Extorre Gold discovers new high grade silver zone at Puntudo

Extorre Gold Mines (AMEX:XG) (TSE:XG) said Wednesday that it has discovered significant silver-gold mineralization at its Puntudo project in Santa Cruz, Argentina.

The Puntudo property is located just south of Coeur d'Alene Mines and Mirasol Resources' Joaquin silver project, and is also 200 kilometres west of Extorre's own Cerro Moro project.

With 32 drill holes completed to date at Puntudo, Extorre has reported results for the first 15 today. The company said that mineralization intersected in the holes show the potential strike extension of the La Negra and La Morocha veins from the Joaquin project to the south - onto the northern boundary  of Extorre's Puntudo property.

Highlights from drilling included 42.3 metres at 16 grams per tonne (g/t) silver and 0.60 g/t gold in hole RD0001 on the La Morocha structure, including 6.9 metres at 32 g/t silver and 1.01 g/t gold.

Meanwhile, on the La Negra vein, hole RD0004 returned 3.0 metres at 695 g/t silver and 0.66 g/t gold; and hole RD0015 intersected 9.0 metres at 211 g/t silver and 1.19 g/t gold, including 5.71 metres at 320 g/t silver and 1.82 g/t gold.

The site of the new mineralization, termed the Renaldo Prospect, is located on the northeast side of the company's 29,500 hectare Puntudo property.

“There is a saying in the mining business that the best place to find mineralization is alongside a known deposit," said Extorre's chief geologist, Glen van Kerkvoort.

"That has certainly been the case for our Renaldo Prospect. Boosted by the success of the Couer d’Alene and Mirasol discovery to the north we were able to fast track the discovery process at Renaldo.

"We are encouraged by the fact that Coeur d’Alene has notified Mirasol of its intention to proceed with a Bankable Feasibility Study on Joaquin project."

Indeed, the adjacent Joaquin property has an NI 43-101 compliant resource of 19.6 million ounces of silver in the indicated category and 47.9 million ounces of silver in the inferred category.

The company said the main focus of drilling to date at Puntudo has been the south extension of the La Negra vein, but roughly half of the total Joaquin resource is derived from the La Morocha structure, and with the encouraging result from hole RD001, Extorre has now initiated testing of the La Morocha trend.

Extorre also said that additional targets in the Renaldo area, including the intersection of the La Morocha and La Negra structural trends have been identified for future drilling.