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Minasnoic
Duran Ventures acquired the Minasnioc gold project in a closed-bid government auction on May 20, 2010. A Peruvian subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation and a private Peruvian mining company were also competing for this property. The concession covers 1,000 hectares in the department of Huancavelica, approximately 300 kilometres southeast of Lima. This project has seen previous intensive exploration campaigns by Barrick and Compañia de Minas Buenaventura S.A.C. between 2001 and 2007, which included surface channel sampling and drilling.
Initial property visits and have defined a high-sulphidation (acid sulphate) epithermal gold- and silver-bearing system developed in Tertiary volcanic rocks. Extensive zones of argillic and advanced argillic alteration are present, with areas of massive and vuggy silica with associated alunite. The gold-silver-bearing part of the epithermal alteration system covers an area of two kilometres by two kilometres. This age of the volcanic host rocks and style of mineralization are similar to Barrick's Pierina and Alto Chicama mines and Newmont and Buenaventura's Yanacocha mine in Peru.
Initial rock chip sampling by the company shows widespread anomalous gold values with associated silver, arsenic, barium, lead, mercury and antimony geochemical anomalies, which are typical of an altered precious-metal-bearing system. Samples were collected as one-metre to four-metre rock chips and panel samples ranging from two-metre-by-two-metre to five-metre-by-five-metre panels. Of the samples, 21 of 35 returned assays greater than 0.1 gram of gold per tonne, with values as high as 2.96 grams of gold per tonne. Of the samples, 28 of 35 returned silver values of greater than one gram of silver per tonne, 11 samples returned values of greater than 10.0 grams of silver per tonne and one sample returned a high value of 70.6 grams of silver per tonne.
Sample highlights are shown in the table.
Location of Minasnioc
Vuggy Silica with Alunite
Massive Vuggy Silica
More Massive Silica
Topography of the Area of Mineralization
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