St. Elias Mines provides update on Chance E concession, exploration ongoing

St. Elias Mines (CVE:SLI) and Intigold Mines (CVE:IGD) provided Wednesday an update regarding the status of ongoing exploration at the Chance E mineral concession, which adjoins St. Elias' Tesoro gold project in southwestern Peru.  

The Chance E concession is owned fully by St. Elias, with Intigold having an option to acquire a 60 per cent interest in the asset. 

Exploration work, consisting of geological mapping and sampling, prospecting, satellite imagery and control grid emplacement, is ongoing, the parties said. 

So far, St. Elias said two major geological domains have been identified within the Chance E.  

In the eastern and southeastern sections, the company said the main exposed unit is "Tertiary-age lithic/ash and volcanic tuff".   

In the western half, the rocks are "Cretaceous-age diorite and quartz diorite" - "identical to the intrusive rocks in the northern part of St. Elias' Tesoro project", it said. 

Forty samples have been collected to date at the concession, comprising of 36 rock chip or channel samples and four stream sediment samples.

Three of these samples tested more than 0.3 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold, St Elias said. Sample CN-52, for example, returned 0.31 g/t gold, while sample CH-54, a 10-centimetre channel sample, assayed 8.27 g/t gold.  

The miner said that the entire western half of Chance E has not been geologically mapped or prospected in detail, with exploration work on the concession ongoing. 

The majority of the basement windows in the eastern sector also have yet to be located, with around 150 kilometres of deep stream channels within this area.  

"There are three important samples obtained to date, that prove the presence of gold adjacent to a major east-west fault in the north-central sector of the Chance E concession," St. Elias said in a statement. 

"Management is encouraged by the results obtained to date."

The Chance E concession is contiguous with the southern part of St. Elias' Tesoro gold project, where the company recently carried out a preliminary drilling program to explore for gold-bearing structures. 

"Intigold and St. Elias are excited to continue exploring the Chance E concession, which is on strike to the numerous gold-bearing veins occurring on the adjoining Tesoro property," said president and CEO of St. Elias, Lori McClenahan.