La Virginia - some bonanza type Au-Ag combined resultsI found a 2012 Pan American presentation about their exploration properties. La Virginia was a top priority. They had planned for a 27,000m ($6 million) La Virginia drill program. I am unable to find any subsequent drill results being released. I think Pan American cancelled all of the greenfields exploration programs, including La Virginia, after the metal prices dropped. In Mexico, they focused on big expansion initiatives at their Dolores and La Colorado producing mines.
As such, the only drilling done at La Virginia was in 2010 and 2011 by Minefinders. No drilling had been done on the property prior to Minefinders. La Virginia has 34,000 hectares. It is located 100 km north of Pan American`s Dolores (producing) mine.
La Virginia has a number of zones. The main zone is Las Huatas. It goes for 2 or 3 or more km`s. La Virginia looks like it has a 10 km (+) strike length, but fairly untested outside of the main zones.
La Virginia has some wide mineralization, but I think most of the mineralized body is somewhat narrow. I would say it is more of a narrow high grade gold-silver deposit, which should work well with undergrouind mining. I think we are looking at some open pit mining as well. It looks like the deposit comes to the surface. As such, we are probably looking at long shallow open pits - potentially long open pits.
The drills connected with the mineralized body 300, 400, 500 metre depth (and still open).
Some highlights of the mineralization at depth:
Las Huatas Zone
(the main part of Las Huatas runs for about 500m, but the total length is about 2 to 3 km`s)
* 3.5m of 3.58 g/t Au and 1,358 g/t Ag
Using a more historical silver to gold ratio of 50 Ag to 1 Au, we are looking at 3.5m of 30.74 g/t gold equivalent.
That is essentially 3.5m of 1 ounce of gold eq.
* 5.0m of 8.52 g/t Au and 730 g/t Ag
Same as 5.0m of 23.12 g/t gold eq.
* 4.0m of 41.01 g/t Au and 1,818 g/t Ag
Same as 4.0m of 77.37 g/t gold eq.
* 4.5m of 9.01 g/t Au and 544 g/t Ag
Same as 4.5m of 19.89 g/t gold eq.
Con Virginia Zone
* 1.70m of 18.27 g/t Au and 794 g/t Ag
Same as 1.7m of 34.15 g/t gold eq.
* .70m of 14.06 g/t Au and 1,195 g/t Ag
Same as .7m of 37.96 g/t gold eq.
Here is a comment from Pan American Silver about La Virginia (from the presentation):
``Lots of `smoke` but still very early stage``
I think La Virginia has a chance to be a significant mine one day.
I really like all 3 of the very high quality assets - Waterloo, La Virginia and La Bolsa. I would be thrilled with any 2 of the 3 projects, if they were offered. However, I would prefer that La Bolsa be one of the two, due to the near-term production capabilities. I think it`s important for Kootenay to have assets in production - generating cash flow and minimizing share dilution. La Negra will provide Kootenay will cash flow also, eventually.