Mariana Resources confirms El Nido Norte as third prime exploration target at Las Calandrias

Mariana Resources (LON:MARL) told investors that the March-April 2010 drilling campaign at its wholly-owned Las Calandrias gold-silver project has confirmed the 1,500m long El Nido Norte trend as the third prime target area for the upcoming exploration drilling.

The Las Calandrias project, in the Deseado Massif gold district in southern Argentina, consists of four key target areas: Calandria Sur, Calandria Norte, El Nido Este and El Nido Norte.

The company is currently fast-tracking Las Calandrias with a 10,000m drilling programme to start September 2010. The program will now target the Calandria Norte bonanza gold-silver discovery, the south-western untested area of the Calandria Sur disseminated gold discovery and the El Nido Norte prospect, as well as other El Nido targets.
The 37-hole, March-April 2010 drill campaign, resulted in two exciting gold-silver discoveries at the Calandria Sur and Calandria Norte prospects. The assays from the last seven remaining drill holes of the campaign have now been received.

There were four sets of results from the El Nido Norte prospect, with drill holes NND49 to NND53. The scout holes were drilled at the middle of the El Nido Norte target trend, 2km north-west of the Calandria Sur prospect, to test outcropping bonanza gold and silver mineralisation. Marina noted that all holes intersected anomalous gold and silver over intervals from 1-5m downhole, with the best assay of 2m at 4.9g/t gold and 72 g/t silver from 68m, in NND50.“This initial drilling is restricted to a small sector of the 1,500m trend.  Follow up drilling, guided by the forthcoming 3D IP survey, will fully explore this highly prospective trend”, Mariana stated.

In a note to investors in response to the statement, London-based stockbroker FinnCap stated: “The new gold discovery at El Nido Norte increases our confidence that our valuation (41p) ... will be achieved before the end of this year.”

Yesterday the company closed its £6.75m capital raising, placing 24.1 million new shares at a premium to the market price, with large and institutional investor in Australia, UK and Canada, paying 28p per share.

"Our recent drilling campaign has demonstrated Las Calandrias' prospectivity to host a major mineralised system with bulk tonnage and high grade gold potential. Following the recent successful fundraising ... we now are ideally positioned to fast-track Las Calandrias with a mix of exploration and resource definition drilling to further define the project's economic potential”, Mariana MD John Sutcliffe commented.

“Step out drilling around the exceptional bonanza intersections at Calandria Norte is a top priority and we have also identified El Nido Norte as a prime target. The 10km² Calandrias dome field has so far yielded two impressive discoveries and we believe the 3D IP geophysics will result in yet more targets to further expand the project's potential."

Through the ‘fast-track’ exploration schedule, Mariana intends to carry out intensive surface exploration of the entire project area - ground magnetic and lag/trench geochemical sampling is already underway and a 3D IP (inverse polarisation) survey of the El Nido area.

In Q3/Q4 2010, approximately 4,000 metres of step-out drilling is planned at the high priority Calandria Norte bonanza gold-silver discovery, as well as 5,000m of infill and extension drilling at the Calandria Sur bulk tonnage gold-silver discovery, to achieve the preliminary resource standard. Now follow up drilling at El Nido Norte target will be scheduled for Q4 2010. Further scout drilling of emerging targets, in El Nido area, is planned for Q4 2010.

The company also noted that it has appointed an independent geological consultant, Mine Development Associates, to prepare a project status report for Q3-2010, to be followed by an initial NI43-101 resource estimate for end of 2010.

In addition to the El Nido Norte the remaining assay results, reported today, also include two holes from Calandria Sur - CSD43 & 44 - with Hole CSD43 intersecting a wide zone of anomalous gold, 60m at 0.4grams per tonne gold from 62m. The hole was drilled outside the southern limit of the Calandria Sur mineralised zone, and the results were consistent with the 2009 exploration campaign drill holes nearby. CSD44 was drilled 130m north of the northern limit of the mineralised zone, it intersected anomalous gold and silver.

NED47 was drilled at the El Nido Este target, 1.1km northwest of Calandria Sur and consistent with the previously drilled NED48, it did not return any significant gold or silver values.