El Prado is a poorly exposed, west-northwesterly trending quartz-stockwork zone hosted in feldspar-phyric lapilli tuff. To the southeast, the zone is marked by sparse float boulders of propylitized and silicified tuffs on an oxidized ridge. Associated alteration grades from propylitic assemblages dominated by chlorite and epidote to stockwork zones with several stages of silicification and brecciation. The earliest silicification stage is marked by almost total replacement of the rock by sugary white quartz with green epidote. The next stage is brecciation and infill of the open spaces with crypto-crystalline grey quartz. The third stage is re-brecciation and infill of the open spaces with gemmy pink Mnepidote (piedmontite), cockscomb quartz and 3 to 5% fragile platy specularite. El Prado was found by following up soil samples 17572 with 1011 ppb Au and 5.2 ppm Ag and 17619 with 684 ppb Au and 3.2 ppm Ag (section 10.2). A grab sample of propylitic-altered tuffs 15 m from sample site 17619 contains 19.2 g/t Au, 322 g/t Ag 0.07% Cu, 0.8% Pb and 1.4% Zn (sample 17884). From soil sample site 17572, a grab sample of quartz-veined tuffs returned values of 12.35 g/t Au and 12.35 g/t Ag with anomalous, but uneconomic base metal values (sample 16105).
El Prado
El Prado
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