Lagasco releases assay results for Anchaca Project in Southern Peru / Plans work program & financing
Symbol: LCO.H - TSXV
VANCOUVER, April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - LAGASCO CORP. ("Lagasco" or the "Company") is pleased to report assay results and material data on the Anchaca Project in Southern Peru, on which the Company has an exclusive option to acquire the rights under option by Exploraciones Cori Condor S.A.C (ECC), as previously announced in a news release dated April 1, 2010. Additionally, the Company is currently finalizing plans for a private placement financing to fund the associated and ongoing work program at Anchaca.
The data summarized here represents exploration work over a ten year period of time, initially by CEDIMIN S.A.C (CEDIMIN), a wholly owned subsidiary of BuenaVentura, and most recently by ECC, the majority of which is owned by Merwin Bernstein. Earlier this month Lagasco and ECC entered into an option agreement whereby Lagasco can acquire 100% of the rights held by ECC for its option on the Anchaca project. A NI 43-101 compliant report on the Anchaca Property is currently being compiled and is expected to be released mid-April 2010.
The Anchaca Property
The Anchaca property is located in southern Peru within the Andean mineral belt that extends from Colombia to Chile. This belt hosts some of the most important copper and gold deposits in the world. More specifically, Anchaca lies within one of the premier silver provinces of Peru. The Shila and Paula mines lie within ten kilometers to the north and south of the Anchaca property on the same structural and alteration lineament. These mines are important contributors to the silver production of the BuenaVentura family of companies.
The alteration mineralogy, geochemistry and geologic setting suggest that the Anchaca property may be the high level expression of a copper-molybdenum-gold porphyry system. Whereas the Shila and Paula mines are predominately silver mineral systems, Anchaca is characterized locally by high grade copper, gold and silver values with relatively low silver to gold ratios. Highly anomalous molybdenum values are associated with higher grade copper-gold values in the Basilia area of the Anchaca property.
The known mineralization at Anchaca occurs within a greater than 1 km sq area of strong kaolinite-alunite-illite altered volcanics and epiclastic volcanic sediments that have been extensively cross cut by hydrothermal breccias and dacite dikes.
An induced polarization survey conducted by Arce Geofisicos for ECC supports this model. It shows a resistivity anomaly (interpreted to be a possible mineralized 'silicified breccia pipe'), underlying the Condor structural corridor. A porphyry style IP anomaly is interpreted beneath the entire western portion of the survey area and is unbounded to the west.
Specific Assay Results
There are two mineralized areas of immediate interest, the Basilia zone and the Condor zone. Both zones appear to be structurally controlled and trend northeasterly.
Basilia is an east-northeast trending structural zone and was initially discovered by ECC. Here trench sampling and a steep ravine expose mineralization consisting of vein swarms and breccia zones. This mineralized zone is greater than 200 meters wide and has a strike length of greater than 450 meters, as indicated by trenches and partially exposed outcrops through talus. This zone is most likely part of a larger northeasterly striking structure corridor over 1,200 meters long and more than 300 meters wide.
Recent samples within the Basilia include: - 9.9 meters, 1.9% Cu, 0.8 gm/t Au, 41 gm/t Ag and anomalous Mo (77 ppm) - 7.6 meters, 1.3% Cu, 0.4 gm/t Au, 32 gm/t Ag Earlier sampling by ECC in the South Basilia zone include: - 2.0 meters, 4.0% Cu, 1.5 gm/t Au - 2.2 meters, 4.7% Cu, 9.5 gm/t Au - 2.6 meters, 0.7% Cu, 6.0 gm/t Au
The Condor structural zone is sub-parallel to Basilia zone and lies approximately 700 meters to the south. It was discovered by CEDIMIN and substantially extended with work by ECC. CEDIMIN's work includes trenching, modest underground workings and five (5) hole drills on the western end of the zone. Subsequent trenching and sampling extended the Condor zone 900 meters to the northeast. Within this zone are veins and breccia bodies with high grade gold, silver and lead occurring in complex veins and within breccia bodies. Beneath the Condor zone is a geophysical anomaly interpreted as a silicified breccia 'pipe', which would have been cut with the underground workings if they had advance another 100 meters. The Condor zone is open to the northeast and southwest and its northern and southern limits are not known.
Specific results obtained by CEDIMIN along the Condor zone include: - Surface sampling which resulted in the discovery outcrop of mineralized hydrothermal breccia on the (known) southwestern end of the Condor zone. Samples include 19.2 meters containing 0.26% Cu, 2.0 gm/t Au, 15 gm/t Ag - Driving an adit with 295 meters of underground workings testing structures and breccia systems. This adit exposed complex breccia bodies with generally indistinct structural alignments and extensive low grade gold values in the 100's of ppb to (greater than) 1 gm/t. Local zones contained grades as high as 200 gm/t associated within silicified hydrothermal breccia. Grades improve significantly to the east as the adit approaches a large silicified 'pipe'. This silicified body is recognized in the geophysical survey subsequently conducted by ECC. - Five diamond drill holes totaling 1,036 meters in the southwestern extreme of the Anchaca alteration system. The most important intercept occurred in Hole SD3A, which tested the down dip extent of the 'discovery outcrop'. The true width of this intercept is approximately 10 meters. Significant drill intercepts include: - Hole SD1A, 34.8 to 38.8 m - 4 meters @ 3.4 gm/t Au - Hole SD3A, 11 to 26 m - 15 meters @ 1.7 gm/t Au - Hole SD2, 88.5 to 91 m -3 meters @ 9.6 gm/t Au
At a higher elevation, on the northeast end of the Condor zone, a trench excavated by ECC yielded the following results:
- Trench T9, wall sample, 15.7 meters @ 66 ppb Au, 112 gm/t Ag, 3.0% Pb - Trench T9, floor sample, 12.2 meters @ 129 ppb Au, 547 gm/t Ag, 7.9% Pb
The drill hole, underground and the surface sampling demonstrate that Cu-Au-Ag+/-Pb mineralization in the Condor zone extends over 900 meters along strike and a width of at least 400 meters. There is a suggestion of lateral and vertical zoning from Cu-Au mineralization at depth to the southwest (nearer the deep IP anomaly) to Ag-Pb mineralization on the northeast.
Planned Program
The 3,000 meter drill program will test high-grade copper, gold and silver mineralization on the Anchaca property. The known mineralization occurs within two long structural corridors and is interpreted to represent the shallow expression of a buried copper-molybdenum-gold porphyry system. The planned drill program will focus on testing the continuity of high grade copper, gold and silver values represented in surface trenches in the Basilia and Condor zones. Some twelve drill sites are planned at 50 to 100 meter intervals along the Basilia and Condor structural corridors. Additional holes may be drilled from some of these drill sites to further test the depth extension and continuity of high grade as initial results merit. Drilling will commence in the second quarter and finish in the third quarter.
Financing & Use of Proceeds
The Company is currently finalizing plans for a proposed financing of up to $2 million. Proceeds of the financing will fund the work program above and for general corporate purposes.
Leigh Freeman, President and CEO says "Anchaca is an exciting high grade copper-gold-silver prospect and brings with it an even more exciting association with Merwin Bernstein, one of the premier practicing mine-finders. Anchaca is the first reported occurrence of epithermal veins and breccia pipes of high-grade Cu-Au-Ag which suggests a genetic linked to an underlying porphyry style Cu-Mo-Au system within the Shila-Paula mining district - one of the most storied silver producing regions of South America. In this regard Anchaca fills in a gap in the porphyry belt to the north and south aligned within the Andean mineral belt of Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. Credit should be given to Merwin Bernstein and his team, our partners on the Anchaca, who first recognized its potential based on his 50+ years of work in Peru and Chile. Anchaca is a continuation of a body of exploration work for which Mr. Bernstein was recognized by the Society of Economic Geologists in 2003 with the Robert M. Dreyer Award: "In recognition of the discovery of the El Indio deposit and other mines in Chile and Peru, his development of a new concept and exploration technique which identified the world-class Maricunga gold district, and his geologic skills and pioneering exploration entrepreneurship in South America, and for his lecture, 'The History of Science and Art in Ore Discovery in the Andes Mountains'." Mr. Bernstein's discoveries are now the centerpiece of gold production in Chile and adjoining northern Argentina. We are excited about his involvement with Lagasco."
This news release has been reviewed by Leonard J. Karr, a qualified person under NI43-101 criteria.
About Lagasco Corp.
Lagasco is a newly constituted minerals exploration company with a focus on discovery of large precious- and base-metal mineral systems in stable political terrains. Lagasco is traded on the NEX board of the TSX Venture Exchange. The acquisition of an interest in the Anchaca Properties will form the basis of the Company's application to graduate to the TSX Venture Exchange as a Tier 1 or Tier 2 listed company.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Lagasco Corp.
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