Pacific Ridge begins 2011 exploration at Mariposa
2011-05-25 05:48 ET - News Release
Mr. John Brock reports
PACIFIC RIDGE MARIPOSA PROGRAM STARTS IN WHITE GOLD DISTRICT
Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. has commenced exploration activities for 2011 on the Pacific Ridge Mariposa gold property in the Yukon's White Gold district. A phase 1 program, budgeted at $3-million, will include 4,000 metres of diamond drilling to test several significant gold-in-soil anomalies and gold values in trenches identified in 2010. Field crews have mobilized to the site and diamond drilling will commence in mid-June.
During the month of April, a detailed airborne magnetometer survey was flown over the 2010 Mariposa soil grid area to identify geologic structures with potential to host lode gold mineralization. A preliminary interpretation of results suggests that the Mariposa grid area lies within a major, three-kilometre-wide structural corridor of converging arrays of more discrete northeast-, northwest- and north-south-trending structures.
The 3,500-metre-long-by-600-metre-wide Skookum Jim gold-in-soil anomaly is to date the most prominent gold trend on the Mariposa property. A compilation of airborne magnetic, soil and trenching results indicates that in the trenched area of this geochemical anomaly there is a strong spatial correlation of converging linear magnetic lows with elevated soil results ranging from 100 parts per billion to 1,570 parts per billion gold. These geophysical and geochemical trends correspond with trench exposures of strongly fractured, brecciated and oxidized rock, which returned results of up to 1.25 grams per tonne gold over 30 metres. A strongly oxidized hematitic rock sample in the trenching area also returned 8.1 grams per tonne gold.
In light of these encouraging results, the company has scheduled a detailed ground magnetic and electromagnetic survey in advance of diamond drilling. This geophysical survey will be conducted over priority areas of geochemical anomalism on the Mariposa grid, including the Skookum Jim, Hackly Gold and Maisy May targets, as well as selected airborne geophysical trends. Simultaneous with the geophysics, infill soil samples will be collected in these areas and analyzed on site with an XRF analyzer, in advance of analysis with a commercial laboratory. This instrument can provide daily qualitative results which may detect pathfinder elements highlighting areas of interest for immediate follow-up.
In summary, the 2011 exploration program is designed to quickly evaluate and drill test exploration targets defined last season within the Mariposa soil grid area, as well as to continue exploration of the overall 190-square-kilometre property through reconnaissance soil sampling that should lead to grid-controlled sampling of newly defined areas of prospectivity.
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