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Los Pedregones
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Target Minerals:
Gold, Copper, Silver & Zinc
Size:
4,735 Ha.
Location:
The Los Pedregones I Concession is located on steep, jungle covered ground west of the regional Bonao Fault and covers volcanic and intrusive rocks of the Tireo Formation in the Dominican Republic.
Property Geology and Mineralization:
Exploration has identified hydrothermal alteration and Au/Ag mineralization over a 6 x 2 km area at 3 zones: Cabirma Clara, Loma Prieta, and El Palo. Exploration in early 1999 led to the discovery of a fourth zone of high grade gold-silver-zinc mineralization, the El Palo Sur zone.
Following discovery of El Palo Sur, a program of channel sampling, geological mapping and grid-based soil sampling was conducted in the El Palo Sur to Loma Prieta area. Channel sampling of intensely silicified, hydrothermally brecciated and quartz-barite-sulphide veined surface exposures, cropping out over a 60 x 250 meter area at El Palo Sur, has yielded values of up to 2.94 g/t gold and 165 g/t silver over 7 meters, (including 6.05 g/t gold and 82.2 g/t silver over 2 meters) and 5.90 g/t gold and 201 g/t silver over 1.5 meters (see table below for additional results). Vein textures and mineralogy suggest that mineralization exposed on surface at El Palo Sur may lie above the boiling zone in this part of the system - with the potential for bonanza grades at depth.
At the El Palo zone, where quartz-barite cemented breccias form large bluffs over a 400 x 100 metre area, limited, narrow-diameter, test diamond drilling (188.8 m in 5 AQ holes and 235 m in 2 BTW holes) of the El Palo zone in 1995-1996 returned values up to 4 g/t Au and 6 g/t Ag over 2 m, while channel sampling to the south returned up to 5.9 g/t Au and 201 g/t Ag over 1.5m and 2.9 g/t Au and 165 g/t Ag over 7.0 m.
Previous work at Loma Prieta, approximately one kilometer west of El Palo Sur, has yielded values of up to 1.7 and 1.5 g/t gold in rock and soil, respectively. Grid-based soil sampling in 1999 has yielded anomalous gold values over a 300 x 600 meter area, open along strike in both directions.
Mapping and soil sampling has begun to outline two additional zones of alteration and elevated base and precious metal values in the El Palo Sur to Loma Prieta area (see map below). Additional work is required to determine if these zones may represent argillic caps to high grade, vein-hosted mineralization.
The Cabirma Clara zone is located approximately 6 km to the southwest of El Palo. Prospecting in this area in 1997 outlined a zone of quartz-barite veining (Barite Ridge) flanked by argillic alteration (Pyrite Ridge) over a 700 x 1300 m area, with sampling returning values up to 0.8 g/t Au and 187 g/t Ag.
Ridge and spur sampling in 2002 extended the anomalous zone at Cabirma Clara, locating quartz vein float, subcrop, and outcrop further north along Barite Ridge and on its east side. Samples ranged as high as 0.37 g/t gold in soil along the ridge and up to 2.56 g/t gold in rock on its east flank. Float from an old test pit east of the ridge returned up to 198 g/t silver and 1.67% copper.
Vein textures and characteristics of the mineralized zones indicate that the target on Los Pedregones is a low sulphidation epithermal system. In particular the zone at Cabirma Clara has not been closed off, and the concession remains extremely prospective with geological characteristics and geochemical results that warrant additional follow-up.
In 2002, as part of a country-wide ecological study, the Secretary of State for the Environment and Natural Resources proposed that a Scientific Reserve be set up in the area, enclosing a large part of the Pedregones concession. However both the Secretary of State for Industry and Commerce and the Dominican Mining Department are in opposition to this proposal, which in any case must first be debated by the Dominican Congress before it would be enacted.
The grade, size and abundance of mineralized centers indicates that Los Pedregones has the potential to host a multi-million ounce gold-silver deposit.
Exploration:
Energold is actively seeking joint venture participation to advance this project.
Maps and Photos:
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