Capaz
The Capaz EPA covers some 3,564 hectares in area and is situated approximately 20km southwest of Tarlac City, Tarlac Province, some 100km northwest of Manila.
The Capaz EPA area had been investigated by several explorers since 1987 when an alluvial panning “Gold Rush’ saw approximately 2,000 hand panners working in the area recovering alluvial nuggets and gold dust. It has been estimated that approximately 30 kilos of gold was realized from this small scale hand mining. In 1987, West Gold Exploration Inc. (“WGE”) conducted a geochemical sampling program over the area consisting of pan concentrate sampling of the various drainages in the area. A large area of anomalous gold values was delineated on the property.
In 1988-89, BHP Engineering (“BHPE”) carried out an exploration program consisting of surface geological mapping, soil, float and outcrop sampling, tunneling and channel sampling, resulting in the identification of a prospective target area known locally as the Manganese Area. This area contains significant surface alteration and anomalous gold values.
In 1990, BHPE carried out a program of diamond core drilling in the Manganese Area. Four vertical diamond drill holes, DDH-1 to DDH-4, were completed for a total of 300 metres. In 1993, WGE undertook shallow surface drilling (up to 3 meters depth) east of the Manganese Area to test the extent of the gold anomaly identified in drill-hole DDH-4. A surface area of 25 metres by 100 metres was defined with anomalous gold grades.The area is underlain by three distinct volcano-sedimentary units namely: basalt, argillite and lithic tuff; indurated tuffaceous sediments, and younger largely undeformed sediments. These units are intruded by a number of quartz diorite bodies.
Gold mineralization is hosted by weakly altered andesite and DDH-4 intersected gold mineralisation averaging >1g/t gold over 20 metres starting from 4 metres below surface.The Company believes that the property has the potential for the delineation of a shallow gold resource, which may be amenable to heap-leaching.
Once the EPA has been granted, the Company intends to carry out detailed mapping of structures in the Manganese Area to determine structural controls to the mineralization at Capaz. A programme of shallow RC drilling will then be planned to identify a shallow gold resource which may be amenable to heap leaching.