Radius Gold Inc. (TSX-V: RDU) has announced that drilling will commence shortly at its HB silver/gold projects in eastern Guatemala.
Radius discovered and drilled these projects with a series of shallow holes between 2002 and 2003 when the silver and gold spot prices were close to their record lows. However, recent discoveries in the region - including Tahoe Resources Inc.'s world class Escobal silver deposit - have highlighted the potential of eastern Guatemala and therefore Radius has re-focused its Central American exploration on the region.
Work resumed several months ago with a review of the regional data base of stream sediment sampling and prospecting that Radius has built over several years in Guatemala. This review has led to several concession applications being presented to the ministry of mines covering strong silver-lead-zinc anomalies. Radius is waiting for the granting of these concessions to do follow-up work.
Within the granted concession (HB property) work has also lead to the discovery, or in some cases re-discovery, of some very high-grade silver veins within the large HB epithermal system. The silver results are focused on the Pyramid Hill zone, a 3 kilometer long vein zone that has returned some encouraging drill intercepts at shallow depths in previous programs.
Alteration Studies
Radius recently submitted core from the previous HB drilling for analysis by the Corescan 11 system in Australia. Corescan is an automated hyper-spectral scanning system that applies the latest spectral mapping and imaging technology to sub-millimeter scale alteration and mineral mapping from drill core. The work identified that the clay mineral Buddingtonite (a component of some advanced argillic alteration systems) is present in the hydrothermal alteration assemblage at Banderas along with opaline silica. Studies of other major silver deposits, including MAG Silver's Valdecanas vein in the Fresnillo mining district of Mexico, indicate that Buddingtonite occurs in the alteration well above the Bonanza zone, perhaps as much as 300m to 400m above. Drilling at Tahoe's Escobal discovery also hit high silver grades between 200m to 400m below surface.
In summary, the existing geological evidence suggests that Radius' drilling needs to test for Bonanza type veining substantially deeper than previous drilling has tested at Holly and Banderas. In the table below, historic drill results, including the depths of the intercepts from the previous drill campaigns, are listed:
Drilling will commence shortly, with the initial holes focusing on extending the previous intercepts down dip and along strike, as well as testing the high grade silver veins within the Pyramid Hill vein zone. A minimum 10,000 meter drill program is anticipated.
Qualified Person
David Cass, Radius's Vice-President of Exploration, is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, and is the Company's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Cass is responsible for the accuracy of the technical information in this news release.
Source: Radius Gold Inc.