Estrella Gold Corporation (TSX VENTURE:EST) ("Estrella" or the "Company") announces that Cliffs Natural Resources Exploration Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:CLF)(PARIS:CLF) ("Cliffs"), has released the Henry Sur property under the Alliance Agreement. The Henry Sur project was identified as a "Target" under the Alliance Agreement with Cliffs in 2012 and is comprised of 16 concessions totaling 11,600 hectares.
Mr. John R. Wilson, President and CEO of Estrella, commented, "Although Cliffs has decided not to proceed with the Henry Sur Project, we continue to believe that the property has the potential for the discovery of a major copper skarn system with by-product gold, zinc and lead. As such, the Company plans to either continue work on the property or to look for a qualified Joint Venture partner for the property. In our mind, the project continues to offer significant potential for increasing Estrella shareholder value, and we look forward to getting good exploration results in the future."
The Henry Sur property is located in Departamento Ica approximately 30 kilometers east of the town of Chincha Alta, and currently, the Company is preparing a complete data package to offer to potential qualified partners.
Geologically, the prospect is comprised of limestone and clastic sedimentary rocks which has been intruded by Cretaceous granodiorite (Coastal Batholith) and locally diorite. The limestone sequence trends northwesterly and is up to 5 km wide and a minimum of 15 km long. The sedimentary sequence probably represents a mega roof pendant within the coastal batholith, and it is estimated to be a minimum of 300 meters thick.
To date, the entire property has been mapped at a scale of 1:10,000, and a total of 160 surface rock-chip samples have been collected. The majority of these samples were taken within skarn zones at or near to the limestone/granodiorite contact.
Work to date has identified two areas of significant interest: the Abrapata Zone and the Catalina Zone. The Abrapata Zone is approximately 2.5 kilometers long and 1.0 kilometer wide and contains approximately 30, relatively small zones of garnet-(+/-pyroxene) skarn. The skarn bodies generally occur at the contact between the limestone and the adjacent granodiorite, and they range from a few meters up to approximately 30 meters wide and have a maximum strike length of 150 meters. Grades within this zone range up to 0.79 percent copper and 0.20 percent zinc, with more erratically distributed silver (up to 117 gpt), lead (up to 0.27 percent), gold (0.24 gpt), and molybdenum (up to 353 ppm). The Catalina Zone is approximately 2.5 kilometers long and 1.0 kilometer wide and contains 24, relatively small zones of garnet-(+/-pyroxene) skarn. These skarn bodies range up 10 meters wide and they have a maximum strike length of 30 meters. Grades within this zone range up to 6.1 percent copper and 6.6 percent zinc, with more erratically distributed silver (up to 271 gpt), lead (up to 7.1 percent), gold (0.3 gpt), and molybdenum (up to 451 ppm).
In addition to the copper skarn potential of the Henry Sur property, it should be noted that a small quartz-veined granodiorite dike was identified within the limestone during the mapping/sampling program. This dike contains 0.16 percent copper and 0.45 gpt gold, and although this is a relatively minor occurrence, it is possible that this style of mineralization may indicate that a copper-gold-type system may be present at depth.