St. Elias' sampling program proves Cueva Blanca merits further exploration, yields up to 15.5 grams of gold

St. Elias Mines (CVE:SLI) announced Wednesday the results of a verification sampling program at its Cueva Blanca gold property in northwest Peru, designed to bring historical work to current NI 43-101 mining standards.
The program, which consisted of samples from the Cruz Vein portion of the property, returned assays with a weighted average grade of 2.84 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold across an average width of 4.3 metres, and along a strike length of 850 metres.
The verification program involved the collection of 101 one-metre-long channel samples of vein material, along a strike length of 850 metres.
The company said vein material of the Cruz system yielded gold-in-rock assays from 0.08 to 15.46 grams.  Seventy-two samples were above 1 gram of gold and twelve samples were above 5 grams.
Historical work on the Cruz Vein system, which included 91 trenches and 18 drill holes, proved that the quartz veins consistently contain gold and silver and that the system is a classic epithermal gold-silver deposit, the company said.
Previous gold assay results from the vein include 6.0 metres of 2.31 grams per tonne (g/t), 6.0 metres of 2.96 g/t, including 1.75 metres of 7.45 g/t, and 1.5 metres of 22.68 g/t.
According to the company, the vein system is open along strike to the southeast and northwest, and to depth.
"The data from the verification program has shown gold mineralization is present in the Cruz Vein system and that a more extensive exploration program is merited," the company concluded in a statement.
St. Elias owns 100% of the Cueva Blanca property. Intigold Mines (CVE:IGD) has entered into an agreement to earn a 60% interest in the project, subject to a 1.5% net smelter return royalty.
The property, comprising approximately 5,000 hectares, covers a large epithermal alteration system developed in Tertiary volcanic rocks.  It is located along the same geological trend as a number of multi-million ounce deposits including Yanacocha, Pierina and Lagunas Norte.