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Channel Resources drills 8.2 m of 0.48 g/t Au at Mozo
2008-02-29 08:59 ET - News Release
Mr. Colin McAleenan reports
CHANNEL REPORTS ON MOZO PROJECT DRILLING AND METALLURGICAL RESULTS
Channel Resources Ltd. has received assay results from a six-hole core drilling program totalling 1,784 metres which was completed late in 2007 on the Mozo gold project in Azuay province, Ecuador, together with results from leach response and diagnostic tests conducted on sulphide mineralization from the Indira zone.
This most recent drill program was designed to test previously undrilled targets in the vicinity of surface mineralization and alteration as well as geophysical anomalies at the Puente de Piedra and Indira North zones, and geological targets in the Loma Santa Elena area and at the Indira structure. Although strongly anomalous gold and copper values were intersected, no economic concentrations of mineralization were encountered.
At the Indira structure the 303-metre hole MDH112 tested the zone below what had been previously drilled. The average gold grade for the 126 metres of core sampled and analyzed from this hole is 255 parts per billion (that is, 0.255 gram gold per tonne). Within this highly anomalous hole three zones in particular showed higher than average gold grade.
From To Interval Au Cu
Hole (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (ppm)
MDH 112 37.2 42.2 5.0 0.56 NSV
157.0 161.5 4.5 0.49 745
295.7 303.9 8.2 0.48 322
Anomalous copper values in MDH 112 are associated with a feldspar porphyry phase that was first intersected at 160.1 metres and which persisted to the end of the hole, together with mineralized hydrothermal breccia zones. The porphyry unit was unexpected and likely represents the root zone to the epithermal mineralization previously intersected at Indira.
The Puente de Piedra zone is a structure located approximately 1,500 metres south of, and trending parallel to, the Indira zone. Two holes, MDH 115 and MDH 116, were drilled into the zone at points approximately 400 metres apart targeting the structure and zones of high chargeability. The highest gold grades encountered in these holes are from a hydrothermal breccia intersected in MDH 115 as tabulated in the attached table.
From To Interval Au
Hole (m) (m) (m) (g/t)
MDH 115 81.9 91.5 10.4 0.89
including 83.5 86.1 2.6 1.85
Significant values were not encountered in cores from drill hole MDH116.
Two holes, MDH113 and 114, were drilled at Indira North targeting a moderately strong chargeability high potentially related to a specific volcanic unit. While both holes intersected zones of silica/argillic alteration and the upper 60 metres of hole MDH113 was moderately anomalous in gold, no significant values were intersected in either hole.
The target at Loma Santa Elena was a postulated extension of a potentially mineralized breccia zone intersected in previous drilling. A silica/argillic altered breccia was intersected in the lower 130 metres of MDH117, but no mineralization was encountered.
Although this investigation for new mineralized targets at Mozo did not demonstrate any new significantly mineralized zones, an unexpected result from the drilling was the intersection of a gold-copper mineralized porphyry root zone to Indira's epithermal mineralization at 160 metres from surface. Grades intersected in this hole are not economic, however, infill sampling and analysis of the balance of the drill core from MDH112 and holes drilled previously in this area will be carried out to determine if there are any meaningful mineralization trends within this intrusive rock.
Indira zone metallurgical testing
In addition to the drilling program at Mozo, the company has also conducted preliminary metallurgical testing on sulphide mineralization from the Indira zone. The primary purpose of this testwork was to characterize the leach response of gold in this type of mineralization. The three samples tested were found to contain refractory gold mineralization with direct cyanide leach results indicating gold recoveries of below 26 per cent. Diagnostic testing indicates that almost 79 per cent of the gold is associated with sulphide minerals.
In 2005, an inferred resource of 3.5 million tonnes grading 2.3 grams per tonne for a total of 256,000 ounces was outlined in a National Instrument 43-101 report for the Mozo project, identified within four gold-bearing zones. About 75 per cent of the total inferred resources is considered to be in oxide form. Since this estimate was generated, an additional 7,428 metres of drilling in 45 holes has been completed, focused mainly on the Indira zone with the remainder in the Freddy, Monica and Yantahuaycu areas, as well as in the areas described in this release. Mineralization within the Indira alteration envelope has been found to extend for at least 1,000 metres in strike length while remaining open to the east and west. The impact of these most recent program results on the prospectivity of Mozo outside previously identified deposit areas is now being assessed.
Channel Resources has instituted a quality control program to ensure accuracy in the collection and analysis of drill samples. All drill core samples were prepared by AcmeLabs' preparation facility in Cuenca, Ecuador. Pulp samples weighing approximately 150 grams were shipped to Vancouver and analyzed by AcmeLabs of Vancouver, B.C., an ISO 9001:2000 series accredited laboratory facility. All samples were first analyzed for multielements by an ICP-MS method and those samples returning grades of 200 parts per billion gold were then automatically forwarded for gold fire assay. Quality control is monitored by the company through the inclusion of one certified blank sample, two certified gold standard reference samples and a field duplicate sample in each batch of 20 samples delivered to the assay laboratory. Metallurgical testing was performed by Process Research Associates Ltd. of Richmond, B.C., using samples from the cores of three previously drilled holes in the Indira structure. The exploration program at Mozo and the contents of this news release have been approved by Colin H. McAleenan, PGeo, who is the company's qualified person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.
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