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La Paloma – LOMADA de LEIVA
SANTA CRUZ, ARGENTINA
Currently defined 235,000 Oz Au Oxide Resource
PROJECT LOCATION
The Lomada de Leiva Project is contained within the La Paloma Property block of exploration tenements located approximately 48km south southeast of Perito Moreno. Access to the project area, less than 1 hours drive from Perito Moreno, is via paved provincial highways and secondary dirt roads. |
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Geologically located in the northwest portion of the Deseado Massif geological province of southern Patagonia, this Jurassic aged volcanic complex is widely acknowledged as an emerging world class, epithermal Au-Ag mining district. Several producing and advanced stage gold-silver projects including Cerro Vanguardia- 4.4Moz Au equiv (AngloGold-Ashanti), Cerro Negro- +1.5Moz Au equiv (Andean Resources), Manantial Espejo- 1.2Moz Au equiv (Pan American Silver), San Jose- 1.99Moz Au equiv (Hochschild/Minera Andes) and Mina Martha- 22Moz Ag equivalent (Coeur D'Alene) are hosted in this metallogenic province. |
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PROPERTY OWNERSHIP
The Lomada de Leiva Project is contained within the La Paloma Group of concessions, which total 44 km², owned 100% by Patagonia Gold S.A (PGSA). These concessions were acquired in February 2007 from subsidiaries of Barrick Gold Corporation under an agreement which includes a back-in option clause on delineation of 2Moz Au or Au equivalent. |
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GEOLOGY
The geology of the Lomada de Leiva Project area comprises a sub-horizontal sequence of Jurassic aged, rhyolitic flow and ignimbritic rocks of the Chon Aike Formation, which are interpreted to occur peripheral to a large felsic flow dome complex.
Oxide gold mineralisation is localised in the near surface by a north-northeast trending, steeply east dipping structural corridor and containing brecciated and variably silicified volcanic and tuffaceous rocks which have been cut by a network of fine anastomosing quartz veins and veinlets. The breccia also contains clasts of chalcedonic quartz vein material. Gold is predominantly hosted in the kaolinized fault breccia matrix but is also reporting in the vein quartz and earlier chalcedonic veins over combined widths up to 30 metres.
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PREVIOUS EXPLORATION
At Lomada de Leiva previous owners conducted exploration between 2002-2004 at 42 which included diamond drill holes, trenching, surface sampling, geological mapping and electrical geophysics (CSAMT) which delineated the existence of significant Au mineralization throughout the project area as well as several targets which remain untested to date. Significant drill results from previous work in the Lomada de Leiva are summarized in the table below.
Historical Significant drill intersections, Lomada de Leiva |
Hole Name |
From (m) |
Interval (m) |
Au (g/t) |
DDH-LP05 |
49.00 |
3.44 |
3.16 |
DDH-LP05 |
86.75 |
3.29 |
5.34 |
DDH-LP05 |
92.00 |
5.05 |
2.26 |
DDH-LP07 |
36.00 |
11.00 |
5.33 |
including |
38.60 |
1.40 |
15.80 |
DDH-LP07 |
49.00 |
17.00 |
5.45 |
DDH-LP11 |
6.80 |
3.20 |
5.30 |
DDH-LP11 |
12.00 |
17.60 |
9.08 |
including |
15.00 |
1.00 |
24.70 |
DDH-LP12 |
65.90 |
8.40 |
1.84 |
DDH-LP12 |
78.65 |
10.00 |
3.13 |
DDH-LP13 |
70.30 |
5.75 |
1.36 |
DDH-LP14A |
105.00 |
4.00 |
2.85 |
DDH-LP20 |
60.50 |
4.75 |
3.90 |
DDH-LP25 |
21.00 |
7.15 |
2.71 |
DDH-LP30 |
116.65 |
9.05 |
2.05 |
DDH-LP35 |
81.00 |
4.30 |
2.08 |
DDH-LP35 |
88.35 |
7.35 |
4.97 |
including |
89.75 |
1.40 |
16.70 |
DDH-LP36 |
36.95 |
12.45 |
2.59 |
DDH-LP37 |
63.80 |
14.70 |
5.21 |
including |
74.00 |
1.00 |
13.30 |
EXPLORATION / DRILLING
By the end of 2007, in the Lomada de Leiva project area, Patagonia Gold completed 750m of sawn trench sampling and 38 diamond and 9 reverse circulation holes totalling 7,100m. Exploration drilling has delineated low sulphidation, epithermal Au breccia/vein style mineralization hosted within a moderately east-southeast dipping fault breccia, attaining widths up to 30m, which is currently defined over a strike length of 600m.
The PGSA drill campaign reported significant intercepts including LLD-01: 18m @ 6.87 g/t Au, LLD-026: 10m @ 12.68 g/t Au, and LLD-034: 36m @ 4.78 g/t Au.
The following table summarizes the significant results of the 2007 drill campaign.
An electrical geophysics survey (CSAMT) and geological modelling peripheral to the current resource envelope was recently completed and has defined targets for drill testing in 2008, with the intention of increasing the current gold Resource.
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Summary of significant drill intersections, Lomada de Leiva |
Hole No. |
From (m) |
Interval (m) |
Au (g/t) |
LPD-01 |
9.0 |
18.0 |
6.87 |
including |
10.0 |
10.0 |
10.86 |
LPD-02 |
35.0 |
21.0 |
4.12 |
including |
46.0 |
7.0 |
5.17 |
LPD-03B |
90.0 |
13.0 |
7.36 |
including |
94.0 |
6.0 |
13.66 |
LPD-04 |
63.0 |
8.0 |
1.19 |
and |
97.0 |
12.0 |
1.32 |
LPD-06 |
64.0 |
24.0 |
3.05 |
including |
82.0 |
5.0 |
7.16 |
LPD-07 |
38.0 |
20.0 |
2.66 |
including |
48.0 |
4.0 |
5.89 |
LPD-09 |
73.0 |
12.0 |
2.01 |
and |
88.0 |
10.0 |
2.07 |
LPD-11 |
38.0 |
8.0 |
2.46 |
LPD-14 |
90.0 |
3.0 |
2.29 |
LPD-16 |
95.0 |
19.0 |
3.60 |
including |
97.0 |
5.0 |
9.00 |
LPD-17 |
137.0 |
2.0 |
3.14 |
LPD-18 |
102.0 |
5.0 |
3.08 |
LPD-21 |
100.0 |
8.0 |
1.29 |
LPD-22 |
29.0 |
1.0 |
9.90 |
LPD-23* |
48.0 |
7.0 |
2.48 |
and |
61.0 |
6.0 |
1.77 |
and |
73.0 |
6.0 |
2.23 |
LPD-26 |
19.0 |
21.0 |
8.49 |
including |
21.0 |
10.0 |
12.68 |
LPD-27 |
49.0 |
17.0 |
3.15 |
including |
57.0 |
5.0 |
5.75 |
LPD-30 |
40.0 |
5.0 |
2.26 |
LPD-32 |
6.0 |
10.0 |
2.54 |
and |
42.0 |
11.0 |
3.00 |
LPD-34 |
38.0 |
36.0 |
3.52 |
including |
59.0 |
7.0 |
8.86 |
LLR-04 |
49.0 |
28.0 |
5.71 |
including |
51.0 |
8.0 |
8.27 |
LLR-05 |
58.0 |
12.0 |
2.14 |
LLR-07 |
47.0 |
22.0 |
1.67 |
including |
47 |
6 |
3.47 |
* with RC pre-collar
Intersections may not represent true thickness |
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RESOURCE & DEVELOPMENT
Metallurgical testing was initiated for which preliminary results indicate an lower level average of 71% extraction in 6 hours and 85% extraction in 12 hours for mineralized oxide material, some samples returned >90% recovery after 12hrs.
In October 2007 an independent 43-101 compliant resource calculation for Lomada de Leiva was completed by Chlumsky, Armbrust and Meyer, LLC (CAM) of Lakewood, Colorado which defined a resource of 235,000 ounces Au with an average grade of 0.84 g/t Au (at 0.3 g/t cut off), as shown in Table 3. At least 60% of the resource is classified as Indicated and Inferred.
In late 2007 CAM was commissioned to undertake a Scoping Study on the Lomada de Leiva resource which will include preliminary mine design and planning and recommendations for further infill drilling in order to upgrade resources to reserve category and advance towards Pre-feasibility stage |
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