The Jireh Mining Project is located within the Pataz – Parcoy – Buldibuyo gold-bearing metallotect, at its southern end.
The Jireh Mining Project is located within the Pataz – Parcoy – Buldibuyo gold-bearing metallotect, at its southern end.
The Pataz batholith is historically characterized by the presence of mesothermal vetiform gold deposits, also known as Orogenic Gold. It has been exploited since Inca times and for the last 100 years. More than 16 subway mines distributed between Pataz, Parcoy and Buldibuyo, have produced 6 million ounces of gold and it is estimated that its reserves amount to 40 million considering the entire belt (Haeberlin Y., 2002).
The Pataz batholith is an intrusive body, which is located in a regional fault with a NNW-SSE directional trend parallel to the Marañon valley, presenting itself as a corridor or structural pathway of mineralization, which covers dimensions of 160 km. long and variable width of 1 – 3 km, (Schreiber et al., 1989, Haeberlin et al., 2002, cited in Haeberlin Y., 2002).
Dates of 40Ar/39Ar in biotites of monzogranite and granodiorite rocks of the Pataz batholith, determined ages of 329.2±1.4 and 328.1±1.2 Ma. respectively (Haeberlin, 2002), ages that belong to the Missisipian of the Carboniferous.
The area of interest of the prospect is located in the Los Hornos & El Cura zone presenting a structural compartment, limited by major fault systems, to the west is the Huascacocha river fault and to the east is the Los Hornos fault and the Huiro Huiro river fault.
To the east, the Jireh mine is located on the Alto Cebada hill, where there are major fault systems such as the Murciélago fault, the María Esther fault and the Don Julio fault.
Mineralization at the Jireh mine is associated with large N-S regional faults (shear zones), represented by veins, located on the left bank of the Huascacocha river, with N0°-10°W directions, conformed by vein systems of fissure fillings, called Patricia vein and San Juan vein with mineralization of (quartz 70%, gray silica 5%, sulfides such as pyrite, sphalerite, galena and native gold).
In the Los Hornos area, Vdg del Perú s.a.c. completed a second ground geophysical campaign in October 2008. the geophysical methods applied were magnetometry and induced polarization surveys.
Most of the information on the local geology of the Los Hornos prospect comes from the work carried out by the mining company Merendom Peru and the thesis of Yuri Arones.
The Los Hornos prospect (Los Hornos & El Cura) is comprised of quartz diorites, tonalites, granodiorites, granites, andesitic dikes and aplitic dikes.
Numerous plutonic intrusions occurred in the Pataz batholith, particularly in the Los Hornos prospect, being the oldest unit the granitic or syenogranite emplacements, followed by granodiorite intrusions and later intrusions of tonalites and dioritic stock.
The macroscopic description of the rock outcrops in the field works are corroborated by petromineragraphy studies and streckeisen diagrams.
The faults are associated with andesitic and aplitic dykes.
Other outcropping intrusives near Los Hornos are found in the Alto Cebada hill, where monzonitic stocks outcrop a probable late Cretaceous magmatic activity (80-65 Ma.), which is not related to the auriferous mineralization of the Pataz batholith (314-312 Ma.), which are commonly found north of the Marsa Mine (Haeberlin, 2003).
The surface manifestations of the main hydrothermal alteration and mineralization are conspicuous and penetrative in the Los Hornos zone (hot zone), with pervasive phyllic hydrothermal alteration (associations of sericite, quartz, muscovite, corundum and carbonate minerals, with sericitic halos along the contiguous edges of quartz veins and veinlets and in fractures, with plagioclase crystals replaced by sericite.
The strong phyllic alteration grades towards zones with moderate phyllic alteration, with a presence of argillic alteration with clay minerals: kaolinite and montmorillonite product of plagioclase alteration, at intermediate levels and/or heights in the Los Hornos zone. The phyllic and siliceous alterations would be linked mainly to granitic magmas and porphyritic syenogranites.
The Los Hornos zone, presents in its superficial geological manifestations, a very peculiar structural behavior, which geometrically and structurally configures the probability of a deposit at depth, this has been called “structural compartment”.
The Los Hornos structural compartment, superficially presents domains and/or polidirectional structural tendencies of fracture systems towards its interior, presenting shear zones, crackle zones, and very locally breccia zones; these fracture systems of crackle – breccia type are open at district level towards the northwest of the Patricia concession.
The projection of 1564 fracture data from structural stations throughout the El Cura zone on a rosette diagram determines polidirectional fracture distributions, in fracture planes with dips between 0° to 90°. The polidirectional fractures show a development of a network trapping of polidirectional quartz veinlets at depth.
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/live/s_gold.gif)
