News Just OutPlato Gold to explore new structures at Lolita
2009-06-09 09:35 ET - News Release
Mr. Anthony Cohen reports
PLATO GOLD - PROSPECTING ON LOLITA PROPERTY IN SANTA CRUZ, ARGENTINA FINDS NEW UNEXPLORED HYDROTHERMAL STRUCTURES AND EXTENDS OTHERS
A prospecting program on the Lolita property in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, has discovered previously unexplored hydrothermal structures and extended others discovered previously by Plato Gold Corp.
"I am pleased that Lolita is progressing to the point where it is a large, prospective exploration play with four lengthy structures which Plato Gold is looking forward to explore and advance," said Anthony Cohen, president and chief executive officer.
As announced in Stockwatch on Sept. 18, 2007, Plato holds a 75-per-cent interest in the joint venture with Dr. Paul Lhotka holding the remaining 25 per cent.
Dr. Lhotka supervised a 15-day prospecting and geological mapping program in March undertaken by a qualified Argentine geologist. Assay results have now been received for the 81 rock samples collected (including control samples). The mapping and prospecting increased the information base in the eastern and southern parts of the nearly 30,000-hectare property and nearly doubled the size of the rock database.
Previously in November, 2007, Plato reported in Stockwatch that in the south-central part of the property three unreported hydrothermal structures with little or no previous sampling activity had been identified. These zones were named Espalda, Colita and Panza.
Work done in 2009 has extended the Panza corridor of hydrothermal structures 1,100 metres to the west where it remains open to further extension. To the southeast, prospecting and sampling has confirmed that the Panza corridor links with the Colita corridor via a 1,300-metre connection as supported by new sampling in an area not previously explored. Colita now appears to be a Y-shaped intersection between the north-northwest trending Colita-Espalda corridor and the five-kilometre-long Panza corridor trending northwest or west.
A new corridor of hydrothermal structures has been found in the western part of the property which has been named Corazon. Corazon comprises multiple individual hydrothermal structures and zones of brecciation eight kilometres to the northwest of the known termination of the Panza corridor. Silica, iron oxides and locally pyrite have been observed and red-weathering, siliceous, altered rocks, known as jasperoid are also present in the west-northwest-trending Corazon corridor for at least 2,100 metres. Interpretation of satellite images suggests that an area of greater than 2,000 metres in length located between the Panza and Corazon corridors is underlain by similar rocks and is highly prospective, but has yet to be explored by Plato.
Geochemical results of rock samples continue to return highly anomalous values for antimony, arsenic and mercury -- all traditional pathfinder elements for precious metal deposits. Samples from the current program established new maximum values for arsenic of greater than 10,000 parts per million (ppm), antimony greater than 2,000 ppm and mercury of 106,548 parts per billion at Lolita. In addition, strong molybdenum (maximum of 193 ppm) and thallium (maximum of 313 ppm) values were encountered in a few samples. These two elements are also frequently associated with shallow levels of epithermal, precious metal systems. Results for gold and silver are generally below the levels of detection which is common for the upper parts of these systems.
The Lolita property is located in a geological metal-rich province hosted by Jurassic-aged rocks of the Deseado Massif. Fieldwork indicates that the four corridors named above are hosted by a felsite unit and felsic tuffs which are likely part of the Chon Aike or La Matilde formations. To the south, significant base metal and precious metal vein systems occur on adjacent exploration properties held by other parties. These appear to represent deeper and probably hotter equivalents of related hydrothermal systems. Interpretation of results from Lolita to date suggest that the hydrothermal structures with chalcedonic silica, brecciation, iron oxides and pyrite with strongly anomalous pathfinder elements are prospective for precious metals at deeper levels.
In light of the favourable results Dr. Lhotka recommends that Plato continue exploration in the Patagonian spring with special emphasis on the area between the Corazon and Panza corridors.
Dr. Lhotka, PhD, PGeo, is responsible for the technical contents of this news release. All analyses were done by Alex Stewart (Assayers) Argentina SA, a certified laboratory. Dr. Lhotka is president of Minera Latina SA and a geologist based in Mendoza, Argentina.
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