Venturex pulls good hole on El Paraiso bet

Once again some impressive assay results have been reported from a drill program near Vernon, B.C. But this time it’s from the Top claims of Venturex Resources (VSE) and El Paraiso Resources (VSE).

The property, which Venturex has under option from El Paraiso, is the subject of a 1,500 ft diamond drilling program which has almost been completed. Three holes have been reported one of which (No 88-30) returned 51 ft grading 0.41 oz gold per ton. (Estimated true width is about 20 ft). Included in that section was 30.8 ft of 0.58 oz gold.

Another hole, No 88-28, yielded 9.2 ft of 0.22 oz gold while No 88-29 returned 9.2 ft averaging 0.32 oz and 5.6 ft grading 0.2 oz. Gold mineralization is associated with strong clay alteration, sooty pyrite, and minor quartz and carbonate veining, the joint venture says.

David Jenkins, a spokesman for the project, tells The Northern Miner that sulphide mineralization has been noted in three of the subsequent holes drilled but assay results were not available at press time. They still aren’t sure what the gold is associated with but it is found where there is shearing and mafic dykes.”Where you get pyrite occurring in this situation, you typically find gold values,” he says.

“We aren’t entirely sure what the controls are because we have some mineralization that doesn’t seem to fit that model very clearly. Exploration is still at a very early stage and we have recommended an IP survey that, with reasonable results, may allow us to make a step-out from the drilling we have done so far.”

Kerr Addison Mines (TSE) drilled the property in 1984 and its program returned generally low values from the shear zone; those values ranged from 0.01-0.15 oz gold per ton. But where the shear zone was intersected by a swarm of dykes the values were significantly higher.

Kerr was endeavouring to find a large tonnage situation but the Venturex/El Paraiso joint venture will try to trace the mineralization to develop a smaller tonnage in this particular mineralized shoot. Then they could step out and look for additional mineralization along the structure.

Located in the Monashee Pass area a few hundred yards off the highway but several miles from the Huntington Resources (VSE) discovery (N.M., July 18/88) Jenkins feels that if they could develop 100,000 tons at 0.4 oz gold “we could put it into production.” They can run an adit in fairly easy to the structure, he emphasizes.

When the next four holes are completed the drill will be sent out and the joint venture’s technical staff will examine the results to date. The IP survey will hopefully outline additional targets for drilling.