Herencia Resources (LON:HER) said it was encouraged by the recent exploration results from the New vein at Patricia, the main target at its flagship zinc-silver-lead-gold Paguanta project in Chile.
Exploration at another target at Paguanta, the La Rosa prospect, has also been positive with more work planned for the rest of the year with an aim to unlock its potential, said Herencia.
The company said today that it is currently reviewing the area around hole PTDD073 at the New vein and the eastern end of Patricia, where previous drilling intersected high-grade silver mineralisation.
About three weeks ago, Herencia reported that exploration at the New vein uncovered a wide mineralised zone, boding well for further resource upgrades.
Hole PTDD073 at the vein intersected a zone of 20 metres with 3.0 percent zinc, 1.4 percent lead and 80 grammes per tonne silver, including an interval of 6 metres at 5.9 percent zinc, 2.6 percent lead and 144 g/t silver.
“We continue to maintain momentum on a number of fronts on our projects in Chile. We are particularly encouraged by the opportunity that the 'New' vein presents for Patricia given the excellent width of mineralisation and high grade assay results achieved in hole PTDD073,” said managing director of Paguanta Michael Bohm.
Both holes drilled to test another vein at Patricia, Bill’s vein, confirmed that the north-south trending vein contains zinc, lead and silver mineralisation. The holes showed grades of up to 0.8 percent zinc, 107 grammes per tonne (g/t) silver and 0.9 percent lead.
At the La Rosa target, assay results from five holes have now been received with two of these holes showing anomalous copper and gold mineralisation. The best results from La Rosa included intersections of 1 metre grading 0.64 percent copper and 1.25 metres grading 0.36 percent copper and 21 g/t.
Herencia saw these drill results as encouraging for further exploration and said that they indicated the need for more work at La Rosa.
Herencia is now preparing to drill a deeper hole at the La Rosa target in the final quarter of the year.
“The secrets of La Rosa and Doris will not be unlocked overnight and we will continue our geological investigations there during the second half of 2011,” said Bohm.
Herencia has also provided an update from its Guamanga copper-gold project in Chile, where field work is on track to start this month.
An eight week mapping and sampling programme at Guamanga will be followed by a geophysical survey, currently set for the third quarter of the year.
The start of a diamond drill programme at Guamanga is anticipated for the final quarter of 2011.
Shares in Herencia fell 0.05 pence (2 percent) to trade at 2.53 pence this morning. The company has a market cap of £35 million.