Focus Ventures Ltd. (TSX-V: FCV.V) has announced that its joint venture partner, Compañia de Minas Buenaventura (NYSE: BVN; "Buenaventura"), has commenced a drill program at the Minas Chanca silver property in Peru.
Buenaventura is earning into the project under an option agreement with Focus signed in December 2010 (see press release January 4, 2011).
Buenaventura plans to drill a total of 11,000m at Minas Chanca in 2011-2012. The first stage, currently underway, is an 8 hole diamond drilling program at Santa Rosa Area, on the western side of the joint venture area. The drill program is the first part of a 2-phase drill campaign planned for 2011. A second phase is proposed for the main historic mine area in June once the required permits are in place.
Mapping and rock chip sampling at Santa Rosa discovered a previously unknown structure called the Plomomina Vein that outcrops over a strike length of over 1.7km and is largely covered by gravels. From a total of 889 rock chip channel samples collected, approximately 34% assayed over 31g/t Ag, with an average value of 62 g/t Ag. Individual assays ranged from trace to a high of 3,630 g/t Ag (over 0.75m), with sample widths ranging from 0.15m to 3.5m.
Buenaventura has completed construction of a 17km access road from its Mallay project to Minas Chanca property. The Mallay project is a permitted mine and mill and will have important synergies should exploration be successful in delineating resources at Minas Chanca.
Background
The former Ag-Pb-Zn mine is located midway between the provinces of Oyon and Cajatambo, within the prolific Central Peru Polymetallic Belt, some 160km north of the Peruvian capital, Lima, at altitudes of 4,400 - 4,900 m a.s.l. Minas Chanca is located 65km north of Focus's recently acquired Santa Rosa property (see press release November 30, 2010).
References to mining at Minas Chanca date back to 1712 during Spanish Colonial times. Past mining took place over approximately 300 vertical meters via a system of galleries, cross-cuts and drives that exploited a number of veins and splays that cross-cut lower Calipuy andesites and volcanic breccias. The majority of silver-lead and zinc ore came from 3 principal veins, Candelaria, Tarazca and Santo Toribio, where early production reportedly yielded grades of 15 - 25 oz Ag/t. Other veins included the Silvia, Prescilda, Shirley and Yanacelli veins.
The lowest underground workings are currently inaccessible, and Buenaventura's diamond drilling program will test for depth and strike extensions to the mined veins principally the Candelaria, Santo Toribio, Presilda and Silvia veins, and explore for new mineralized structures by geological mapping, sampling and drilling underneath of the historic workings.
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical information in this release was prepared under the supervision of Mr. David Cass, Focus's President, who is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, and a "Qualified Person" in accordance with NI 43-101.
The assay results quoted in this release were provided to Focus by Buenaventura. Focus has not independently verified these results but believes that Buenaventura's QA/QC program is of a high quality and consistent with industry best practice.
Source: Focus Ventures Ltd.