News from CNW Group
Carpathian Gold Inc. - March Update of Exploration Activities
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
- New high grade copper-gold mineralization outlined on Oravita License - drill targets for 2005 defined - Bio-leaching evaluation underway on Baia Mare Exploration Licenses
TORONTO, March 16 /CNW/ - Carpathian Gold Inc. (CPN:TSX-Venture) has completed its evaluation of its exploration results from 2004 and the review of recently acquired, important historical data which includes a drill hole intercept of 59 metres at 1.41% copper and an exploration underground sample-intersection of 10 metres at 5.10% copper.
"I'm very pleased to report positive results," said Dino Titaro, President and CEO. "Carpathian has defined a new high grade copper-gold target on its Oravita License in addition to the large gold target already defined on the license. We made very substantial progress on all our objectives in 2004 and look forward to an aggressive drilling campaign in 2005. The following update is provided with respect to two of our key project areas".
Oravita Exploration License
This 100% owned License in southwest Romania covers a 32 km belt of porphyry and skarn occurrences, and is the northward extension of a well-known gold-rich porphyry belt in Serbia and Bulgaria. Exploration results from 2004 have enabled the Company to define drill targets for 2005 on two large areas within the license containing significant Cu-Au mineralization.
In the north part of the License, Carpathian's work on the Oravita Target Area has now defined a large area containing copper (Cu), gold (Au) and molybdenum (Mo) occurrences. A prominent linear magnetic feature with overlying Cu and Au in-soil anomalies extends for 3.5 km in a northeast-southwest trend referred to as the 'Talva Trend'. The geology along this feature includes several Cretaceous-aged intrusives ranging from gabbro to quartz-feldspar porphyry and lamprophyre intruding folded Mesozoic calcareous-siliciclastic sediments and older crystalline metamorphic rocks.
On one prominent hill, Talva Mica, 2004/2005 sampling of material from historic prospect pit dumps returned Cu and Au mineralization ranging from 0.86 g Au/t to 3.62 g Au/t and 0.45% to 3.52% Cu hosted in a calc-silicate skarn. One hundred to three hundred metres below the surface where Carpathian collected the samples, an underground exploration adit completed by the Romanian state exploration company (SC Foramin S.A.) in the mid-late 1990's defined a high grade zone of closely spaced copper mineralized veins/structures.
This zone is 50 - 70 metres wide, 300 metres in length and open along strike. Reported assay intersections of these structures include 12 metres at 2.76% Cu; 10 metres at 5.10% Cu; 7 metres at 1.17% Cu; and 2 metres at 7.87% Cu, 0.20% Mo. Gold was not assayed from the underground samples; however the surface-sampling as indicated above by Carpathian has confirmed the reported copper mineralization and indicates that gold mineralization is associated with the copper mineralization.
North of Talva Mica (1.2 km), another copper zone was drill-defined by SC Foramin S.A. in the mid 1990's. A total of 33 vertical diamond drill holes were completed on a nominal 50 metre grid spacing. Results from this drilling defined a zone of shallow dipping copper mineralization hosted in an enclave of hornfels within a large quartz-feldspar porphyry. This zone has a strike length of 300 metres and is open. Drilling intersected numerous high-grade copper zones, including 59.0 metres at 1.41% Cu; 6.0 metres at 4.37% Cu; and 6.85 metres at 3.99% Cu at depths ranging from 200 metres to 500 metres below surface. Generally gold was not assayed as the target was considered by the Romanian State as purely a copper target, however, 34 samples within the quartz-feldspar porphyry were assayed for gold and included reported intersections of 5.0 metres of 3.97 g Au/t and 1.0 metre of 46.98 g Au/t.
From this drilling program SC Foramin S.A. provided to the State a report in 1999 and an estimation of the copper content on what they classified as a "C2 Reserve" of 1.35Mt at 1.16% Cu. This estimate as provided by the state exploration company is non 43-101 compliant and as such it should not be relied upon as it has not been verified by a qualified persons. It is reported here for historical purposes only and as an indication of additional copper mineralization within the Talva Trend, supported by Carpathian's surface work program results in the area and as a target that will require further evaluation work and confirmation.
At the Carbunari-Stinapari project in the south part of the License, exploration work within a 5 sq-km area of anomalous copper and gold mineralization has focused in on a 3.5 km long belt of gold-bearing jasperoid occurrences ranging from 1 - 15.1 g Au/t and a gold-in-soil anomaly within folded limestone and calcareous siliciclastic sediments. Carpathian is preparing for a drill program as soon as possible to test this zone for sediment-hosted magmatic distal-disseminated (Carlin style) gold mineralization.
"In the Oravita Target area Carpathian's work, supported by prior exploration, has identified two new high-grade copper occurrences that appear to have associated gold mineralization" said Dino Titaro, President and CEO of Carpathian Gold Inc. "The scale of mineralization features both at Carbunari-Stinapari and in the Oravita Area suggests the potential for large Cu-Au porphyry-centered hydrothermal systems and we plan to follow up these results with drilling as soon as possible".
Baia Mare Exploration Licenses
In Baia Mare, the second largest mining district in Romania, Carpathian's projects encompasses the 30 kilometre long Eastern-half of the district. The license is held under a 75%:25% Joint Venture Company with the Romanian State Mining Company, REMIN S.A. (25%).
Within the Joint Venture area, a N.I. 43-101 compliant inferred resource of 416,950 tonnes at 3.54 g Au/t had been outlined on the Baia Sprie Project and 341,200 tonnes of 4.75 g Au/t on the Baiuts Project (see press release of July 11, 2003).
Fill-in definition drilling (33 core holes) was completed in 2004 (previously reported in a series of press releases and documented on Carpathians website) on the Baia Sprie Project, with the purpose of upgrading the resource category, providing additional geotechnical information and additional metallurgical samples so that a pit optimization and costing assessment could be completed as a follow up to a preliminary scoping study done in late 2003. Final metallurgical analyses have been received from SGS Lakefield Research Limited, Ontario, which indicates that conventional CN leach gold recoveries of the deposit is erratic at depth and along strike, likely as a result of gold encapsulation within sphalerite mineralization. The gold recoveries range from 47% to 92% for an average of is 67% as compared to the previous preliminary test work recoveries of 82%. Sulfide encapsulation is generally amenable to a bio-leaching option to increase the gold recovery. However, given the size of the resource, the project could not proceed on a stand alone basis with a bio-leaching option and could best proceed in conjunction with the development of one of the other Baia Mare deposits such as the Baiuts gold project.
At Baiuts which is located 25 km east of Baia Sprie, two 60 kilo composite samples have been collected from several underground locations and two flotation concentrate samples are being prepared and will be submitted to SGS Lakefield Research Limited for bio-leaching testing. Given the higher grade of the Baiuts deposit, this option is a viable alterative. If test results are positive, then Carpathian will aggressively drill the deposit which is open along strike and at depth and then reassess the Baia Sprie project as part of a larger development plan tied into the Baiuts project.
"Carpathian Gold is evaluating other projects within the Joint Venture area and in areas around the eight active Lead-Zinc-Copper-Gold mines. We want to outline additional gold target areas for follow up drilling and to evaluate possible bio-leaching on a blended larger scale operation." said Dino Titaro, President and CEO of Carpathian Gold Inc.
All samples collected from any program in the country are prepared and analysed at the independent SGS Ltd laboratory in Gura Rosiei, Romania, using industry-standard fire assay techniques on 50 g sample-charges with AAS finish. Blanks and known gold-standards are inserted on a routine basis and together comprise 10% of submitted samples. Mr. Dino Titaro is the in-house Qualified Person (as defined in National Instrument 43-101) overseeing the design and implementation of the present exploration programs and responsible for preparing the technical information contained in this news release.
Carpathian Gold Inc. is a mineral exploration company focused on gold exploration on its properties in Romania.
------------------------------------------------------------------------- The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions.
/For further information: please contact: Dino Titaro, President and CEO, Tel. (416) 368-7744 (CAN), Fax. (416) 260-2243 (CAN), e-mail: info(at)carpathiangold.com; Website: www.carpathiangold.com/
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