Radius Gold announced that two drill rigs have arrived at the Amalia property and drilling has commenced at Radius’s high-grade gold-silver Amalia Project located in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Image: Natural silver nugget, 1 cm long. Photo courtesy of Jurii/Wikipedia.
The drill program is operated by Radius and funded by Pan American Silver, under a joint venture agreement. Radius plans to drill test several high-grade gold and silver epithermal targets at Amalia in the coming months.
Amalia Project
The 9450 hectare Amalia Project is located 25 km SW of the historic Guadalupe y Calvo mining district in Chihuahua. Radius geologists discovered high grade epithermal silver-gold mineralization in several veins, vein breccias and disseminated zones over 3.5km of strike length and a 600m vertical interval following the trace of a large regional fault zone. An agreement to explore Amalia Project with Pan American Silver Corp. was announced 30th July 2018. Radius and Pan American Silver plan to drill test multiple targets, including Campamento, Guadalupe and Dulces.
Amalia Drill Targets
An initial 2000m diamond core drill program at Amalia is planned to test a minimum of three targets:
– Campamento target is a 500m x 70m zone of intense silicification and brecciation with massive and stockwork veining. A chip channel (Radius news Sept 19, 2017) across the middle of Campamento graded 62m at 0.43 g/t Au and 98 g/t Ag from 30 continuous rock chip samples. In March 2018, Radius reported high grade zones at Campamento including a continuous rock chip channel assaying 4.5m at 10.3 g/t Au and 202 g/t Ag. The exposed Campamento system is Rhyolite hosted, high level banded chalcedonic silica veins and breccias. Drilling has targeting 100m to 250m below Campamento where mineralization is expected to transition to andesite host where higher grade sulphide rich breccias are exposed along strike and deeper in the system at Guadalupe target.
-Guadalupe target is a high grade andesite hosted structurally controlled breccia zone that outcrops 450m south along strike from Campamento and 250m lower in the geological section. Guadalupe sampling includes the previously published (Radius news Sept 19, 2017) continuous rock chip results: Guadalupe shaft – 7m at 3.62 g/t Au and 1048 g/t Ag, and Guadalupe tunnel – 4m at 3.92 g/t Au and 888 g/t Ag.
-Dulces target is located 800m NE of Campamento, at similar elevation. The poorly exposed Dulces vein occurs within an extensive area of argillic altered andesite volcanics and related gold in soil anomaly. The main vein varies from 1 to 1.5m wide and with chip samples returning: 1m at 34 g/t Au and 13 g/t Ag and 1.5m at 114.5 g/t Au and 57 g/t Ag.
Geologically similar gold-silver epithermal deposits of the Sierra Madre belt have mineralization defined over a vertical interval of 600 to 700m. The transition from upper rhyolite hosted mineralization into higher grade andesite host at depth is commonly observed. Radius and Pan American’s drilling will target high grade mineralization at depth below the Campamento silica zone and at the Guadalupe and Dulces targets.
The Pan American Agreement
Radius has granted to Pan American Silver Corp. the option to earn up to an initial 65% interest in the Amalia Project by making cash payments to Radius totaling US$1.5 million (of which US$100,000 has been received) and expending US$2 million on exploration over four years. Pan American may earn an additional 10% by advancing the property to preliminary feasibility. Initially Radius will be the project operator.
Source: Company Press Release