Two weeks of silence and the following release:
DRILL RESULTS HOLES 1 & 2, DRILLING ON HOLE 7 - ESKAPA PROSPECT,
BOLIVIA
SAMEX has received results including check assays from the first two holes drilled at the Eskapa prospect in southwestern Bolivia. The core holes, which are spaced 100 meters apart, were drilled in the southeast portion of the 2000-meter by 1200-meter prospective area at Eskapa.
Holes 1 and 2 were designed to test for mantos and structurally controlled silver (+gold) mineralization and were drilled near outcropping vuggy silica-barite rock which previous analytical work showed to contain high amounts of silver (to 2255.9 grams per tonne).
While considerable quantities of disseminated pyrite were intersected in highly clay-alunite-altered and silicified, layered dacitic volcanic units and hydrothermal breccia zones, assay results show that silver values are restricted in both holes to structurally controlled vuggy silica-barite rock.
Hole 1 between 174 to 179.5m (true width 3.5m) showed 45.1g/mt Ag
Hole 2 between 140 to 168m (true width 11.8m) showed 40.9g/mt Ag,
1370ppm Cu, 856ppm Pb, 1267ppm Sb, 240ppm As, 4880ppm Hg.
Hole 1 (DDH-EK-99-01) penetrated through 251.0 meters of highly clay-altered and silicified layered volcanic rock with abundant disseminated pyrite. Strong stockwork quartz-pyrite veining is present from 6.0 to 77.0 meters within a more strongly silicified and clay-altered interval. Two cross-cutting bodies of hydrothermal breccia which are also clay-altered and silicified were intersected between depths of 98.6-154.8 and 188.4-221.5 meters. These breccias contain conspicuous alunite, abundant pyrite, and other sulfide minerals.
Hole 2 (DDH-EK-99-02) is positioned approximately 100 meters north of
DDH-EK-99-01. The hole made an intercept through altered/pyrite- mineralized volcanic rocks to a depth of 137 meters. A 17 meter true width of vuggy silica-barite rock was intersected between 137 and 167 meters. Below 167 meters, the intensity of alteration and pyrite content diminishes and the hole was stopped at a depth of 210 meters.
The assay results from the holes are disappointing when compared to features in the core, such as the intense nature of alteration, abundance of pyrite, presence of wide intervals of stockwork veining, and dark sulfide mineral abundance especially in vuggy silica rock in Hole 2. The best intervals of silver values are from the vuggy silica rock of Hole 2 and silicified part of the lower breccia body of Hole 1. The intervals of higher silver in Hole 2 also contain highly anomalous amounts of copper (233 to 4349 ppm), lead (220 to 1996 ppm), arsenic (156 to 559 ppm), antimony (400 to 2690 ppm), mercury (1245 to 10973 ppb). Further analytical and petrographic studies of the core of
both holes are in progress to help guide the continuing exploration at Eskapa.
Only a very small portion of the Eskapa prospect was tested by the first two holes. Two other core holes, DDH-EK-99-03 and -04 have also been completed in the southeast part of the target zone. They were collared 100 meters south and 600 meters southeast of Hole 1,
respectively. These too intersected considerable sulfide mineralization in strongly altered volcanic and intrusive (domal) rocks. Core drilling is continuing in the central part of the Eskapa target zone in the vicinity of numerous bodies of well-mineralized vuggy silica-barite rock. Holes 5 and 6 (DDH-EK-99-05 and -06) have
been completed and drilling is now in progress on Hole 7 (DDH-EK-99-07).
Rob Kell, Vice President Exploration
The Vancouver Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the information contained herein. |
