🕐16.04.10 - 11:07 Uhr
Mariana Resources - Las Calandrias Drilling Update, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina
MARIANA RESOURCES LIMITED
AIM and PLUS code: MARL
16 April 2010
Las Calandrias Drilling Update, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina
Mariana Resources Ltd (Mariana or the Company), the AIM quoted
exploration and development company focussed in Chile and Argentina, is
pleased to provide a further update on drilling progress at its 100%
owned Las Calandrias Project in the Deseado Massif of Santa Cruz
Province, Southern Argentina.
The project has four key target areas:
Calandria Sur, Calandria Norte, El Nido Este and El Nido Norte.
Highlights
* A further 14 diamond drill holes completed at Calandria Sur
bringing the total number of holes to 28 and 3,200m drilled
* Broad zones of brecciation, silicification and stockwork
marcasite mineralisation, ranging from 14m to 80m down-hole intersected
in all holes drilled to date
* Assay results are expected from late April to late May
Calandria Sur
The current phase of drilling at Calandria Sur has been completed with a
total of 28 holes drilled for 3,200metres.
Together with the seven
2009 drill holes, the drilling covers an area of approximately 700metres
NW-SE by 120 metres to 220metres NE-SW.
The last 12 holes have been
testing the core of the rhyolite dome with the first 14 holes mostly
along the eastern and northern dome margins.
Most holes drilled have
intersected broad zones of brecciation, silicification and
marcasite/pyrite stockworks from 14 metres to 80 metres down-hole.
Samples from 16 holes have been submitted to the assay laboratory so
far.
Other Priority Targets
An additional eight holes are proposed for priority targets at Calandria
Norte, El Nido Este and El Nido Norte as part of the current programme.
See website at www.marianaresources.com
for diagrams showing Calandria Sur,
Calandria Norte and El Nido Este drill plan plus the new El Nido Norte
Prospect channel sampling results.
John Sutcliffe
Managing Director
For further information contact the following:
John Horsburgh (Chairman)
Mariana Resources Ltd
+61 2 94374588
John Sutcliffe (MD)
Mariana Resources Ltd
+593 99 808080
Rob Adamson
RFC Corporate Finance Limited (Nomad)
+61 2 9250 0041
Will Souter
RFC Corporate Finance Limited (Nomad)
+61 2 9250 0050
Joe Lunn (Analyst)
FinnCap (Broker)
+44 20 7600 1658
Matthew Robinson
FinnCap (Broker)
+44 20 7600 1658
Felicity Edwards
St Brides Media and Finance Ltd (PR)
+44 20 7236 1177
Hugo de Salis
St Brides Media and Finance Ltd (PR)
+44 20 7236 1177
ABOUT MARIANA
Mariana Resources Ltd is an AIM quoted exploration and development
company with an extensive portfolio of gold, silver and copper projects
in Argentina and Chile.
The Company has two gold-silver discoveries and
a joint venture with Hochschild Mining in the highly prospective Deseado
Massif region: the Las Calandrias project indicating a major mineralised
system with gold bulk tonnage potential; the Sierra Blanca project, a
high grade silver-gold prospect; and advanced exploration at the Los
Amigos JV.
In Chile, Mariana has two Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG)
exploration projects in the highly prospective Atacama Fault Zone,
approximately 100 km from Freeports Candelaria Copper Mine: the
Buenaventura and Perro Chico projects which comprise 12,000 hectares.
In addition, it has a generative pipeline of early stage projects
including a major land package totalling approximately 160,000 hectares
in southern Argentina.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Drilling is being undertaken by Boart Longyear Argentinausing a rig
25HH-3 core drill.
The drill program is managed by the Argentina
Exploration Manager, Dr Gustavo A.
Rodriguez under supervision of
Managing Director Mr John Sutcliffe.
Exploration information in this
announcement has been compiled by John Sutcliffe who is a Fellow of the
Geological Society of London, a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Mr Sutcliffe has sufficient
experience relevant to the style of mineralization and types of gold
deposit under consideration and to the activity that he is undertaking
to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code.
Sampling and Analytical Details
All diamond drill core samples are split on geological contacts with
minimum and maximum sample length of 0.7 and 3 metres respectively and
represent sawn half HQ-size core.
The first batch consisted of 495 samples, (including certified control
standards, quarter core duplicates and blanks).
All the samples are
collected under the supervision of the Company geologists.
During the
sample handling procedure, the sample shipments are tracked.
Core
samples were placed into uniquely labelled sample bags.
A record of the
sample location and other specific details is documented in the sample
data base.
All samples were sent to ALS Chemex Labs with preparation facilities in
Mendoza and assayed in Chile for gold and multi element ICP analyses.
Rock sample preparation includes weighing, drying, fine crushing of
entire sample to better than 70% -2mm, split of 250g and pulverize split
to better than 85% passing 75 microns (PREP-31- DRY-22).
The 34 element
ME ICP41 package analyses utilize an aqua regia digestion.
Gold analyses
for all samples are fire assay and AAS (Au-AA24, 50g nominal sample
weight, range 0.005-10 ppm) with any results over 10g/t checked using a
gravimetric finish (Au-GRA22- 50 gr , range 0.05- 1.000 g/t).
Silver
grades exceeding 100 g/t were assayed by fire assay and gravimetric
finish (Ag-GRA21, 30g nominal sample weight, range 5-10,000 ppm).
ALS Chemexs quality system complies with the requirements for the
International Standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 17025: 1999
Quality Assurance/Quality Control
All technical information for the Companys Argentina projects is
obtained and reported under a quality assurance and quality control
(QA/QC) program.
Four different certified standards were inserted at an
average of one per 20 samples, blanks (in house) at one per 40 samples,
while quarter-core duplicates were inserted at intervals of
approximately 35 samples.
A total of 9 % control samples have been
inserted.
Assays that meet the QA/QC are incorporated in the Mariana
data base.
Felicity Edwards
St Brides Media and Finance Ltd
Chaucer House
38 Bow Lane
London
EC4M 9AY
Tel: +44 (0) 207 236 1177
Mob: +44 (0) 7748 843871
Fax: +44 (0) 207 236 1188
Email:
Web: www.sbmf.co.uk
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