralization to the northeast and southwest.
The El Rey vein, its possible extension and the La Reina vein are high-priority trenching targets. The presence of visible gold and high-grade gold and silver values within a multivein system is considered to be encouraging by Ballad's geologists in the hunt for a Bonanza-grade, low-sulphidation epithermal deposit.
Dr. Bohumil Molak, PGeo, is the qualified person for this project and has reviewed this news release.
Ballad has the right to earn up to an 85-per-cent interest in the project from Golden Arrow, subject to a 1.5-per-cent net smelter return royalty by incurring $1.8-million in exploration over five years.
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