Iron Creek Defines Significant Gold and Silver Anomalies from a Talus-Fines Sampling Survey at its Exploradora Project, Northern Chile
TSX-V: IRN
VANCOUVER, Oct. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Iron Creek Capital Corp. (TSX-V: IRN - "Iron Creek") is pleased to report results from the first phase of a talus-fines sampling program carried out over the Portezuelo area of its Exploradora gold-silver project in northern Chile. The principal targets of the program are low-sulphidation, epithermal precious metals quartz veins. Iron Creek, through its wholly owned Chilean subsidiary, has an option agreement with Anglo American Norte S.A. to acquire 100% of the Exploradora property subject to certain expenditure commitments (see news release dated September 7, 2011).
Highlights of the talus-fines sampling program include:
- Important anomalous gold and silver trends defined, with values in talus-fines materials up to 0.51g/t Au and 61.7g/t Ag
- Highly anomalous pathfinder trace element geochemistry with values up to 890ppm As; 126ppm Sb; 2,670ppm Zn; and 10,001ppm Pb
- Results highlight extensions to a previously known mineralized structure at Portezuelo as well as suggesting potentially new mineralized structures obscured by talus slope cover materials
About the Exploradora Property
The Exploradora Property is located directly along the Domeyko Cordillera, the principal porphyry copper belt in northern Chile. The property is located within the Exploradora porphyry copper, skarn and precious metals district, and to the NE of the El Salvador / Potrerillos porphyry copper and precious metals district.
The geology of the belt is dominated by Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments and volcanics, and Mid-Tertiary plutonic rocks, calc-alkaline volcanic rocks and sub-volcanic porphyritic intrusions. Most of the significant areas of mineralization within the Exploradora District, including a porphyry copper discovery, are zoned around the margins of the central Exploradora pluton and hosted within volcanic and sedimentary rocks.
The Exploradora Property has potential for low-sulphidation precious metals quartz veins. Veins of this type outcrop in historic trenches in the Portezuelo area on the eastern margins of the Exploradora district pluton, and further veins outcrop in historic trenches and small workings in the Ladera area further to the southwest. An extensive area of epithermal quartz vein float blocks, on moderate slopes covered by talus deposits, lies between Portezuelo and Ladera - a distance of about 5km.
The property is easily accessed by a good quality dirt road from the Pan American highway and is located at moderate Andean altitudes of < 4,000m with modest slopes. The Exploradora Properties have recently been expanded and now cover more than 5,000 hectares.
Previous work by Iron Creek includes detailed geological mapping of the property and limited rock-chip sampling of outcropping veins yielding values up to 3.45g/t Au and 480g/t Ag. More recent work, reported here, comprises a detailed sampling grid of talus-fines totalling approximately 2,000 samples on a 100m x 25m grid covering a key part of the Portezuelo area at the northeast end of the property.
Exploradora Soil Sampling Program
Talus deposits obscure extensive areas around the southern and eastern margins of the Exploradora plutonic igneous complex, an area almost entirely covered by the property under option. A first phase of talus fines sampling to test the methodology was carried out on the eastern margins of the Exploradora plutonic complex, in an area named Portezuelo. Just over 2,000 sieved samples (-10 mesh) of talus fines were collected every 25m over an area of approximately 2.5km x 3.0km on east-west oriented lines spaced 100m apart. The sample lines were designed to cross known structures, with most of these being oriented northwest-southeast. A large part of the prospective trend, centred on Ladera to the southwest of Portezuelo, remains to be sampled by future surveys.
The main Portezuelo South epithermal vein structure, partially exposed in historic trenches, is shown to be highly anomalous in gold and silver, as well as pathfinder elements such as arsenic and antimony. In detail, at least two and possibly three sub-parallel structures are revealed in this area. The overall strike length of the mineralized Portezuelo South trend defined to date by the surface geochemistry is approximately 2km - significantly greater than the strike length subject to historic trenching - suggesting a potentially important series of mineralized structures. Additionally, lead and zinc show a high degree of anomalism along this trend.
Other potentially important mineralized trends have also been defined:
- Portezuelo Secondary North Structure - approximately 500m of strike length of a new structure, sub-parallel and located 750m northeast of the main Portezuelo South structure, is revealed by anomalous gold, silver, arsenic, antimony, lead and zinc values.
- Perdida Anomaly - several geochemical anomalies, dominated by gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper, with only very minor arsenic and antimony, occur in an area approximately 1km west of the main Portezuelo South structure. The anomalies may reflect more than one obscured structure in the bedrock.
- Other smaller anomalies may be significant and worthy of further follow up.
Tim Beale, President of Iron Creek, commented: "These geochemical anomalies have confirmed Iron Creek's interpretation when we originally optioned the property that the potential for possibly mineralized epithermal vein structures around the margins of the Exploradora plutonic complex was much greater than the limited outcrops and historic trenching had previously indicated. We are excited by these results, which give us justification for extending the talus-fines sampling surveys over the rest of the property, as well as justifying detailed follow-up of the existing anomalies with trenching and possibly drilling."
Summary maps showing the location of the talus-fines sampling survey together with some of the principal geochemical results are available on Iron Creek's website.
QA/QC
Geochemical samples are collected in accordance with accepted industry standards and best practices. Talus fines samples are submitted to ALS Chemex Laboratories in La Serena, Chile, for preparation by PREP-41, with digestion by aqua regia digestion and analysis for 51 elements by ICP-MS and ICP-AES (ME-MS41). Gold is analysed by 50gm fire assay and AAS (Au-AA24). As standard procedure, Iron Creek conducts routine quality-assurance and quality-control analysis on all assay results, including the systematic utilization of certified reference materials, blanks and field duplicates.
Qualified Person
Demetrius Pohl, Certified Professional Geoscientist (CPG), is the Company's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, and is responsible for the accuracy of the technical information in this news release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Timothy J. Beale"
Timothy Beale, President
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statement
Some of the statements in this news release contain forward-looking information that involves inherent risk and uncertainty affecting the business of Iron Creek Capital Corp. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statement.
SOURCE Iron Creek Capital Corp.
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