Santa Fe Gold Corp. recently encountered gold and silver samples with values up to 7.73 oz/ton gold (265 g/mt gold) and 269.75 oz/ton silver (9,248.6 g/mt silver) over minable widths at the company’s Summit mine. These assays represent the highest grade mineralized values found in the mine to date. Although these unusually high values probably are localized, they occur near the northern edge of the currently identified resource and ongoing work shows potential for extending the minable resource along strike to the northwest.
The high gold and silver grades were encountered in the process of ongoing development on the 5600 level of the N-1 ore block. Face channel samples from three consecutive rounds yielded an average of 12.7 ft width of 2.14 oz/ton gold (73.4 g/mt gold) and 82.68 oz/ton silver (2,834.7 g/mt silver). Localized high values like these are known to occur in the type of epithermal vein system represented by Summit.
“This strong confirmation of the N-1 mineralization gives us positive encouragement as we continue exploration northwest of the N-1 resource,” said John White, vice president of operations. “Initial work in the area to the northwest shows potential for additional mineralization outside of currently identified resources.”
Drift development also continues below the 5300 level to intersect the main higher grade mineralized resource located on the 5080 level. This development work is anticipated to reach the 5080 level in mid-2013.
